DVDs in Review

Clash of the Titans (Louis Leterrier, 2010)

Title: Clash of the Titans (Louis Leterrier, 2010)

Release date: July 26 2010

Certificate: 12

Format: Blu-ray combi-pack

DVD RRP: £26.99

Rating: 2/5

Reviewed by Dave Lancaster

Some films just aren’t worth watching, and this is one of them. That’s not to say that it wouldn’t be worth making again; ‘Clash of the Titans’ had epic potential and a rich, complex Greek legend of Perseus to cherrypick inspiration from. However, as was the case with another recent sword and scandal misinterpretation ‘Troy’, it just falls apart despite of its star power and huge budget. It’s bloated and yet empty.

Sam Worthington (showing as little charisma while blending into the busy background as he did in ‘Terminator Salvation’ and ‘Avatar’) plays Persesus – half man, half God, qualities which, as his love interest cringe-inducingly observes, he maintains the “best of both”, allowing him to commit death defying acts every five minutes while still brooding over the loss of his adoptive parents.

His real father is Zeus, the leader of the Gods sitting atop Mount Olympus. Dressed in an extremely shiny tin foil style suit of armour and played in all seriousness by Liam Neeson, the effect is ridiculous and frustrating. You wonder what he’s doing, especially when he strikes upon an inane plan to restore the people’s faith in the gods by sending one rogue god of the underworld to strike fear upon the public.

Then the increasingly sceptic population of earth will note the gods’ power and return to praying. You’d think a collection of wise gods would realise that hiring the completely evil Hades (Ralph Fiennes looking increasingly like Tim Minchin) to do the job would be a bad idea, and indeed it is.

Meanwhile back on earth, the people are rebelling against religion in a big way and have decided to heed Hades’ suggestion to sacrifice the Princess of Argos (not the catalogue retailer) in order to spare the city from destruction, prompting Persesus and a crew of expendable warriors to trek across the land and save her and the city, banish Hades back to the underworld and defeat the Kraken  sea monster.

Along the way other bits of mythology are touched on, such as Medusa, the Stygian Witches, the winged horse Pegasus and a few giant scorpions for good measure. The visual effects in this film drive the narrative and help to create believable versions of these iconic creations, and in some cases the effects pull through – Pegasus, for example, looks to be a seamless blend of a real horse and CGI additions while Medusa’s snaking body and head leave a lasting effect.

Other moments of computer trickery are laughable, especially the idea of skimming a CGI coin across some water. Surely a real coin and some water would’ve been a better investment, and the few grand that could’ve been saved would have been welcome for some last minute script doctoring. As it stands, gaps in the script are plugged by screaming battle cries before running at something with a sword.  

Indeed, the script is the main problem. There’s too much legend spread across too many characters with too little depth and economy. It just becomes a series of adventures, akin to a video game with our heroes progressing up a level at the expense of a few lesser characters while handily gaining an extra prop that will naturally come in handy later.