We watched the new Clash of the Titans last night. (Don't blame me! Redbox keeps sending me these 'free rental' coupons. Which, if you're wondering, get you $1 off of a $1.50 BD rental). I enjoyed the three major action pieces (Scorpions, Medusa, and the Kraken) on their own, but I have to say I thought the movie overall was a real stinker.
I'm frequently amazed after sitting through a full length feature to think- This movie wasn't worth 2 hours of my time, but a handful of people spent 2+ years of their lives to make it. I didn't find anything very compelling in Clash of the Titans, so I'm a little baffled that everyone that read the script decided it was a 'go' movie.
I was disappointed in the underuse of the Pantheon of Gods. Zeus has lots of screentime, but very little character depth of any kind. Hades gets screentime, but beyond 'wanting to stick it to Zeus' he's also very boring. Apollo, Athena, etc.. are on screen for a few seconds total, and usually out of focus.
I think it's interesting to compare this movie to its namesake, and understand how they're both a product of their times. Some spoilers to follow, but really, it's not good enough to worry about spoiling:
The romance: 1981 had a pretty traditional love story between Andromeda and Perseus. She was a princess, she was in distress, and the hero got to rescue her and therefore woo her. The new movie still has a princess named Andromeda in it, but Perseus really couldn't care less. In fact, Perseus can't be bothered to care much about anything in the movie, it seems, except getting revenge on Hades for flippantly sinking his adopted family's fishing boat and doing it on his own mortal terms and ignoring Zeus's attempts to help him out. Along the way, there is some vague sexual tension between Perseus and some cursed Gemma Arterton (whom I couldn't recognize here from watching Prince of Persia two days prior. I guess one of the movies had her in good make-up?) character who has been watching over Perseus since he was a baby (sounds 'hot', amiright?). The movie ends telling us they live happily ever after together, which had me wondering when I was told that either of them were really interested in that. I guess I missed an alternate ending where Andromeda and Perseus end up together, but they don't even really interact in the movie... so that doesn't seem that it would work. At any rate (I'm rambling) it's odd that Andromeda is still in the movie when her role as the romantic interest has been supplanted by Arterton's character. I suppose that our modern sensibilities require that the female lead do something other than wait back at the castle and worry, knit, and maybe make cookies. So Arterton gets to go on the adventure, and Andromeda gets to be put into peril. Perseus is indifferent in any case. Boy, do I love post modernism!
Additionaly, this movie has an odd religious message, when compared to the original. The reason the gods of Olympus are upset in the first place in this movie is that man is turning away from their religion and deciding to "do it myself!" The people portrayed to be anti-religion are practical and heroic. The people who are pro-religion are fearful idiots at their best, and dangerous crazy cult members who sacrifice virgin princesses and burn their own skin in futility at their worst. So I took a kind of "Rah rah atheism!" message from that. Which is odd, since the movie spends a great deal of time reminding us that Zeus and Hades are, in fact, real gods who do respond to things like worship and prayer. I just think it's an odd time to make a "god does not exist" statement... in a movie showcasing how powerful the gods are. And that Perseus is able to succeed where everyone else fails... because he's half god. It reminded me of The Golden Compass books/movie. "God does not exist! I will prove it to you by showing Him to you, showing you that He isn't as good as everyone says He is, and then we'll KILL him! Take THAT! the God in whom I do not believe!" At any rate, this is a very fitting story for a movie made in today's religious belief climate, I guess. It would have never flown in 1981.
In conclusion, I found it to be an odd (and bad, as long as we're assigning adjectives) film that didn't seem to know what to do with itself, except for showing Greeks (with British accents, and all other trappings of movie historical types) fight giant Greek inspired monsters. That part was just fine... I just wish that there would have been some more substance to it. Not a whole lot, just something that made the waiting between action scenes worthwhile.
But Mads Mikkelsen (not to be confused with Michael Madsen) was excellent.