Film Review: Clash of the Titans (2010)
The 2010 remake of Clash of the Titans represents everything that is wrong with modern Hollywood's approach to beloved genre classics. Where the 1981 original directed by Desmond Davies stands as a charming piece of cinematic history—one of the last major Hollywood pictures to employ Ray Harryhausen's old-school stop-motion techniques—this cynical reimagining comes as a cold, soulless exercise in CGI excess and corporate box-ticking.
The narrative ostensibly follows the same Greek myth: Perseus, demigod son of Zeus, must embark upon a quest to save Princess Andromeda from the Kraken, a sea monster unleashed by vengeful gods. Yet the screenplay, cobbled together by a committee of four writers, bears only the most superficial resemblance to Beverley Cross's literate 1981 script. This "modernised" version recasts Perseus as a dour fisherman seeking revenge after his adoptive parents become collateral damage in the Olympians' war against rebellious mankind. The result is a joyless procession of set pieces that manages to dishonour both its source material and the rich tapestry of Greek mythology itself.
The most egregious failing, however, lies in the casting. Sam Worthington, fresh from Avatar, delivers a performance of such staggering charisma vacuum that one yearns for the comparative magnetism of Harry Hamlin's original turn. Worthington's Perseus is less a classical hero than a petulant grunt—spending the majority of the film grumbling against the gods whilst delegating the actual heroism to his companions. His appearance does not help matters: sporting a haircut that would not look out of place on an American marine, he looks utterly absurd against the backdrop of mythic Greece. It is a performance that manages to be both anachronistic and entirely devoid of charm.
Gemma Arterton fares little better as Io, the immortal guide who replaces the original's more compelling supporting characters. Where Judi Bowker's Andromeda embodied classical beauty and vulnerability, Arterton appears to have wandered in from an entirely different production, wearing costumes ill-suited to her role and delivering lines with all the conviction of someone reading a takeaway menu.
Even the film's technical achievements collapse under scrutiny. Spurred by the commercial success of Avatar, the studio hastily converted the picture to 3D in post-production—a decision executed with such slapdash carelessness that the result is murky, indistinct, and visually fatiguing. Rather than enhancing the spectacle of Olympus and its mythical creatures, the process renders them dark and uninviting. One suspects the 2D version offers little improvement.
There are, admittedly, a handful of lucid moments courtesy of director Louis Leterrier. A few action sequences demonstrate competent choreography, and the supporting cast—including Mads Mikkelsen and the late Pete Postlethwaite—attempt to inject gravitas into the proceedings. Liam Neeson and Ralph Fiennes, as Zeus and Hades respectively, at least appear to understand the camp potential of the material, though they are ultimately defeated by the po-faced tone.
Yet these minor virtues cannot salvage what is fundamentally a broken enterprise. The 2010 Clash of the Titans exemplifies the creative bankruptcy of the modern blockbuster: a remake that misunderstands why its predecessor endured, substituting genuine wonder and craftsmanship for expensive but hollow digital wizardry. It is a film that insults the intelligence of its audience and squanders the talents of its cast—a cynical product that serves only to remind us how much richer cinematic fantasy once was.
The fact that this picture earned sufficient returns to spawn an equally dispiriting sequel (Wrath of the Titans, 2012) speaks volumes about the contemporary marketplace. One can only hope that future generations, discovering the 1981 original, will recognise where the true magic resides.
Rating: 2/10
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