Clash of the Titans (1981) vs Clash of the Titans (2010)

They’re both terrible, terrible movies.

I was just going to publish the above sentence and be done with it, but I’m still kinda pissed off about it. Who thinks that the timeless Greek epics are not interesting stories, that they “need improving?”

Seriously – reading the Wikipedia article on Perseus is more interesting and engaging than either movie – from there I can read more about the Gorgons, Quoits, and the Aegis.

OK, one does look cooler than the other, but still.

I guess it’s a point – if I had no interest in Greek Mythology, I’d probably be all “dude, that movie was dope!” or “I loved how that mechanical owl saved the day when Perseus was mincing around.”

The real, actual hero of the 1981 film.

I have to say that the 2010 was at least somewhat visually interesting. There were too many times when the cinematography bowed to the 3-D fad, with spinning spears in our faces, ridiculous shot compositions to place emphasis on distance, etc. The 1981 version, by contrast, just looks like a stupid butt.

Stupid Butt-Face Fights Real Hero with More Personality than the Actual People in the Film.

It’s my fault I feel this way, I know… after seeing the new one in theaters, all my friends could ask was “did you see the original?” Thanks to the magic of illegal movie downloading, I saw the original that evening – that’s both Clash of the Titans in one day. Of course I would be tired and bitter the next day.

My real mistake, however, was  watching The Third Man immediately after to try and rid my mind of the bad aftertaste. Its such a good movie it made the others even worse in retrospect, and made me wonder why I ever bother with such crap.

the real Clash of the Titans

… there’s a chance I’ll watch the new one again at some point.

This entry was posted on Monday, April 5th, 2010 at 23:59 and is filed under Blog and tagged with Art, bad, educational, history, review. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.