No 3: Clash of the Titans (2010)

Title: Clash of the Titans (2010)

Director: Louis Leterrier

Written: Travis Beacham, Phil Hay, Matt Manfredi and Beverley Cross (1981 screen play)

Starring: Sam Worthing, Liam Neeson, Ralph Fiennes

Perseus demigod, son of Zeus, battles minions of the underworld to stop them from conquering heaven and earth.  

Initial thoughts:

Her

In all honesty I was a bit indifferent with this one.  I had heard that it largely got panned by critics when it first came out (many moons ago!) but I do quite like a good action film when I am in the mood so I wasn't unhappy with the choice.  Plus on reading the back it transpired it had quite the star studded cast so I was intrigued to see what it had to offer!

Him

Oooooo this is a tricky one! Love the idea, love the fact its from the guys who brought us 300, love the actors in it....... yet there is a stigma attached to this film that its not going to be as good as all these elements should make it. We shall see.

After thoughts:

Her

Well that was..... interesting!! Excitement in the first 5 minutes to see that Pete Postlethwaite is in it.... a star of one of our very favourite films (Brassed Off).  But naturally, as is the way with these things, his appearance didn't last and into the sea he sinks trapped inside a boat *sob*.  And so we follow the journey of his (adoptive) son Perseus as he navigates a world in which the mortals are rebelling against the gods while the gods, safely ensconced in their ivory tower on Mount Olympus, let Hades fight their battle for them (however Hades being ever the self-server has his own agenda!).  Perseus finds himself in the town of Argos (yes I sniggered and continued to snigger until the end of the film) and from there the adventure begins!  The films itself is perfectly watchable.  There is action a plenty with giant scorpions,  a journey on the River Stixx and a high octane fight with Medusa.  The whole thing culminates in a stand-off with the Kraken (and yes, someone does yell 'RELEASE THE KRAKEN' much to my cheesy delight).  The gods seem to be shrouded in some kind of twilight-esque sparkly dust which is rather distracting and to be honest quite why they bothered to pay 12 actors and actresses to be gods when the only ones you actually see are Zeus and Hades heaven knows!  By far the standout performance is Ralph Fiennes as Hades - as self-serving and creepy as you would imagine him to be.  The film is rather Game of Thrones like and most of the likable characters are killed off in about a 5 minute window leaving you feeling rather bereft.  All in all, a watchable film with a plot that had just enough unpredictability to keep you watching and a bit of eye candy for both men and women.  Not bad and most probably a keep!

Him

Over all I enjoyed this film. It had good action scenes, it was over all well acted (which despite the big names I thought would be let down by the supporting actors) and the plot was basic but easy to follow with a good pace.

The visual effects were great. The giant scorpions were fantastic, I take my hat off to the actors who have to fight these things on a green screen with out seeing the actual monsters. This action sequence introduced us to an element I was not so keen on, the strange half wood, half man half mage things that had a very limited back story and I am not so sure on why they were there.

The effects for the Kraken were just as good and made the end action scene an exciting watch.

The stand out performance in the film for me was Ralph Finnes playing the bad Hades, he put a creepy, sullen mood to the otherwise very shiny gods of Olympus that were very distracting and in a lower league than this evil bad guy.

The film introduced two comedy characters as the hunters who were to accompany the Argonauts to save Argos. Then these characters got lost, they were set up to play a larger role which sadly were not then allowed to fulfil. I think they would have introduced a welcome extra element to the film.

Up to the very last moment of the film it was an enjoyable and watchable action film which I would class as an empty Sunday filler. However in the last scene Zeus brings back the 'love interest' of Perseus who was murdered earlier in the film. This to me was very unnecessary and a very cheap trick that was redundant and left me with a sour feeling towards this film.