Escape to the Movies: Clash of the Titans

[CuddlyCombine]

As for eagles, well, there's this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eagle#Species
The point being that eagles aren't exclusive to America; I don't know whether the one in the movie was a bald eagle, but keep in mind that the Romans used some sort of eagle as their standard.

To be fair, the eagle was Zeus's symbol (or maybe it was Jupiter's) though you are right, it wouldn't have been bald.

I know that there were eagles in Europe, yes. Bald eagles, no. I'm assuming the director was trying to throw in some patriot overtones, or maybe he just assumed that audiences would be mystified as to what kind of bird this was unless he made it a recognizable one.

But the Kraken? Yeah, that's total bullshit. Does the movie even mention Poseidon? Also, Hollywood, Hades wasn't goddamn evil. Death does not equal bad, certainly not in that culture; if anything, Hades was the most morally neutral of all the gods in the pantheon.

None of the other major gods are even given airtime. I found it a bit silly. And I agree in that the misconception that the Greeks and Romans dreaded the afterlife is a bit silly. However, with most of the US being Christian-dominated, people assume that the underworld equals Hell, even when it doesn't.

 

[RebelRising]

But the Kraken? Yeah, that's total bullshit. Does the movie even mention Poseidon? Also, Hollywood, Hades wasn't goddamn evil. Death does not equal bad, certainly not in that culture; if anything, Hades was the most morally neutral of all the gods in the pantheon.

None of the other major gods are even given airtime. I found it a bit silly. And I agree in that the misconception that the Greeks and Romans dreaded the afterlife is a bit silly. However, with most of the US being Christian-dominated, people assume that the underworld equals Hell, even when it doesn't.

Yeah, they did the same thing with Disney's Hercules. It's forgivable there, seeing as how a Disney movie always needs a bad guy, but it still reflects the way we approach Greek mythology. Western culture has become so closely immersed in Abrahamic influences that modern audiences can no longer healthily reconcile or characterize death, even as a super-human deity.

Sorry for the little rant, but it annoys me to no end. Why can't we ever have a movie about Ancient Greece that at least tries to present the material from the perspective from ancient Greeks?

 

[Siberian Relic]

The original Clash was basically watered down Greek mythology, whereas this film is a watered down version of the original. And what were those flying black harpies? I read somewhere they were supposed to be the Furies, which burns me, because that's just another careless insert of a random name from Greek myth.

I'll revise my opening statement. The original was watered down Greek myth; this one is just shallow psuedo-Greek fantasy.

 

[MrGFunk]

Watched this last night.

Clash of the alrightans

3D is a bit rubbish though. I'm not convinced it's more than a gimick.

 

[ZippyDSMlee]

Looks good for a B'ish action flick(action automatically makes most a D but whos counting), this is worth a watch at elast.

Oh plz more new film Transformers bashing, those things suck worse than the ninja turtles live action power rangers'ish(and power rangers in general...) show and the live action films.....

 

[Snowden's Secret]

... Where the hell does a giant scorpion fit into ancient Greek lore? I understand the giant crab that attacked Hercules, but never ran across a mention of any scorpions?

The movie murders Greek mythology. Fuck giant scorpions; they used the Kraken, a Norse creation, in a movie featuring Greek mythology. And Zeus has a bald eagle for a pet. In Greece.

I felt that the flick was a piece of shit, but that's just me.

Well, technically, there was Scorpio, a giant...scorpion, as it were, that killed the great hunter and friend of Artemis, Orion. They are both constellations. I always assumed that the scorpion in the trailer was Scorpio, but then I saw that there were multiple ones, and then I totally didn't get it.

As for eagles, well, there's this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eagle#Species
The point being that eagles aren't exclusive to America; I don't know whether the one in the movie was a bald eagle, but keep in mind that the Romans used some sort of eagle as their standard.

But the Kraken? Yeah, that's total bullshit. Does the movie even mention Poseidon? Also, Hollywood, Hades wasn't goddamn evil. Death does not equal bad, certainly not in that culture; if anything, Hades was the most morally neutral of all the gods in the pantheon.

When it comes to games/movies with Greek mythology, the villainous gods always tend to be either Hades or Ares (Death & War) respectively). Which is indeed bullshit.

 

[Scribjerky]

Saw this movie opening night. Walked in expecting an epic action flick. Laughed my way through the whole thing. (I think it was either laugh or rage/cry.) Sam Worthington's acting was a joke and the pacing was terrible, but strangely enough I still had fun. So this was a case of the film being fun, but not good. Various mythological!Fail punched holes in my movie going experience, namely being the Hades = Evil and the lack of legitimate bickering between the gods.

As long as you go into the film expecting to be apathetic or amused at all the wrong moments, you'll be fine. I would suggest waiting for it come out on DvD, or for it to hit the cheap theaters, though. It's not worth the ticket price.

 

[Resin213]

Bob was very kind in his review. I saw this, I was expecting a C+ remake of a B- movie. What did Avatar through the curve? This was a solid D if ever there was one. - I think they would have done much better to stick to the actual legend even if it does lack appeal to modern society. Good Lord this was bad.
1. Hades - WTF - most laughable snivly portrayal of a God ever, who had no place being in the movie, not in the legend, not in the original 80's movie, and most importantly added absolutely nothing to the story. My best guess is He's supposed to appeal to a christian sense of the devil, he's just lame.
2. Who is Perseus - I get the feeling that they tried to take Kratos mix him in with a little Mel Gibson Brave Heart, Stamp him into a young Jedi mold and then stretch him across the legend of Perseuss. This leaves me with a sense of a young actor, possibly even talanted, who knows, staring bewildered between his script and a director going "huh?"
3. These guys were playing God of War and snorting a cocaine while they writing this movie - it is the only explanation. - Harpies were a direct rip off and every thing looked like video game levels particularly the fight with the Gorgon who is easily confused with a Balrog in this mess of falling ruins in a volcanoe overused platformer trope. Dude, SPOILER ALERT I unlocked the Giant Scorpion mount. Stupid. They might as well have included red orbs in this movie, they have the twinkle around his NEW ITEM, gift from gods.
4. The comedic relief duo who were not there - this is an old tack wether its Star Wars R2 and threpio, the hidden castle, or Rosenkratz and Gilderstein - but these idiots show up anounce that they will be our comic relief duo in the most tedious manner possible and then we never see them again.
5. Whats up with the chick - I think she must have got the script re-written by having sex with the producer - only way it makes sense.
6.Action scenes were pretty cool, bit over choppy though.

a Solid D and even that is being fairly nice about it.

 

[Sakon]

There were some kick ass amazing characters in this movie who all got swept aside. Even Perseus didn't really feel all that fleshed out. The visuals were amazing an I'd actually suggest NOT seeing it in 3-d. Since there is so little done to it to qualify it as 3-d it actually detracts from the visuals.

I liked both but for different reasons.

Hot man action in the second yes being part of it >.>

 

[Sakon]

3. These guys were playing God of War and snorting a cocaine while they writing this movie - it is the only explanation. - Harpies were a direct rip off

I thought they were perhaps Furies. *shrug* I had no idea what was going on with that and Hades has often been caste as the villain in modern re-tellings. He wasn't evil in the myths but because of our society's views on the good evil dynamics he keeps getting the short even of the stick.

 

[Falseprophet]

This movie felt like some 15-year-old XBox Live addicts with ADHD were tapped to remake a "darker and grittier" version of the original. Not that I consider the original a great film or anything, but it was fun. That's not childhood nostalgia, either--I didn't see the original until university, in a Greco-Roman mythology class (the prof was cool that way). But the remake seemed determined to spit on the original whenever possible. Which you can do, Battlestar Galactica-style, if you actually bring something good to the table. Clash failed utterly on that account:

Spoiler

-My berserk button, the shaky-cam, was used in damn-near every action scene. What good is going to an action movie when you can't see any action?

-The only scene that didn't use it was the scorpion scene, and the CGI there was so laughably bad I felt like I was watching a 1950s giant insect movie like Them!

-Bubo the mechanical owl, an R2D2 ripoff in the first film--but just like Artoo, an incredibly annoying sidekick but also an incredibly useful one--is laughed off here like some lame toy.

-We get to see white winged horses before introducing the black Pegasus meant for Perseus, because obviously white horses are "teh gay".

-DUUUDE! Let's have, like, a black-metal-looking Hades as the bad guy! Yeah!

-And like, the plot should totally be how The Man/The Gods/My Parents are totally cramping my style and I like, waste 'em!

I'm just glad I saw it on half-price Tuesday.

 

[Mysticgamer]

I'm not sold on the whole 3D thing, when I saw Avatar it hurt my eyes at times because if you weren't looking at the right point on the screen it was all out of focus! I think I need to see a film in both to make up my mind though!

I might check this movie out, but it probably won't be coming out over here for many months yet!

I'm not either, the only time I really noticed the the 3D in Avatar was with the particle effects.

 

[DanHibiki]

wait a minute... how do you make a movie about beating the shit out of Gods NOT "militant atheism"?

Is Kratos going to be required to say "I respect your personal beliefs" before ripping the head off of a deity and shitting down it's neck?

 

[Resin213]

wait a minute... how do you make a movie about beating the shit out of Gods NOT "militant atheism"?

Is Kratos going to be required to say "I respect your personal beliefs" before ripping the head off of a deity and shitting down it's neck?

Yes, and if this movie was simply called God of War the Movie, and the main characters name was Kratos that would be very good - but its not. Thus it is the suckage - its trying to be God of War, Star Wars, and Brave Heart all rolled up into one and shoved into a Clash of the Titans wrapper by people who could really give two about any type of mythology - to an even greater degree than the first.

This movie should be a feature length episode of Unskippable, enough of these stupid cut scenes, wheres the start button?

Or it could go direct to Mystery Science Theatre 3000 - it would actually be a pretty fun movie to watch that way.

 

[DugMachine]

The movie did seem rushed. Like in the first 15 he went from a baby to an adult. Overall its a pretty good action flick.

 

[Wrds]

still making references to the book of Eli drama I see...

Anyways this was a good review and I pretty much agree with everything you said.

 

[Rhino of Steel]

Just watched this tonight with a crowd of us from the Classical Studies department and I'm going to agree with Bob's view on this one. Fairly rushed, stupid, cheesy, and with atrocious dialogue but entertaining. Better in a group environment where you can mock it senselessly but I enjoyed it if only for the MST3K value. There is a line from one of the characters that I have to assume was a 4th wall moment after Perseus finds the magic sword, (paraphrasing because the exact wording eludes me) "Don't question it. Just accept it." Good advice for the audience I'd say.

From the accurate mythological standpoint, yeah, it is very, very wrong but its not like the Greeks would have cared. They loved to modify the myths to suit their own story-telling goals so they wouldn't have had any huge issues with this, really. Okay, maybe with the djinn but screw it, they were neat.

I've never really seen anything wrong with making Hades the villain either. In the couple of myths where he is a major character he generally is the villain. He kidnaps Persephone, traps Theseus and Pirithous (although they kinda had it coming), and gave Orpheus an essentially impossible command to follow to get his love out of the underworld. This is a fairly large step up in terms of villainy but Hades being a bit of a prick is well established.

 

[RestamSalucard]

Yeah, they did the same thing with Disney's Hercules. It's forgivable there, seeing as how a Disney movie always needs a bad guy.

And the bad guy from the original tale (Hera) wasn't available becauuuse..?

 

[Mandal0re]

I havent seen the original but i thought this movie was pretty lame,kept me entertained the whole way through but it didnt really have any substance.

 

[BryanMoss]

The 3D was crap. It was so blurry sometimes you couldnt even see the monsters face. plus, moviebob, you need to upgrade your microphone someday. love ya tho.