Clash Of The Titans - Blu-ray Review

'a fairly intelligent way to ensure lots of beautiful people get to run around hitting not so beautiful people with large pointy metallic objects'

Perhaps over-marginalised by the furore surrounding its post-filming refit to 3D, Clash Of The Titans' story is actually a fairly intelligent way to ensure lots of beautiful people get to run around hitting not so beautiful people with large pointy metallic objects. A remake of the 1981 film of the same name, Louis Leterrier's 2010 version keeps enough of the original Greek mythology in here to make this outing an interesting, if occasionally downtrodden, trawl through the stories which still resonate partially in popular parlance.

That isn't to say that Leterrier doesn't make some odd decisions along the way. The presentation of some of the Gods (Liam Neeson's Zeus in particular) is overly reverent: all metallic shine and disappearing in to thin air magic tricks. Hades (Ralph Fiennes) by contrast is very effective, appearing in dark black smoke with the visage of a hermit and the mood of thunderstorm. Problems are equally apparent in the make-up of Perseus' (Sam Worthington) happy hunting group. A comic relief duo are established early on but abandoned when the tone no longer suits them. Other members of the party fill stock positions, there as canon/scorpion/sword/Medusa fodder whenever Leterrier needs to dispatch someone. The exception to the rule is Mads Mikkelsen's Draco, who follows a predictable arc but does so in a meaty way which never fails to hold your attention.

Whilst the story relates to modern-day feelings of losing faith and questioning rulers, the script is as clunky as a stone age chariot. Gemma Arterton, charming as demi-God Io, is basically present to provide early-story setup and mid-story exposition, rattling off actions for Perseus with distracting frequency. The early dialogue and performances in particular are wooden and under-developed, something which continues throughout but only noticeably so in Alexa Davalos' outwardly conflicted Andromeda, Arterton long since becoming intriguing enough to forgive any on-going script weaknesses.

For all its ills though, this is a blockbuster with fun and plenty of it. The fast moving plot takes in a variety of Pan's Labyrinth-infused creature design and brilliantly dressed sets by Martin Laing and never stays in one place long enough to induce boredom. To criticise the film for being trite and one-dimensional is a bit like pointing out that Schwarzenegger lacks range in Predator. Leterrier takes very old mythology and makes it interesting for people who want nothing more than something easy to watch on a Friday night. His film occasionally chugs along whilst he does it but you can't say that there's no fun here at all and in the end, its successes and fast movement outweigh its lulling plot and cookie-cutter characters.

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'I was pleasantly surprised. It wasn’t perfect. I’m not even convinced it was very good, but I was solidly entertained and engaged' - The M0vie Blog