As a fan of the original "Clash of the Titans" from Harryhausen in 1981, I LOVED the idea of a remake especially when we are at the age of digital and movie enhancement capabilities are at our finger tips. Sure, special effects probably would take the dialogue quality away slightly, but hey, I'm alright with that. Yes, the original is a classic - It has heart, romance, soul, a bit of humor, quite a lot of sweetness. This new version on the other hand has a great feel of an epic, graphic beauty, way better shiny costumes (man, the gods wears really shining armours in this one) and props to easily feed our boring sight.
There are significant changes in this one though compared to the original, such as Andromeda does not seem to be the leading lady in this one (maybe in the sequel who knows), Medusa had like 5 minutes of fame and that wasn't even enough to leave a big impression on the movie, plus the Kraken was just so funy looking compared to the original. Ok enough of comparison, let's talk about this newer version.
Story plot - The movie starts off with Perseus (still a baby) being found by a fisherman after he and his mother Danae were thrown into the sea. Danae died, but Perseus survived. The fisherman raised Perseus with his wife and later his daughter. When Perseus is grown, whilst the Argos soldiers put down a huge Zeus statue, Hades' attack on the soldiers as well as on Perseus' family while at the same time the kingdom of Argos is declaring war on the gods. Perseus is saved and is told by Hades that Zeus is his father. Up on Olympus, Zeus is apparently finding out for himself that he has a demigod son which makes no sense because Zeus is the creator of Men, shouldn't he know that he has a son. Anyways, because of Argos's sudden desire to attack Zeus, Hades declares that he will release the Kraken on them in ten days. They will only be spared by letting Andromeda be sacrificed to the Kraken. All part of Hades' plan to bring down Zeus. Perseus agrees to help Argos not because of love for Andromeda, but because he wants revenge against the gods. At this point, Io shows up (a mortal immortal - get it?). From here on in, Perseus and gang goes on a quest to where the Kraken was last known seen - here they meet up the witches where they guide (unwillingly) Perseus to how to kill the Kraken - then went on to find Medusa, Io and everyone else gets killed and at the end, Perseus saves the day by defeating the Kraken. Oh he sends Hades back to the underworld as well. Won't tell you everything, spoil nanti.
On the subject of characters - Zeus is the leader of Gods but he seems to be kinda dumb (how the heck does he not know that he has a son). Liam Neeson does a good job acting Zeus however it's just not Master Jedi enough of a character for Neeson to play. Ralph Fiennes plays Hades and Hades is evil right? He seemed pretty weak and old and slow in this one. Shouldn't he be all devilish and unpleasing? Io is shown as a beautiful, soft and intelligent woman and Gemma Arterton does well being just that. Andromeda seemed so not in the movie and the choice of Alexa Davalos playing her is just not right. They should have put someone far better there like Angelina Jolie or Jessica Alba. Perseus by Sam Worthington is BRILLIANT. From Terminator Salvation to Avatar, he does a consistent job each time around and here as Perseus is no different. His New Zealand accent is still strong, but that's the only bad thing I have to comment about him.
Io played by Gemma Arterton
What made the movie GREAT are the CGI and music. The storyline is crap, so we can forget about discussing that here. I'm in the Film and Media industry, so I can understand when someone says lighting is the most important part in a movie or TV show. The lighting in a CGI-based movie is even more difficult. I have never seen a movie with such great emphasis on perfect lighting. Everything was so perfect, they matched the CGI and the actors very well indeed. The only negative comment I have on this movie's CGI is Medusa's face. Remember Angelina Jolie in Beowulf or The Rock in The Mummy Returns, yeah that's how bad and artificial it was. I also especially love how they did Pegasus - to give a horse wings and make it look real is just amazing. The whole surrounding when they were shooting on location were stunning.
Overall - Once again I had to go watch a 3D movie in 2D. Oh well, we'll just have to wait. A 4/5 for the awesome quality of graphical imagery. Action sequences were near perfect, casts were reasonably good. I'm satisfied. If you haven't watched the original, this one would be good enough to know the story of Perseus.
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