Saturday, April 3, 2010

Clash Of The Titans


I go into this movie with the same attitude about that gods that Perseus' father has - "What damn good are the gods?" They are vain, selfish, bitter and childish - easy to anger and slow to forgive. Yet there comes a time when they need us weak and mortal men to do the dirty work for them for it is our prayers and belief in them that sustains them. And that brings us to our story.


Perseus is unlike many Greeks of the heroic age. He is born of the god Zeus and a mortal woman - he is a demigod - and supposedly braver and stronger than his fellow mortals. However, his hatred for the gods runs deep and therefor he is the prime agent to destroy them all.


Tired of the way that god's have punished them, the king of Argos has ordered all godly temples to be destroyed and all statues of the god's toppled. Thus starved of worship and prayer, the gods will die and an age of man will arise. It's a good idea if the gods didn't exists. However, since in this picture they do, the tiny humans are just asking for trouble.


After an insult, that to the god's is unforgivable, a team of soldiers goes off to seek a way to kill the KRACKEN, the great sea beast who will be released on Argos in one weeks' time unless the city sacrifices the beautiful Andromeda to the gods.


I totally enjoyed the band of brothers formed to carry our this quest. It is my favorite adventure movie cliche. However, unlike the 1970s version of 'Clash', the enemies they face are far more deadly and murderous and the monsters are a real threat.

I particularly liked the battle in Medusa's lair when it took all their ingenuity and skills to defeat the Gorgon.

In the end it seemed too rushed for a great retelling of the myth but with a strong hero at the centre and enough monster fighting for a Saturday Matinee, I can say I was all a giggly when Zeus called for Hades to 'RELEASE THE KRAKEN!

2 comments:

Nathan said...

So Andromeda is the Princess of Argos in the movie? I believe that original Perseus myth had her living in Ethiopia, although this might or might not be the same as the modern-day Ethiopia. There was apparently a tradition identifying a rock in Jaffa in modern-day Tel Aviv as the one to which Andromeda was chained.

Sam G said...

Did you see it in 3D? I've been hearing that it's horrid in 3D.