Wednesday, April 28, 2010

Dudes, New Clash of the Titans Kicks Ass

I don't remember reading a positive mention amongst the blogs I frequent for the Clash of the Titans remake.  Of course, the majority of comments were "me too" from people who hadn't even bothered to see it.  Still the posters who were down on CotT.  I don't understand, I gotta assume they hate fun.

Actually, I believe I understand.  I just find it hard to accept so many are "get off my lawn", conservative, movie, "prudes" (the opposite of the following list).  Some things about me that may or may not invalidate my opinion of movies for you:
  1. I like stop motion animation CotT but I love CGI.  They're really different things and not comparable, impressionism vs photography.
  2. I judge movies on their merits. Not if they follow a book / papyrus scroll, previous movie, etc.  In fact if movie is same as book/previous edition, wtf even bother making it?
  3. I do not require from movies profound statements, deep meaning, fine art, or even good writing/acting. If I sit on my edge of seat, cheer, and/or whisper that's "bad ass" I'm happy.  In other words I'm not negatively predisposed towards the action/adventure genre.



First, a couple of things that bothered me enough to notice:
  1. I was not keen that Zeus and the other gods wore full, shiny plate.
  2. WTF desert wizard dudes, they were cool, and completed the party (see below) but seriously random.
  3. 3d, not a fan. There was option to watch it normal, but my friends and I (well I) choose beer and food over 2d.

Why Clash of the Titans Kicks Ass

Visually stunning, wow! The way Hades formed and the depiction of the gods watching man from Olympus, kicked ass. Char wood guys were keen too.  I got a half dozen ideas and lots of good descriptive fodder for use in running RPGs.  Reason enough for me to like this movie.

While they got a love interest in there, the soulless beings who make 90% of Hollywood movies suck, were unable to work in the "two boys fight over girl" plot that ruins most movies.  Instead plot is totally adventure 101.

The movie flowed EXACTLY like a RPG adventure.  PC is "railroaded" (movies often railroad due to time constraints/pacing/being non-interactive) into meeting with plot hook, gathers some men-at-arms (Argosian soilders), picks up a couple thieves (the two comedic relief guys), later they hook up with a wizard (chared wood dude).  They have to seek out witches to learn what the mcguffin is.  Go get it (nice example of using terrain to make exciting combat), then use mcguffin to beat the big bad. [It's so perfect I sort of suspect the writers/producers consulted with computer game publishers to smooth the inevitable companion games.]

Clash of the Titans is a flippin fun movie.  If you hate fun it's not for you, otherwise see it.

14 comments:

  1. That's the first unabashedly positive review of the movie that I've seen. Makes me want to check it out (after I find time to see Kick-Ass first).

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  2. I read somewhere that it wasn't shot in 3d, the 3d was done in post-production. That may explain why you didn't care for that aspect of it.

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  3. I've been trying to talk my wife into going to see it for weeks... may have to go without her.

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  4. On the "bad ass" film fan's checklist there were some failings IMO:
    1) Calibos looked like a bad makeup job from a "people under the stairs" movie. Less "cursed by the gods" and more "power line accident".
    2) No dangerous Medusa gore. The original dissolved a magic shield with her blood!
    3) No two headed dog, giant vulture...harpy creatures were generic pests.
    4) Less skin than the original...ancient world is now prudish?

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  5. I completely agree with this post. The new "Clash of the Titans" was full of ass-kickery.

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  6. labsenpai, you make the mistake of assuming that CotT had anything to do with the ancient world. A natural mistake to be sure, but a mistake nonetheless. CotT is a fun fantasy action movie with some Greek names, that's pretty much for classical content.

    That said, in our world, the adjectival form of Argos is Argive, perhaps in the fantasy world of CotT, it's Argosian.

    It was a fun movie, but more LotR than Greek Myth, so if you somehow expected the latter for longer than the opening voiceover, then you are bound to be disappointed. I suspect that's part of the reason for the negative reviews.

    The other reason would be, as Norman pointed out, the dire post-production 3D. For god's sake people, see this in 2D!

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  7. The movie was terrible. Riding the scorpions? Are you kidding me? And who were those two guys added for comic relief and then buggered off? Brutal!

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  8. Hey...I reviewed largely positively on my blog. Weekend of.

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  9. Well, modern Perseus hasn't played enough video games. He gave up his 10HD scorpions, balked at a magic sword, and didn't set his magic-user for ranged attacks. Not to mention the 5459 city npcs that died while he fumbled equipping the Medusa Head of Easy Pwning.

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  10. @Kiltedyaksman

    You didn't read the post, did you?

    Buggered off aka failed moral check. Frankly thought bowing out rather than dieing off was rather novel activity for bit parts in a action movie.

    @labsenpai
    Keep telling people videogames are important training. At least the Scouts of America have listened, adding video game beltloop to the cupscout line up.

    @Trey
    Sorry, missed it, forgot it, or just overwhelmed by the avalanche of hate for this movie and any other movie touching on any book/concept held sacred by bloggers of a certain stripe... Many of those movies are crap, I just abhor the knee-jerk, herd mentality of "not the way I remember the book/original/whatever so I will hate it" too often expressed. Feel it's my duty to make as much noise in the opposite direction as I can, thanks for helping.

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  11. One aspect I really liked from a campaign flavor POV was the court of Andromeda--really good S&S vibe with the aura of decadence.

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  12. Saw this at the drive in when it came out. Ass was kicked.

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  13. I don't think it was a great movie by any means, but it passed what I call the "Saturday Afternoon" test. I enjoyed watching it, and i might actually sit through again on some distant future Saturday afternoon. I vastly prefer stop motion to CGI, but even so, with exception of the Medusa scene which was pretty much a tie, i think the newer one is a little bit better than the the old one which was hardly Harryhausen's finest work.
    Now, if anyone want to see a good example of a remake that totally humps the bunk, I suggest you watch King Kong.

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  14. @Aos I don't think it was a great movie by any means

    Agreed. And I agree a movie doesn't have to be great to enjoy watching it. I enjoy a lot of 'B' grade sci-fi and fantasy movies which are much worse than this one.

    I noticed Original Flavor CotT is on Hulu, hopefully have time to watch it soon.

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