Angela May 6, 2010 (edited May 6, 2010)
Finally got around to checking out Clash of the Titans the other night. Took in a 2D viewing, in light of all the bad press that the 3D presentation has been receiving. Despite its apparent number of deviations from the original (I've never seen it yet myself), it does appear to follow the basic beats of the Perseus mythology as I remember it. The biggest change seems to be that this is a revenge tale more than a love one, Andromeda playing second fiddle to Perseus' angst and drive at avenging the murder of his family. Interesting enough, the love interest, as subtly layered and non-impacting as it is, went to the goddess Io, a character who apparently wasn't even in the original at all.
People speak highly of Ralph Fiennes and Liam Neeson's performances as Hades and Zeus respectively, but I'll tell you, they really didn't make much of an onscreen impact to me. Sam Worthington is pretty much being Sam Worthington - the same guy you saw in Terminator Salvation and Avatar. Personally, I thought the real star performances belonged to Mads Mikkelsen and Jason Flemyng. (You'll know the former as Casino Royale baddie Le Chiffre and the latter as Button's father in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.) They're both supporting roles, but they turned in excellent work as comrade and villain to Perseus respectively.
Ramin Djawadi's music score is utterly forgettable, miraculously more so than his previous work on Iron Man. Filmtracks wrote its most sardonic review yet, but every word is pretty much dead-on; there's nary a lick of originality or memorable cue in the entire lot. What's it say when the best music associated to the film was the song they used for the trailers, The Used's The Bird and the Worm?
Taken on its own, Titans is a decent popcorn flick - rarely anything more. I'll need to see the original film for comparison's sake, but I went into this remake expecting some kickass confrontations with gods and mythological beasties, and that's what I got. The close-quarters fights with Acrisius/Calibos was particularly noteworthy, as were the Scorpion battle and the Kraken's destruction of Argos.
Oh, and to longhairmike, Bubo does make an appearance, albeit a very brief one. More of a cameo nod to the fans, but you'll be relieved to know that he was not CG-modeled.