The new one, I mean, not that Harry Hamlin/Burgess Meredith thing where — once again — Sir Larry proved that he was such a good actor that you'd actually believe he liked girls.
And having heard it panned pretty severely, I went in expecting very little.
As a result, it was better than I expected. So I've discovered the secret to enjoying a movie: expect it to totally suck, then you won't be surprised if it does and you might be entertained if it doesn't. Call it the Benjamin Franklin approach to film criticism.
 Mom, I'm home! And I brought some laundry! |
Sam Worthington wasn't a problem, because I'd never seen him before (yes, I'm the one who hasn't seen Avatar yet.), but every other time I saw a familiar face I'd remember in what movie I'd seen them before and what part they were playing.
So here's how Clash of the Titans came across to me: The infant Perseus is found floating in the Aegean by Kaiser Soze's assistant Mr. Kobayashi. The baby was tossed into the sea with his mother because she had allowed herself to be impregnated by Aslan, who had disguised himself as her husband, Dr. Henry Jekyll.
Kobayashi and his wife — played by the wonderful Elizabeth McGovern who is wasted here and whom I wish had played Queen Casiopeia instead — adopt the baby, and it grows up to become Sam Worthington, and gets caught in a war between the city of Argos and the gods, who are led by Aslan. Aslan's brother Voldemort offers to put the put the humans in their place by releasing the Krakken. He also tracks down Dr. Jekyll, who's been cursed by Aslan and is now more like Mr. Hyde.
Sam Worthington sets out to stop the Krakken and save Argos, but he instead of going it alone like Harry Hamlin, he has a group of allies to help him, including James Bond villian Le Chiffre, James Bond ally Strawberry Fields, King Arthur's incestuous son Mordred, and some very pretty boy that I kind of recognized without knowing why.
It all ends pretty much like you'd expect it to, and Sam Worthington at the very end gives Aslan this really great "c'mon, Dad" look after Aslan restores Strawberry Fields so that Sam Worthington can have some kind of sex life on his lonely island without resorting to unnatural acts with his flying horse.
But, unlike most remakes, I'm glad this Clash of the Titans was made. The original is way too 70s, though it came out in 1981, and seems so campy now that I was glad to see it remade with some great special effects.
Even though I do regret seeing Sir Larry and Professor McGonagall portraying the Greek gods. So much more dignity and gravitas than their counterparts in this movie.
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2 comments:
I'm a bit surprised you liked it. I also went in with low expectations and still didn't care for it. It just didn't engage, me, perhaps because I thought Sam Worthington was a bit of a bore as the hero. I actually took a short nap at one point.
Oh, I never said I liked it. All I actually said was that it didn't suck and that I'm glad to have a replacement for the campy 1981 movie. Compared to a good movie, though, I'd agree with your "bit of a bore" assessment.
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