I watched Clash of the Titans from the balcony of Washington DC’s historic Uptown Theater this weekend. I’ve never watched a movie from a balcony before so that was a neat experience.
Sadly, the historic venue could not save Clash of the Titans for me. Though I haven’t watched the original in many years, I have fond memories of daring swordfights, giant stop-motion enemies, and a generally exciting time.
I’m not sure where the excitement went, or how they managed to suck it out of this film but for the most part I was just bored for 3/4 of the movie.
It’s not really that Clash of the Titans is a bad movie; just a boring one. Many people probably view those two as interchangeable, but it really is the best description I can think of for the movie.
It’s not that the movie is poorly made. It’s not that Sam Worthington, Ralph Fiennes and Liam Neeson didn’t give it their all. It’s not that the special effects weren’t beautiful and realistic.
Everything was well-done. Each piece was carefully crafted; from costume to set design. Each monster was appropriately terrifying, and each display of derring-do expertly rendered.
But somehow with all of those perfect parts, the movie managed to add up to something that equaled far less than the sum of its components.
When Perseus finally faces off against Medusa, the movie picks up and enthralls you from that point forward. Sadly, the encounter with Medusa isn’t until the last quarter of the film. By that time, you’ve already nodded off.
Perhaps the biggest problem is that the characters are poorly established. With the exception of Perseus, Hades and Zeus, it’s hard to even tell the difference between the rest of the characters. People would die and then seem to show up again in the next scene.
Of course, they didn’t really. It was just another character that looked an awful lot like the previous and happened to fill the same character niche as the first. It was literally as if Perseus had an infinite supply of Argosian Warlords behind him.
Add to that the very sad omission of the helm of invisibility and the lack of the otherwordly origins of Perseus’ shield, and you’re just left with a lot of well-done special effects with no heart. Your heart is pumping, but you don’t end the movie feeling like you’ve gotten any exercise.
This movie could have been so much more. It had everything a great movie should have, but it just couldn’t pull it together into a coherent script or render memorable characters. Had I not known as much as I do about Greek Mythology, I think I would have just been lost.
Verdict: C- Tilt: D