Clash of the Titans

Starring: Laurence Olivier, Claire Bloom, Maggie Smith, Ursula Andress, Harry Hamlin, Burgess Meredith, Judi Bowker
Directed by: Desmond Davis
Rating: PG
Genre: Action, Adventure
1981

Times Seen:
Tim: 1

Summary: Perseus (Harry Hamlin) is the son of Zeus (Laurence Olivier), who must go on a perilous journey to stop the monstrous Kraken from destroying the city of Argos and save the life of the beautiful Princess Andromeda (Judi Bowker).

Review:

Tim: Harry Hamlin? Harry Hamlin? I'll get to him in a minute. Clash of the Titans is an interesting movie. It feels almost like a throwback movie. I was shocked that this movie was released in 1981- it feels like a mid 70's movie. However, it is still a fairly epic, interesting movie about gods and monsters. It is entertaining to watch our hero battle a wide variety of monsters and villains. I wish this was a good movie, but it wasn't a total failure, either. Yes, it is easy to poke holes in this movie, but it does have some substance as well.

I do want to start with the cast. Harry Hamlin as Perseus is one of the worst choices I could possibly imagine. His acting is wooden and oftentimes atrocious. He looks the part, but I wonder why he spent the majority of the movie with his mouth wide open and an incredibly dumb look on his face. Hamlin really hurt the movie because I couldn't really care about the moronic protagonist (and, I know this was part of the script, but was it necessary for Perseus to walk off without his sword, leave his helmet in a swamp, and pretty much have no regard for his mythical possessions?).

I also wanted to comment on Ray Harryhausen's stop-motion animation. While this is a dying art, it was still pretty entertaining to see. The Kraken, Medusa, and all the other mythical beings come to (somewhat) life, and it is fun to watch these creatures, even if they don't look completely believable. The stop-motion animation is fairly impressive. I also have to comment on one of the oddest aspects of the movie, the mechanical owl Bubo. Bubo is certainly one of the most out of place but entertaining parts of the film. Although he is completely ridiculous, I couldn't help but like him.

I really wish I could have enjoyed this movie more. It is fun in a certain manner, but this is not a great movie. Harry Hamlin is terrible as Perseus. The rest of the cast is decent, but besides Burgess Meredith, no one really makes much of an impact. The movie is full of plot holes, and oftentimes is fairly ineffective as a movie. Clash of the Titans does some things right, but more things wrong. This film is decent, but by no means very good.

Rating 1-10
Tim's Rating: 6.5



If You Enjoyed This Movie, We Recommend: Clash of the Titans (2010), Jason and the Argonauts, King Kong