- I think I’ve complained about this before, but the trouble with these kinds of remakes is that they take themselves too seriously and completely deny the cheese value of the originals. Lighten up, Perseus!
- Speaking of which, I’m beginning to think Sam Worthington doesn’t actually act so much as squint and glare. Valhalla Rising aside, I haven’t seen a movie recently where the lead has fewer lines than everyone else in the movie; all Perseus does is stand around and emote, either with strained facial expressions or with his sword. He looks good doing it, of course, but I’m quite sure that is not the point. I inexplicably love him despite this. Also, men in tunics = A+.
- Why oh why are Liam Neeson and Ralph Fiennes involved in this? Mads Mikkelsen is also too good for this movie but at least he gets to wear armour and kill giant scorpions, letting him maintain the controlled and humourless badassery I associate him with. Neeson and Fiennes do not emerge unscathed, mostly owing to the fact that the Mount Olympus Glow™ that shines off them adds a layer of ridiculousness to every single thing they say or do. Neeson was pretty laughable as Zeus, especially the unfortunate scene where we got to see him naked from behind with wings. Fiennes played Hades like an arthritic Voldemort in a bad Alanis Morissette wig.
- Danny Huston played Poseidon, the third side of the Zeus/Hades/Poseidon power triangle, and I have no idea why because the role nearly non-existent and I think he had as much screen time as the pointless guy who played Apollo. I don’t like Danny Huston so I’m fine with this, but I would have been even more fine if they cast someone else. Like Kurt Russell.
- Pete Postlethwaite will forever be, in my mind, the guy who tried to hunt a T-Rex in Jurassic Park II and thus I take offense to him when he appears on screen. I realise this is ridiculous.
- The action sequences were big and messy and the details of what was happening were definitely lost on several occasions.
- Gemma Arterton sounded like she was going for Cate Blanchett’s narrator voice in LOTR but doesn’t quite have the cadence or tone of voice for it. I was also quite confused as to what the purpose of her cape was, as it didn’t seem to actually provide much in the way of bodily coverage.
- I love how with the king of Argos dead and the queen evidently unfit to rule on account of having a face like the Emperor in Star Wars, Andromeda’s first thought is that Perseus should obviously rule. Um, how about you, Andromeda?
- Didn’t like that Medusa was basically a giant basilisk with a woman’s torso. I especially didn’t love that every last one of Perseus’ crew who weren’t already dead got killed by her. Come on, at least one of these guys should make it out.
- I’m taking all the mythology presented in this movie with a huge grain of salt since from my recollection of Greek mythology, there’s a lot that has been changed or fudged for cinematic appeal. Medusa’s origin story here is that she was a beautiful woman raped by Poseidon, and when she prayed to Athena to give her the strength to get through the assault with a minimal amount of suffering, Athena ignored her and turned her into the multi-snaked, looks-could-kill creature we’re all familiar with so that there would be no way she could tempt another man again. Wow! Victim blaming and slut shaming, ancient Greece style!
But, as I said, the movie seems to be taking liberties with many myths; I object to this particular depiction but can’t say how accurate it is. I couldn’t remember anything about Medusa’s origin story from what I already knew about her — you never seem to learn that part in school — so I spent a couple of minutes looking it up online and there doesn’t seem to be any consensus on the events leading up to her transformation. Sometimes she and Athena had a falling out unrelated to Poseidon and other times she and Poseidon had consensual sex in Athena’s temple (ooh, burn) and Athena got pissed. Or there’s the “he raped her, she got punished” angle from this movie.
As a side note, I now want feminists to reclaim Medusa the way they’ve reclaimed Lilith.
- Also, can I just say that I’m very happy the Kraken was not a Sarlaac-esque vagina monster?
- This is completely unnecessary to see in 3D, of course.
Clash of the Titans
I think I would have been better off watching “Jason and the Argonauts”.
IMDB Plot Synopsis The mortal son of the god Zeus embarks on a perilous journey to stop the underworld and its minions from spreading their evil to Earth as well as the heavens.
There aren’t any concrete myths. The Greeks messed around with them a lot and now so does Hollywood. She’s probably older than Athena, I think. Poseidon is pretty old. She’s also connected with the Great Goddess/Potnia Theron myths (or idea, I guess would be more accurate) which are supposed to be older than the Greek myths, but then the Greeks (and all those before and after) gave her snake hair (or in Hecate and Artemis’s cases made them witches/not cool).
I hope I didn’t sound like a jerk in the previous comment. Reading it back now, it seems jerky and I just wanted to share because I enjoy talking about mythology.
I’ve been reading some other stuff that had Medusa coming from Libyan myths as well, so there’s that too.
Also, no worries.
As a side note, I now want feminists to reclaim Medusa the way they’ve reclaimed Lilith
I love it…