Movie Review: "The Clash of the Titans"

The Clash of the Titans
Directed by: Louis Leterrier
Starring: Sam Worthington, Liam Neeson, Ralph Fiennes, Gemma Arterton
Rated: PG-13 for fantasy action violence, some disturbing images, and brief sensuality

As a huge Greek mythology fan, I was pretty excited for the Clash of the Titans remake. I wasn't expecting much out of the film; just hoping for enough to stir my imagination and get my adrenaline pumping. If your expectations are that low, then Titans will be a fun adventure. It flows more like a computer game walk-through than a movie, telling you enough plot and giving you enough character and setting to make it to the next fight scene. Trust me, it is that shallow. Even the legendary actors involved in the film, Neeson and Fiennes, can't raise the script to any real height. (Perhaps they were too weighted down by their fake beards.) But, to me, the film was enough. Unlike Wolfgang Peterson's movie Troy which tried to be something it wasn't, this film know exactly what it is; a blockbuster fairy tale. The themes of the story, which revolve around the gods (something Troy rejected) and the difficulty of their relationship with man and each other, is really a means-to-an-end: we want to see guys fight monsters. And, while this internal struggle brings out some provoking thoughts, and Leterrier even tries to draw some parallels to modern religion, there isn't any real great heights to the movie, except for how gruesome the Kraken looks. This film is certainly not a god-like film but, for an action-blockbuster, it rises to the occasion.