FILM: Wrath of / Laugh @ the Titans?

Although I previously may have slated Warner Brothers’ remake of Clash of the Titans (Louis Leterrier, 2010), this was down to my high expectations of it.

Troy, Gladiator and of course 300 have set the mark for ancient mythological action film in recent years, and under this expectation I placed Clash.

Well, I was underwhelmed. In short, the script was weak, the acting wooden, and the characterisation so bleak that I didn’t care who was picked off by the gorgon, or run through by a giant scorpion. But all of this I could have lived with if it wasn’t for the lame excuse for mythological fiends: the gorgon, scorpions and – worst of all – abysmally short screen time of the Kraken, which to me harked back to the moment in Lake Placid when a second genetically enlarged crocodile is discovered only for it to be killed within (no word of a lie, my friend and I geekily timed it) thirty seconds, accompanied with the immortal line from Brendan Gleeson “back to one!”.

The Kraken: now you see me, now I'm dead.

In general I found Clash try-hard and empty, scarcely living up to the visceral and hyperbolic drama of 300, or the emotional intensity of Gladiator.

But the reasons I’m dragging this argument into the present is, as you may know, Clash’s sequel Wrath of the Titans is set for UK release on 30^th March. I was fortunate enough last year to visit the production design of this film, which included a clay two-headed beast, eight foot tall in reality but multiplied to giant proportions in the film, as you can examine here:

(the dude second from the right)

Of course the creature will majorly be tampered with in post production, which means the final product audiences will experience will be a CGI animation. This is a shame as I know how much time and effort was put into making a physical representation of the thing, and in my opinion product design has usurped digital animation in realism, but evidently – and perhaps swayed by the lower cost of CGI – Hollywood disagrees.

Anyway I’m warily excited for the next release in the Titans franchise, which promises more action, more beasts, and more of the hench Sam Worthington in its heroic leading role. And lets be honest, who can complain about that?