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Greek mythology never looked this good, and yet the characters have never seemed less real.
Director Louis Letterier’s new film “Clash of the Titans” is an epic visual parade.
Complete with bone-shivering sounds as monster after monster tries to stop Perseus, a demi-god and son of Zeus, from saving the humans from complete annihilation.
Perseus (Sam Worthington) finds himself caught in a difficult position on whether to help the humans who are a race of crazed brigands, or take his rightful place among the gods after his family is murder by minions of Hades when human soldiers destroy a nearby statue of Zeus.
Unfortunately, Perseus makes this decision all too easily, and any inner development or conflict that may have arisen because of it is shattered instantly.
Liam Neeson plays the all-powerful and loving Zeus, who rules the heavens atop Mount Olympus.
Zeus must decide on whether to punish or reach out to the humans. Here his brother Hades (Ralph Fiennes) arrives from the Underworld and convinces his brother that humanity must be taught a violent lesson in the form of the mystical beast the Kracken.
Liam Neeson provides an adequate interpretation of Zeus, although the bright shimmer of his padded chest far outshines any possible performance he could have given.
Fiennes actually is a fascinating Hades with his huddled and shrugged form that makes him appear both weak and harmless, but something more sinister builds beneath his frail exterior–something that surprisingly even his omnipotent brother Zeus cannot predict.
However, Sam Worthington cannot make up his mind about his character Perseus.
Is Perseus a man beholden to other men? Or, is he his own creature, an isolated demi-god who just wants revenge for the death of his family?
Worthington does not walk this fine line well, and his performance leaves the viewer with a confused and muddled sense of the character.
Unfortunately, the characters are so one-dimensional in this film, which could have been quite excellent if the script wasn’t so painfully predictable and the characters were a little more human and a little less stagnate.
As the director, Letterier makes several obvious attempts to show the purity of Perseus that he is both nobler than the gods and more courageous than man.
However, many of these scenes come off as, at worst, forced and unrealistic, or, at best, missed opportunities to expound upon the main character and psyche of Perseus.
“Clash of the Titans” is a good action-adventure film, but leaves the viewer with nothing but a few cheap thrills.
