Never mind that Clash of the Titans play fast and loose with the mythological story of Perseus. Never mind that Medusa wasn't a Titan. Never mind that the Kraken is from Scandinavian mythology, and that casting Lawrence Olivier as Zeus in the 1981 version was sort of typecasting.

The new Clash of the Titans is a darker, grittier more realistic Bronze age world than the 1981 version, but the story hasn`t changed all that much. The citizens of Argos have become disenchanted with the rule of the Gods. The Gods have caused too much chaos and ruin to their lives so they've decided to take their destinies into their own hands, and destroy the temples and statues of the Gods. In doing so, Perseus'(Sam Worthington) family is killed by a falling statue of Zeus. When Zeus (Liam Neeson) learns of the desecration urged on by Hades (Ralph Fiennes), he decides to destroy the city in four days or they can offer the sacrifice of the King of Argos' daughter Andromeda (Alexa Davalos). In a visit to the throne room of Argos, Hades lets it slip that Perseus is a son of Zeus, a demi-god. Being told of his near divinity, Perseus and a group of soldiers go off on their quest to save the city.

The special effects are great! The monsters look real and the characters realistically interact with them. In 3D the water roiling off the undulating tentacles of the Kraken must look really cool! The problem is they shortchanged the story in favor of the special effects. The story only follows the barest of outlines of the myth. Same with the 1981 version, although it's a little more faithful to the myth. The most glaring lapse is there really isn't any reason for Perseus to save Argos. In the myth his reason to save the city is for the love of Andromeda. In this version he's a stranger to Argos and doesn't fall in love with Andromeda. She's barely a consideration until she's needed to be sacrificed to the Kraken. The only reason he seems to take up the quest is because he's the nearest handy demi-god that can help out. Worthington's Perseus doesn't seem very heroic, there doesn't seem to be any emotional investment in Perseus in either the quest or the surrounding characters. Most of the time he has a stoically sullen, put upon attitude, and this keeps the audience at arms length from the character. He doesn`t seem to embrace the heroic at all. Yes, he kills the monsters, but the tasks he must accomplish like tricking the Stygian witches and figuring out how to survive the encounter with Medusa, he seems to accomplish almost by accident. It seems that Perseus isn't meant to be heroic. he repeatedly says he wants "to do this (the quest) as man, not a God," and he keeps refusing the gifts of the Gods. The message in the myth is for mortals to find the divine, to find the god, the hero within themselves, Perseus' refusal of the gifts of the Gods, is the refusal to find the hero within himself.

The 1981 version, although a bit campy in it's delivery tells the hero's story better. The 2010 version delivers better on the special effects. If such a thing were possible as to merge the strengths of both, you would have a better movie.

DVD Bonus Features: The only bonus features offered with the DVD are deleted scenes.

I bought this movie when we bought our 3D tv last year. Honestly, it wouldn't have been my first choice of 3D movies, but when we bought it, there were only a handful of movies available in 3D, which were mostly documentaries, and of course we had to buy a few movies to properly try out our new toy. So mostly due to lack of other options, we purchased this one.

I am very pleased to say that what I expected to be a movie filled with too much action (I expected mostly fighting and effects with no real plot) was actually fantastic! It's now one of my favorites, especially as I now have it synced onto my iPod and iPad (thank you digital copy!), so I can watch it any time or place I'd like.

The 3D is incredible! The picture and sound are very realistic (on every version of the movie, even DVD). I was very impressed.
However, if you are expecting an "old time" movie theatre 3D, you will not find that here. The 3D in this movie is not where the images jump off the screen and into your face to scare you (which is probably good, because it would definitely distract from the rest of the movie). You will not be waiting for something to reach out and grab you, so if that's what you're looking for, you'd be better finding a movie like Despicable Me. Instead, the 3D is used to improve the quality of the visuals, making you feel as though you are in the room with the characters. It is very realistic. That way, you become even more engaged with the plot.

Definitely NOT a disappointment

I'm usually fairly easy going when it comes to popcorn flicks that serve no real purpose except to exist as breezy, silly fun. I love The Mummy and The Mask of Zorro, Pirates of the Caribbean and Sherlock Holmes, particularly since you can tell the writers, cast and crew have embraced the idea of making a film that has sheer entertainment as its fundamental goal. These types of movies have been around for a long time, not excepting the original Clash of the Titans film. Sometimes you're just in the mood to sit back, turn off your brain, and enjoy the action that unfolds in front of you.

But then there are movies that require an extra amount of brain-power just to understand the convoluted events of the plot, and which leave you feeling frustrated and drained at how little sense it makes. Thus we have the remake of "Clash of the Titans", which is really an excuse for one hundred and six minutes of CGI monsters, with a vague plot, non-existent characterization, and semi-passable fight scenes on the side. Of course, this all may still float your boat, but if you prefer to have some *semblance* of coherence in your popcorn flicks then either stick with the campy fun of the original, or skip it altogether.

As an infant Perseus is found by a fisherman floating in a sea-chest alongside his dead mother, and grows up without any knowledge of his origins: that he's actually the son of the god Zeus. Now an adult, Perseus is witness to the death of his foster father, mother and little sister when a group of soldiers from Argos destroy a statue of Zeus and pay the hefty consequences of hubris. For reasons best known to themselves, human beings have decided that ticking off deities is a really good idea, and the Olympian gods respond with releasing an onslaught of monsters in order to increase the prayers that they need to retain their immortality. Why not just call a summit meeting?

Due to this nonsensical state of affairs, Perseus and a group of interchangeable soldiers who exist only as cannon fodder head out on a mission to kill some monsters, accumulate some weapons, and walk across impressive panning shots of the countryside, which will somehow help them defeat the kraken that Hades, Lord of the Underworld, has promised to unleash on Argos if they do not sacrifice Princess Andromeda within ten days. Joining them is Io, an immortal hottie burdened with the terrible curse of being young and beautiful forever, a character that in the original Greek mythology was turned into a cow, tortured by a gadfly, and had nothing whatsoever to do with Perseus. I suppose these days a female isn't considered a worthy love interest unless she tags along with the boys on their adventure, but she never does much to help and her inclusion renders Andromeda's role largely pointless.

They also pick up an eastern-style character who is called a Djinn but which looks like Pinocchio's deformed brother, and a couple of guys who I think are meant to be the comic relief, except that they never actually tell any jokes.

Throughout the running time, the movie seems to want to make some sort of point about humanity and the gods, but it keeps changing its mind on what exactly this point is. The population of Argos is arrogant and sinful for rejecting the gods; but then the gods are petty and corrupt in their dealings with humanity. Zeus gives Hades permission to "set an example" for those who oppose them, but then tries to help Perseus in his god-defying quest to prevent Hades from destroying Argos. Draco (one of Perseus's mates) demands in one scene that Perseus accept Zeus as his father in order to spare the lives of his men, and in the next he says: "I'll smile when I spit in the face of the gods." Io solemnly tells the men the tragic tale of Medusa, who was raped by Poseidon and then cruelly cursed by Athena, which is followed by a scene in which Perseus pep-talks his men outside her lair by telling them to: "kill this bitch." Perseus rejects his godly heritage (though he doesn't pass on the flying horse, immortal girlfriend or built-in demigod powers) and declares to anyone who'll listen that mortality is superior to godhood, even though there's not much evidence of that.

Despite all the railing against the gods and the rah-rah cheerleading for Team Humankind, the movie ends with an odd reestablishing of the pecking order, in which Zeus and Perseus are reconciled, Hades is sent back to Hades and Io is magically resurrected because.... hey, why not? There's some sort of message here, in which the writers desperately want to tell us something about the nature of humanity and its relationship to gods, if only they could figure out what that message was.

It's been a while since I've watched the original Clash of the Titans, but there's no doubt that it's a superior film to this, even discounting the nostalgia quotient that leaves me with fond memories of its inherent campiness and stop-motion monsters. Not only does it boast finer actors and a more faithful adaptation of the Perseus legend, but it is also nobler in content and theme. There, Perseus was on a heroic quest to save innocent people and win the love of a princess. Here, he's just after vengeance, a far less worthy goal.

Though this remake will undoubtedly be an instant favorite for any 10 to 12 year old boy, they'd be better off getting a slice of cinematic history by watching the last film that featured Ray Harryhausen's stop-action monsters. Speaking of which, there's a throwaway gag in the remake that will have fans of the original film fuming, in which Perseus picks up a mechanical owl and then dismissively chucks it away again. I think it's meant to be a "tribute" of sorts to Harryhausen's Bubo, but it just comes across as mildly insulting.

All of the actors, from Liam Neeson (who seems to be wearing mirror-plated armor) to Ralph Fiennes (once again portraying the much-maligned Hades as a baddie), and Sam Worthington (why does he have a buzz-cut?) to Gemma Artherton (who is always immaculate no matter how dirty her traveling companions get) are on autopilot. I have no doubt they picked up their checks at the doors and scurried onto their next projects without looking back.

If "Clash of the Titans" is not what I would call a good slice of entertainment, it at least will provide plenty of snarky commentary if watched in a group. Perhaps a drinking game could be designed for whenever the mortals complain about the gods and visa versa - though given the writers' insistence on repeating this plot-point at every available opportunity, your liver may not survive the experience.