Clash of the Titans

I grew up with the original Clash of the Titans.  This, along with the Seventh Voyage of Sinbad, were the awesomely bad clay-mation fantasy flicks that we watched over and over during my formative years.   From the first time I saw the trailer for the remake, I knew what it was before they even showed the title.  I wanted to see it even then.  Throw in the hunky Sam Worthington, and I am definitely down.  (On a side note, I first saw Sam in a great film called Bootmen. Anyone else seen that?)

Overall, the story follows the general gist of what I remember from the original.  But where they definitely veered from the original was making is a man versus gods battle and I think the story is poorer for it.  In the Greek stories, rebelling against the gods was just not done.  In what I know of the mythology, there is no question that the gods exist, that they play a role in human lives, and that some lucky few are favored.  Disbelief in deity or refusal of deity is something that is prevalent in today's society.  I understand why they changed that part of the story to make it easier for current audiences to relate to the story, but I don't agree with it.

Other details that bothered me: that Cassiopeia says Andromeda is more beautiful than the gods, but Io is more beautiful than Andromeda by far; Cassiopeia was supposed to offer up Andromeda for sacrifice without issue, because Cassiopeia is vain beyond belief; Perseus' patronage by Zeus and Io, when I thought he was supposed to be sponsored by Athena. 

It was awesome that they gave a nod to the original by pulling out a little clockwork owl out of a trunk of weapons.  I kept hoping to see it somewhere in the rest of the film, but it didn't make a reprise.  Pegasus was an amazing animal, even without the CG wings.  He was perfect.  Ralph Fiennes did an awesome job as Hades.  He is such a good bad guy for such a good looking man.

I also want to personally thank Lindy Hemming for her costume design. I absolutely love that period Greek costumes mean short skirts for men.  It provided such great eye candy throughout the movie.  Gemma Arterton as Io was also exquisitely dressed.

This was a well done epic movie, though not quite on par with Troy or Avatar.  I still plan to add it to my collection, on the shelf right next to the original.