The Movie Diary

We saw Clash of the Titans last week, and it looks like there won’t be much happening at the theaters of note for the next couple of weeks. So… I felt no hurry to post this, but here’s the deal:

Clash of the Titans is a remake of a 1981 film starring Harry Hamlin. Pretty face, not really demi-god material, but the film is a good mythical story well told. The special effects then were great, but well, let’s face it… we’ve come a long way baby. Watching the old version certainly seems dated in comparison, but some things just didn’t work as well in the new film as they did in the old.

Calibos, for example, was a much better bad guy in the old fim. He looked like a demon, and had a larger part in the film. This time, he was ugly, but definitely not demonic. Just never get near him when he decides to bleed. Bad idea.

What I really didn’t like was their over-use of the Lady Gaga no-eyes look for the Stygian Witches and the Kraken.  It might have worked on one or the other, but twice? Shoulda come up with something different there, guys.

Overall, the film was pretty good. Not great, though the effects were interesting.  But let’s say they had only a technical edge on Ray Harryhausen, who gave us all the cool stuff in Jason and the Argonauts, The 7th Voyage of Sinbad, and Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger, and NOT a creative one.  Those old films certainly had no Academy-Award winning performances, but the effects certainly were award-winning.

Tthe story in the new film is different from that of the old, too. I won’t tell you how; you’ll just have to see for yourself, and it IS worth seeing. I mean, you have to see a film list this on the big screen to appreciate it. Unless of course, you have a huge screen TV, which many of us do not. Me, included. I love film, and seeing it the right way is half the fun.