While watching this movie you'll notice dozens of things that could had been done way better. It has such a fine and entertainingly fun concept but yet it takes a while for the movie to really take off. It's also not a really well done movie directing or acting wise and it's also not always the best looking film. "Clash of the Titans" was really a special-effects loaded movie, that always had been bound to be remade with modern technologies. This movie was already outdated back in 1981. And even though the remake isn't the best or most satisfying one I still have always welcomed a remake of this 1981 movie.
This movie has always been regarded as the last of its kind. Literally dozens of these type of movies based on Greek mythology and other heroic characters battling monsters got produced from the late '50's on already. The genre was already pretty much regarded to have dried up in the '70's but yet the still managed to make this movie, that is the last to use of the usual and distinctive elements of the genre.
One of the most notable elements of course are the Ray Harryhausen stop-motion effects for all of the creatures. Even though the movie is being filled with lots of other big effects, the stop-motion effects are still the ones that stand out. It needs to be said though that not all of the effects seem completely necessary. They could had really used some other techniques at the time for some of its effects. It also seems quite pointless really that the Calibos character is halve stop-motion effect and halve make-up effects with an actor underneath, for the close-ups and the talking moments.
You can tell by watching this movie that they had tons of good and original ideas and they tried to be really creative but yet it doesn't all quite work out. One of the reasons why a remake was really welcome. The movie is at times a bit cheap, lame and awkward looking, which has most likely to do with budgeting reasons and the inexperience with these type of 'big' movies of the director and other people involved.
The acting is really quite poor. Just like ever genre movie, the main lead is just a pretty muscle boy without any acting skills. It makes it hard to really feel involved with the character but yet the movie manages to still do so, due to mostly its effects and adventurous story. It's quite odd seeing the great Laurence Olivier acting in a film like this but even he simply needed some big pay checks it seems.
Yet somehow despite this all the movie manages to be fun and entertaining to watch. It's foremost because it simply has an entertaining concept, that features plenty of action and monstrous creatures. It's a movie with a real classic hero that devise all odds by taking on some powerful and superior creatures. You can't help to be entertained by it all, no matter how bad and quite poor it's all looking and getting at times.
7/10
Watch trailer
No comments: