Official Blurb:

Filmmakers:
Basil Iwanyk (Producer)
Kevin De La Noy (Producer)
Richard D. Zanuck (Executive Producers)
Academy Award?winner "DRIVING MISS DAISY"
Thomas Tull, Jon Jashni and William Fay (Legendary Pictures (Executive Producers))
Peter Menzies, Jr. (Director of Photography)
Ramin Djawadi (Composer)
Martin Walsh & Vincent Tabaillon (Editors)
Lindy Hemming (Costume Designer)
Academy Award?winner for "TOPSY-TURVY"
Martin Laing (Production Designer)
Beverley Cross (Writer)
Based on the motion picture "CLASH OF THE TITANS" directed by Desmond Davis.
Travis Beacham and Phil Hay & Matt Manfredi (Screenplay)

From playing Martin, the self aware machine in McG's "TERMINATOR SALVATION" (2009), to a ten feet tall, blue Aboriginal in James Cameron's "AVATAR" (2009) and then going on to be a demi-god named Perseus, Sam Worthington has had his fair share of strange characters to play on the big screen. Worthington has proved that Australia does have big guns in Hollywood. After appearing in numerous roles, Worthington won an AFI for best male actor in the highly acclaimed film "Somersault" directed by Cate Shortland. The film cleaned up all 13 categories in 2004.

But now, Louis Leterrier's "CLASH OF THE TITANS" (2010). In a nutshell, Worthington plays Perseus, the son of Zeus (Liam Neeson) and Danae (Tine Stapelfeldt). His adoptive family, Spyros (Pete Postlethwaite) and Marmara (Elizbath McGovern) are killed by Zeus's brother Hades (Ralph Fiennes) and he vows revenge. After fighting all sorts of monsters and crossing the river Styx, Perseus defeats the Gorgon, Medusa (Natalia Vodianova), whose head he needs. He becomes a hero riding the winged horse Pegasus and rescues the Princess Andromeda (Alexa Davalos) from the Kraken by turning it to stone via the gaze from Medusa's severed head. Hero shot. The end.

"CLASH OF THE TITANS" is worth watching because it is actually an easy film to watch. Stunning? Yes. And if you know your Greek mythology, there are no big surprises. But one thing that stands out, is the spectacle. It is no "AVATAR" but the 3D effect is brilliant. Louis Leterrier's vision is big. Big scorpians, big monsters, big gods.

But if Leterrier is to take on something like this again he needs to brush up on the action genre. The film lacks real punch. The writers also take so many liberties with the Ancient Greek myths that Zeus himself may rain down his retribution for their infidelities.

For all the spectacle "CLASH OF THE TITANS" is, it is a rather dull romp with dull performances from Mads Mikklelson who plays a dull Draco and Fiennes's Hades, with his colourless performance he is something akin to his Lord Voldemort speaking parseltongue, a bit hard to grasp. Worthington's performance of Perseus is, unfortunately, a little predictable. Neeson's Zeus, for a god, is a very shiny indeed but his performance is also a little lacklustre.

The ancient societies explained why things are the way they are and how they came to being and Greek mythology is what it is. "CLASH OF THE TITANS" is a Greek melodrama and it doesn’t transfer well to the screen.

But I did love the cameo by the golden owl Bubo from the original Desmond Davis' "CLASH OF THE TITANS" (1981).

Copyrighted: Troy J Russell, 2010

Louis Leterrier's "CLASH OF THE TITANS" (2010) is Based on the motion picture Desmond Davis' "CLASH OF THE TITANS" (1981), written by Beverley Cross. It is the Campbellesque journey of Perseus, played by Aussie Sam Worthington, from the cradle to victory. Perseus travels through a crucible if you like. His adventures are given depth by his personal struggle with a class war between working men, the gods and royalty. It's set in a time when there's no longer any need for a man with ability to struggle but Perseus insists on remaining a working class battler to the fatal detriment of those around him. He is in conflict with his era and his abilities.

Having said this, through out his adventures when things get too tough Perseus will abandon his work ethic and cheat.

He plays the politics of self-interest, as Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) did in writer/director James Cameron's "AVATAR" (2009). Jake abandons assignment of preparing the Narween for invasion in favour of a relationship with Neytiri (Zoe Saldana). Perseus refuses to use the god's gifts despite the deaths of his comrades but uses them when his aiblities without tham are exahusted. He cheats for his own survival regardless of the fate of his comrades.

Now being a man in Perseus' case is interesting in itself as he is born a demigod. Zeus fools his mother, the wife of King Acrisius into making love and creates Perseus. In the beginning of our tale King Acrisius murders his wife after the birth of Perseus, in retaliation against Zeus and is later recruited and empowered by Hades.

When Zeus transforms from his camouflage, the body of King

Acrisius back into himself theirs is an intermediate form, Hades, the evil bro. So God's are not good. They are greedy and motivated by self-interest.

I mean when meeting in Olympus they walk on the earth with foot prints that would crush a city. And even that's interesting. These aren't omniscient beings though I suppose they could be if they chose so. These are beings whom can only see a part of the earth as big as a suburb at a time. And they can only have one thought and one feeling at any one time. How human.

But what is right, good or just? Who is right or good or god-like in this story? The difference between gods and man is that Gods can and do what ever they want and man is hampered by natural limitations. Socrates, a famous Athenian philosopher from these times quizzed Euthyphro on the definition of truth and beauty. Euthyphro thought he could define these absolute nouns but failed upon scrutiny. For even the gods cannot agree on what these things are and so Plato, the guy who writes up the story, decides that these things don't exist on earth and they must exist in an ideal form not on earth. That these ideal forms find instances that we recognise but we'll never know the true thing here. Socrates had the good sense not to worship these creatures and so he was executed for corrupting the youth and atheism.

In our play "CLASH OF THE TITANS", Louis Leterrier poses the question, what is right Euthyphro? And Perseus gets to live it out. For there are gods and here are men and there are those, like Io, in between.

The culture is beautiful. Men adorn themselves with Batman

breast plates, the gods having many more abs and more shine. The world is populated by marvelous creatures whom are utterly convincing and carry us on into the tale. The Pegasii in particular are beautifully realized. Our particular Pegasus is a black, velvety, Friesian stallion who looks like Tornado, never before ridden like the un-ridable, giant Banshee in "AVATAR" always there to save the day, even across the river Styx in the Underworld.

And most importantly for our story, it is populated by people in-between, ones who can stop a giant scorpiochs' sting with a shield and can't be cut in two when its claws smash him against a stone pillar. The mortality of those in-between is interesting. Io has also lived to see any loved ones die.

In their world human characteristics are apportioned according to your status. Gods are willful, people are victims and plane speaking or when in a mob, fascist and cast out of the same mould as Jeremy Bentham, even to the point of sacrificing someone on command of the fickle gods. In this world faith isn¡¯t required, the gods are real and someone has to say enough to their thoughtlessness.

In this panoply of consciousness Draco is human. This soldier of all soldiers He has none of the brattish and therefore divine qualities of Perseus. He is not royal. He has a quick quip and an ability to see things cleaerly and articulate them as they are, scolding as humanity scolds the gods, trying to correct them. "If I had your gifts...," he says to Perseus, trying to make him pick up the magical sword given by the gods to make their divine saviour save his men.

When he regains his humanity in the moments before dying, like Mr. Hyde in Stephen Sommers' "VAN HELSIG" (2004), King Acrisius warns Perseus not to become like them. However, as Draco can see, he already is. He watches his friends die rather than use the gifts of the gods. He is petulant. Perseus is his father's son.

Men are beautiful in this culture and they wear it as normal. The stills on this page do not capture how breath taking Mads Mikkelson is in his role as Draco, but you get the idea.

Mads Mikkelsen channels a Tristram from Antoine Fuqua's "King ARTHUR" (2004) in his ease and pleasure with killing and beating people up. In "CLASH OF THE TITANS" he carries his authority as Captain of his soldiers easily. The beguiling boy who still prays the prayers of a child reprises his role of the beautiful young one from Tom Ford "A SINGLE MAN" (2009) where he developed the believability of a moral, caring young man prepared to do what it takes to save a life.

Other roles are borrowed in this film include parts realised by Vincent Regan. He served first as Achilles Lieutenant in Wolfgang Petersen's "TROY" (2004), upset dramatically by the death of Patroclus (played by Garrett Hedlund) , not Achilles' lover. Again in Zack Snyder's "300" (2006) he is Capt to Gerard Butler¡¯s King Leonidas, upset dramatically at the death of his son at the hands of a rhino. In "CLASH OF THE TITANS" he is a Captain and is seen fleetingly upset dramatically at the vision of his King Acrisius' electrocution by Zeus. What's lovely about his role in "CLASH OF THE TITANS" is that his character for the most part has developed into a more meaty King, someone

who's put on a bit of weight, wears a lot of gold, lives in a perpetual party and rules whimsically, declaring war against the gods.

Perseus murders the titan/gorgon Medusa to save thousands in the preternatural city. I wonder if Jeremy Bentham found his inspiration that the good of the many out ways the good of the few in Homer?

I guess one could say that Perseus is new to being a demigod and that getting used to godly apparel is a tentative process. The gin takes the coin Perseus has accepted from Zeus in a conversation where no means yes. But in the end Perseus finds his middle way, declines the princess he has saved, accepts Io's directive to use the god given sword against King Acrisius, chooses Io, the mortal cursed with agelessness and decides to live with a man with a Pegasus for a steed.

"CLASH OF THE TITANS" is a very easy film to watch. The seamless nature of the film can be attributed to: Oscar®-nominated visual effects supervisor Nick Davis (Christopher Nolan's "THE DARK KNIGHT" (2008)); Oscar®-nominated prosthetics supervisor Conor O¡¯Sullivan ("THE DARK KNIGHT" Steven Spielberg's "SAVING PRIVATE RYAN" (1998)); Academy Award®-winning special effects and animatronics supervisor Neil Corbould (Scott Ridley's "GLADIATOR" (2000)); Academy Award®-winning makeup and hair designer Jenny Shircore (Shekhar Kapur's "ELIZABETH" (1998)); and Academy Award®-winning production sound mixer Ivan Sharrock (Bernardo Bertolucci's "THE LAST EMPEROR" (1987)). These guys are responsible for it being so easy to watch because of the high

integrity of their realism.

In the end it's nice to see people with a belief in a set of gods who are human and do not hold out the carrot of a selection of after lives that one has to earn. Everyone goes to the Underworld. It's refreshing :)

What erked me? The age of Shakespearean posturing and the mid-Atlantic accent has re-emerged. Sir Laurence Olivier would be on familiar ground. We don't live in Argos, Greece. We live on something like the Elm Street sound stage lower London. These guys should have at least sounded woggy.

There are a couple of things I'd like to find the time to check out with the Iliad like, did Zeus create, "men," or is this something Louis Leterrier thought he could slip past us in light of an American culture dominated by the Christian right? Is Perseus a Latin transcription of Percios or whatever the Greek should be? Is Percy the son of Poseidon as he in Chris Columbus's "PERCY JACKSON AND THE LIGHTINNING THEIF" (2010) or Zeus as "CLASH OF THE TITANS" has shown? And if he's immortal where is he now? One thing "PERCY THE LIGHTINNING THEIF" and ""CLASH OF THE TITANS"" agree on that Percy decapitates Medusa and she has a head of snakes for hair. (I preferred Uma Thurman in the role. Natalia Vodianova was just dressed up as a giant, animae slug.) And isn't this an unanswered question! What is the difference between the titans and the gods? Is god a family name or are they a species of divinity? Given the fact that Zeus' character reveals a little of Hades in his begetting of Percy, do the three gods, brothers, act as a trinity of sorts, Hades, of the Underworld, Poseidon with

dominion over the seas and Zeus the creator god? Hades child, the Kraken defeated the titans, their parents among others, and delivered the Universe to their rule.

Ralph Fiennes plays a hisspy Hades after the quietly terrifying Lord Voldermort to a certain extent, thinking that to quietly speak something is a lot more threatening then to yell it openly. It doens't really work. He's entrance is always watchable. I didn't find him to be, "incredibly terrifying." He was just unpleasant and I always waited for another character to start speaking.

It's a very speaky movie. Not much goes on that is not dialogue, apart from waiting for character to strike or manifest. Everything is spoken.

Nice to see LOTR's (Peter Jackson's "LORD OF THE RINGS": trilogy (2001-3) ) Martin Walsh ACE in the editing away. I liked the editing.

Loved the soldier's costumes. Danny Houston in a cameo as Poseidon? Well, that's a new look for him. Zeus shone though. Come Mardi Gras March 2011, if there hasn't been another ancient world epic before then, people will be chaffing around the dance floor in multiple abed, shinny battle dress. Hades' furies were nicely worked out, springing from the smoky wings or his eternal tornado of cinders.

Potentially the largest beast with the longest reveal ever in film history, the MPC (Moving Picture Company) creation, The Kraken. Its very arrival in Argos vanquishes the city by tsunami

and destroys the harbour with one flailing tentacle as it attempts to stand. On this page you'll find an image of the beast in more detail than we ever see it in the film. And this thing, whose head is as large as a mountain can be saited by one little princess whom you can see dangling there at the end of this page.

There are definitely Galapogaen influences in this film. The head and shell of our Kraken is Galapogaen tortoise-like and the volcanic landscape of the vanquished Steichen Gardens, the team traverses by scorpiochs recalls the island vividly though it was filmed in the Canary Islands¡¯ Tenerife. (Great journey music.)

Self-interest is what Percy wants. "I know what I want to kill and it isn't the Kraken. Now how do I find Hades?" He mans up to serve the greater good, like a 20th century digger going to war. But his speech to Zeus on the way to the Underworld is particularly petulant and to this point. He declares he'd rather die in the mud with men than be on mount Olympus living like a god for eternity. Well, he didn't think that one through. But he sounded like a working class hero and that's what Sam Worthington brings to Hollywood, blue-collar credibility.

Now, when I saw the shorts for this film I thought, Ah! Awesome. Sam Worthington drops the working class personae and becomes some kind of convincing Prince Innocent and how does he do it? By just being an innocent prince. He's a genius. But then I saw the film. His dramatic work is often affected. There's a disenchanting self-awareness in his face when he worked with Io in particular. McG got better drama out of him in his "TERMINATOR SALVATION" (2009). The moment on the battle

ground when he came too covered in mud is priceless.

Liam Neeson decreed his words with the authority of a Jesus/Aslan expositing the truth about the world as his stupid god person saw it.

This film was worn out by the third viewing and the dead spot was drabness. It's all textbook, even the cinematic language deployed by Peter Menzies, Jr., the Director of Photography. The special effects were a knock out but they were so good that I stopped noticing them and the performances got to carry their true weight, light.

But most importantly the fights were excellent. Scorpions go stab, stab, toss and someone's dead! Only the Kraken was slowed down by its enormity.

What is right? It doesn't matter. Sometimes our choices kill others but we can only survive and strive to the best of our ability for the greater good. We're all headed for the Underworld anyway. Life just doesn't seem fair.

The 3D print is awesome and holds up a lot better than the "AVATAR" print.

It was perfect CGI and Mads Mikkelson was very fetching. 8/10

Copyrighted, Jayne Waterford, 19 April 2010