Trailers Lie

I judge what movies I see by the trailer. It is somewhat like judging a book by its cover. A good one stands out of the hundreds on a shelf piquing your interest and making you at least check what the book is about. A bad one you don’t bother with. It could be right in front of you, on display, and it wouldn’t even be acknowledged. But unfortunately they sometimes misrepresent the final product as a whole. A bad book could have a great cover and a good book could have a bad one.

The initial trailer for Clash of the Titans (2010) was awesome. It was fast paced, epic, and heart pumping.

The small splices from the movie accompanied by that rhythmic increasingly intense piece of music. Then at the end, the perfectly placed, “Release the Kraken!” AH! It made me giggle with glee like a little school girl.

It looked like they had taken the lameness and cheese from the original 1981 classic, tightened the plot, and made it into an intense action flick. Well the trailer makers for this movie are artists because they made me believe that. This movie was epically mediocre, drawn out, and just wasn’t sure what it wanted to be.

For those of you who don’t know Clash of the Titans (2010) tells the story of Perseus (Sam Worthington) the adopted son of a fisherman who finds out he is actually a demigod, the mortal son of Zeus (Liam Neeson). Man has angered the gods and Hades (Ralph Fiennes) has been sent to deliver a message. The Kraken, an uncontrollable beast created only for destruction will be released unless the beautiful Princess Andromeda (Alexa Davalos) is sacrificed. Perseus embarks on a quest to find a way to stop the Kraken from destroying Argos and save Andromeda. He and a small band of warriors has to deal with witches, giant scorpions, and battle Medusa.

This story is a little different than the 1981 version is a few key places. Andromeda and Perseus are not in love or destined to be married. Calibos is not in love with Andromeda, stealing her away in the night. We are introduced to a cursed woman named Io. There is less interaction with the gods. The existence of Bubo is only given a ridiculous nod. And battles are not fought in togas but in armour.

As usual the filmmakers focused too much on effects and this new fangled 3D technology forgetting about things like script and acting. I was not expecting Oscar winning performances but I would like people to be a little believable. Sam Worthington’s Perseus is either calm or angry with no in between. He is supposed to be brooding and out for revenge for the death of his family but there is no range of emotion there is only one or the other. Io played by Gemma Arterton has the placid look on her face the whole time. No matter the situation, entering the underworld, being attacked by creatures, even death, her expression is the same. Liam Neeson and Ralph Fiennes were ok. They weren’t in the movie as much as I had expected them to be but they worked with what they were given although there was nothing spectacular about the performances.

Everyone else in the movie, including Alexa Davalos, Mads Mikkelsen, Nicholas Hoult, and Pete Postlethwaite were just there. They simply did what they were told. They were given instructions to look scared or smile or talk or jump or whatever and that is what they did. But there was nothing spectacular or captivating about any of it.

The dialogue tried to hard. It was filled with wannabe poignant phrases and boring filler. It gave little depth to the characters leaving me uninterested in if Perseus completed his quest or not.

And the effects were well done. That is about the only really good thing about the movie. If it wasn’t then that would have been a disappointment of epic proportions. From what I saw that was the only thing that any attention was paid to. The giant scorpions were kind of cool, Medusa was well done, and the Kraken was ok. It was like an octopus crab lizard from the deep.

I did pay the extra 3 bucks to see the movie in 3D and not cuz I wanted to but because my friend insisted. I have to say it didn’t blow my mind and I think I would have had the same mediocre experience if it was in 2D.

Clash of the Titans (2010) is a bored rental at most. Personally I would suggest you rent the original if you are hard up. At least with that one you are entertained by the B-movie quality of it; the cheesy effects, lame costuming, and over acting.

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