Monster Movie of the Week: Clash of the Titans (2010)

CLASH OF THE TITANS (2010)

Director: Louis Leterrier

Genre: Mythological Adventure

THE MOVIE

Y’all remember the magic early summer of 2010? It was a time of classic movies like Prince of Persia: Sands of Time and Shrek Forever After. One of those great summer of ’10 movies was Clash of the Titans, a Greek mythological opus starring Sam Worthington, who is quickly becoming the go-to guy for action genre movies. In all fairness, Clash is kind of a mess. Rumor has it, that the movie was severely meddled-with in post production and that there is a longer, better cut of the movie out there somewhere. This seems to be an ongoing problem for French director Louis LeTerrier, who's pretty-good Incredible Hulk suffered from a troubled production as well.

One thing is for sure, mythology is the new vampires! Movies like Clash of the Titans, Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief, and the upcoming movies Thor, God of War, and The Immortals show that Hollywood is once again turning to the classic stories of gods and heroes in search of the next big hit. Mythology hasn’t been this hot for millennia.

Clash of the Titans is also a loose remake of a cheesy ‘80’s movie of the same name, although here re-imagined as a summer CGI bonanza with a cast of heavyweight actors in supporting roles. Interestingly, the movie reunites Liam Neeson and Ralph Fiennes, who last memorably starred opposite each other in Schindler’s List and here play the divine siblings Zeus and Hades. Pete Postlethwaite and Danny Huston also have smaller parts in the movie.

Clash is loosely based on the story of Perseus, the Greek hero tasked with defeating Medusa and saving the maiden Andromeda from Poseidon’s sea monster. Like many Hollywood movies based on Greek mythology, the story takes a lot of liberties with characters and story points. Like most of these movies, Hades is made into the story’s villain and his realm is depicted as fiery and Hellish, where as it was usually depicted in mythology as sort of dark, dull and dreary.

Another annoying convention of movies set in antiquity is to cast British actors, as though people speaking ancient Greek are best represented by crisp English accents. It’s even more illogical and inconsistent in this movie because of Liam Neeson’s Irish brogue and the distractingly Australian Sam Worthington, aka Krakendile Dundee. Seriously dude, learn some more accents. Russell Crowe can do it, so can you.

This movie is also notable for two other reasons: It introduced a hilarious new catchphrase into the public lexicon, “Release the Kraken!” which is applicable for lots of different situations involving sex or pooping. Secondly, Clash of the Titans illustrated the limits of using 3D conversions as a quick cash grab to charge more for tickets. While Clash was not filmed or conceived for 3D, it was apparently given a fast and cheap conversion to the format and the movie’s 3D was widely panned. Clash of the Titans helped usher in a backlash against 3D movies that snowballed over the summer of 2010 and has gone a long way towards undoing Avatar’s hard work in showcasing the power of 3D. Ironically, Worthington starred in both movies. No doubt, James Cameron will give him a good kick in the ass when they start filming Avatar 2.

Haven't I seen you somewhere before? Was it Return of the King? Pan's Labyrinth?

THE MONSTER/EFFECTS

The Greek myths were filled with cool creatures and Clash of the Titans does not stint on monsters. There are some very cool giant scorpions that grow out of the blood of a cursed warrior. There is the Medusa, which is well designed and has a unique and interesting way of moving, but suffers from very subpar CGI. There’s even a Pegasus for the ladies. The real star of the show, is the Kracken which looks a bit like a cross between the Rancor from Return of the Jedi, Orga from Godzilla 2000, and an octopus. The Kraken is a colossal kaiju-sized monster with a toothy, gaping maw and lots of horrible tentacles. This is one of the great movie monsters but sadly is not around very long before being dispatched. Every once in a while I see a monster in a movie and I’m like “That needs to fight Godzilla!” That’s how I felt when I saw the Kraken. It’s a great improvement over the silly looking monster from the original Clash of the Titans which looked like a four armed version of the creature from 20,000,000 Miles to Earth.

Speaking of movie trends, I think Krakens are coming back in. After all, we just had a Kraken not too long ago in the Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy. Prior to that, I don’t remember seeing a lot of Krakens, except maybe the tentacle monster in Deep Rising. I would keep my eye on Krakens. I think they are going to be big.

MOST MEMORABLE SEQUENCE

“Release the Kraken!!”

G'day! Name's Peh-seus.

SEQUELS

Surprisingly, considering the largely negative reactions to the movie, a sequel is planned.

HOVE VIDEO AVAILABILITY

Available on DVD and Bluray.

Kraken: Released.

TRIVIA

The movie carries the misnomer from the original. There are actually no Titans in this movie, as the term “Titan” refers to the generation of gods before Zeus and his siblings. A more accurate title would be “Clash of the Olympians.”

Class dismissed.

TRAILER