Review: Clash of the Titans

Perseus is a demigod cast down from My Olympus. He was found and raised by a humble fishing family. As he got older, the world around him got spiteful and angry at the gods. They believed they were better without them so they began to blaspheme them. Zeus was unhappy, and under the misguided influence of his brother Hades, started a war with the humans. Forced to take arms, the strongest and bravest army go on a quest to stop the horrors of the underworld from wreaking havoc on Earth, and to retrieve the head of Medusa to stop Zeus' most powerful weapon, The Kraken. Upon finding Perseus, they forced the demigod to embrace his power and take arms with him.

Sam Worthington has found himself as one of the most sought after talents in Hollywood, if you can call it talent. Between Avatar and Terminator: Salvation, his work has not really been up to the expectations that the hype has implied. This was the last straw. Worthington further proves that his only impressive feat is wrinkling his brow and throwing a lot of energy into action scenes. His supporting cast does very little to help him. Even with Liam Neeson, Ralph Fiennes, and Danny Huston playing the top gods, they hardly come off with any ounce of gravitas. The only person who comes close to offering anything more than bland dialogue delivery is Mads Mikkelson.

Fortunately, most of the special effects fantastic, 3D formatting not withstanding. The make-up effects on the Stygian Witches and Djinn were as like like as could be. I appreciate the attempt to even use prothestics, an ever dying art in Hollywood thanks to computers. Thankfully, Clash of the Titans makes good use of their CGI as well. Hades' flying minions and Perseus' pegasus looked almost seamless. The scorpions were also impressive enough, but the medusa was surprisingly awful. Compared with the rest of the mythological creatures, the medusa looked so plastic and lifelike, it couldn't possibly strike any kind of fear like the original version's reputation implies.

The story was bland and the performances were worse, so not even the greatest special effects could save this big budget blockbuster from being anything but an unneccesarily polished extravaganza.

5/10