Clash of the Titans

Rebooted to satisfy the big-spender demographic that grew up watching the 1981 Clash of the Titans, the new Clash of the Titans is an acceptably ?new and improved? product. Even if those terms are rare, they still aren?t good enough. An antiquity action-flick that brought in a new feel for history and philosophy like The Chronicles of Riddick, or a more vivid appreciation of sex and machismo like 300 might be worth celebrating. Fact is, this remake is ersatz, just as the original COTT was ersatz Greek classicism reminiscent of the old Classics Illustrated comics that popularized ancient texts. Although this doesn?t suffer the burden of authenticity, it merely matches Reign of Fire and other CGI kitsch. The story of Perseus (Sam Worthington), the demi-god son of Zeus, acting out on Earth the Olympian antagonism between Zeus (Liam Neeson) and Hades (Ray Fiennes) is told with the right sense of scale. Director Louis Leterrier delivers the requisite post-Ray Harryhausen F/X and exotic monsters. CGI has now improved to the point that Harryhausen?s stop-motion animation seems more quaint than charming. (That?s why the technique worked for the whimsically retro Coraline and Fantastic Mr. Fox.) The monster movements here are smooth, if a little too-quick, and Letterier?s sense of pace?honed at the Luc Besson school of action aesthetics?keeps Perseus? fantasy-adventures interesting. Yet, because COTT was made simply as divertissement, a thinking viewer has to regret that it doesn?t maintain the purpose of reviving the fake classics. The film doesn?t teach much about man?s relationship to his subconscious or to religion, which is the extra wonderment of Greek and classical mythology. COTT recalls the same minor success of Robert Zemeckis? 2007 Beowulf, whose blockbuster hype drowned-out Sturla Gunnarson?s superior, historically authentic Scandinavian version Beowulf and Grendel from just a month earlier. Zemeckis? F/X (including some of the same endlessly gliding camera movement as here) provided eye-noise but less intellectual sustenance. Not even Letterier?s skill can disguise the fact that this COTT is also ersatz 3-D. It was reconfigured in post-production at the last minute into 3-D to lure the Avatar fans. Nothing pops out spectacularly, yet it is a good, if unexciting, technical achievement. Moviegoers must learn to appreciate movies in measured terms, not the terms of hype. It would be a measure of progress if COTT did more than teach the culture to love 3-D but to understand how to appreciate legends. Leterrier certainly shows a better sense of meaningful, economic narrative than the mess that Peter Jackson made with the interminable, incoherent Lord of the Rings trilogy. Yet, while the robust Sam Worthington still poses the questions ?Musclehead or Actor?? the Perseus background story still raises issues about man?s relationship to the cosmos and the difficult, fascinating ways he fashions a sense of his own fate out of hard work and anguished imagination. The only way gobbledy-gook like, ?Man became restless, began to question the gods and challenge them,? passes muster is that it at least attempts dealing with what must still be fundamental existential concerns. The battle scene with the giant desert scorpions or Perseus capturing Medusa?s snakey head are fine, but the cuckolding scene that quotes John Boorman?s 1981 Excalibur is more encouraging. Boorman?s narrative was postmodern before academics, let alone critics, learned to use the word. It pointed the way toward more intelligent cinematic spectacle. Letterier seems to know that; that?s why even his ersatz 3-D does right the many things silly Avatar did wrong. -- Clash of the Titans Directed by Louis Letterier Runtime: 118 min.