Clash of the Titans (2010) - Well… it could have been so much worse

I’m one of those people who watched (and therefore loved!) the original ‘Clash of the Titans’ movies when I was a child back in the eighties.  And, as any cynical adult, I was sceptical about a remake of one of my childhood favourites.  The result – in my opinion – it could have been worse.

In case you never sat through the charming Harry Hamlin version, Clash of the Titans is one of those ‘sword and sorcery’ epics that’s a bit like Lord of the Rings, only with Gods added for good measure.  Naturally an ‘updated version’ needs more than a few people in sandals and plastercine monsters and the remake does just that.  There is a fair amount of computer-generated special effects, but they’re not the problem.  One of the main complaints against the new version is that it was filmed in NON-3D and then converted into 3D in post-production, therefore creating a slightly blurred and grainy effect overall.

And there are some other problems with the finished product, but many of those are cosmetic.  Take the lead actor’s (Sam Worthington) hair.  It’s supposed to be ancient Greece and yet he’s the only man without long flowing hair – choosing instead for a crewcut.  Then of course you have a largely British cast (or at least actors putting on ‘British’ accents) while Worthington’s natural Australian accent does tend to slip through occasionally.  And maybe the most petty gripe I can think of is naming the Greek town Worthington’s trying to save after a popular British ‘catelogue store’ – it always amused me when they’re desperate to save ‘Argos.’

When it comes to the (all important) monsters, some of them are good and some do look a little too CGI-ish.  The Kraken looked a bit much like the ‘Rancor’ from Return of the Jedi for my liking, but it’s Medusa who steals the show.  She was a tough act to follow after her portrayal in the original and, even though she is now fully CGI, she’s actually pretty nasty!  For some reason though the director felt the need to add too many lens flares (in my opinion) in all the scenes where the Gods were present in Olympus!

But, despite all its flaws, it’s actually not that bad.  Yes, those of us who were brought up on the original will always prefer that version, but I imagine that there are plenty of kids (young boys I’m guessing) who will love watching Perseus slay one computer generated monster after the next.  My main gripe was that I found Perseus’ ‘love interest’ a little wooden.  Yes, I see the reason the film-makers shoe-horned in a woman to go on the adventure, but she just kind of delivered her lines like she was reading them from an autocue.  I don’t know whether this is a fault with the director, not getting the best out of her, as I’ve seen Gemma Arterton in plenty of other films and she’s always turned in a better performance.

So, if you’re not too hung up on the original and you’re in a forgiving mood when it comes to remakes, you should enjoy this pretty harmless remake of a classic.  The only thing I really couldn’t forgive was the scorn displayed from the on-screen characters when ‘Boo-boo’ the clockwork owl from the original made a cameo appearance!

7/10 if I woke up on Groundhog Day and had to watch this again, I could live with that