Lady Katy
My only initial reason for wanting to see this movie was that I grew up watching the old one. You know, the one with the giant talking Maggie Smith head and the mechanical owl, Bubo. I’ve always had a particular interest in all things mythological, so the 1981 version of this film was a constant in my VHS player.
I was excited when the remake was announced, being as I wanted to know what wonders they could do with effects these days and what actors they would choose. Who would be Perseus? How would the Kraken look? How would the story change? As interested as I was in this, I still couldn’t make myself pay to see it in the theaters. One movie ticket pays for half a month of my online movie subscription so I figured I could wait. I got all my answers recently when the DVD was released. I got it on Blu-Ray of course because c’mon, if you can, might as well watch it in high def!
So to start off with, they chose Sam Worthington to be Perseus. Avatar guy, as I had called him up until this point. This was a change for me; they decided to go more “gladiator” rather than “son of the gods”. I can handle this, maning up Perseus. Andromeda didn’t want Fabio battling the Kraken, I get it. As far as the acting goes, Sam did an okay job…as did everyone else. It was just okay. No one really sucked, but no one blew me away either. Hades was played by Ralph Fiennes and I couldn’t for the life of me get the image of Voldemort out of my head. Especially Hades first scene with Zeus…you could have totally switch out Liam Neeson for Michael Gambon and I would have totally forgotten what movie I was watching.
Despite the okay acting accompanied by the okay special effects; there were a couple little things I did appreciate in this movie. They had a throwback element in one scene…where Perseus is getting ready to embark on his quest to find the witches who will in turn lead him to Medusa (who by the way they failed on, they just put snakes on a pretty CGI face…she’s suppose to be a repulsive monster!). Anyway, in the original, he uses the mechanical owl to show him where the witches are but since in this version we have Io leading the way I think, he doesn’t need it. But, he passes a trunk while collecting his gear and pulls out the beloved (to me) mechanical owl and goes “What’s this?” or something and they tell him to leave it. I thought it was nice to give a shout-out to the original film. The other thing I appreciated was that they didn’t sex it up…the female characters were not Greek strippers and there was not a ridiculously unnecessary sex scene, even when Zeus seduces Danae (who I believe was the daughter and not the wife originally).
Overall, the movie did entertain me even if it was a lot of the time for the mere purpose of me wanting to compare it to the other. They left it very open for a sequel as Perseus does not end up with Andromeda after saving her (whereas in the original he was married to her basically before the whole adventure began) and Io comes back to accompany him on what I assume will be more adventures. Will I watch this sequel if it occurs? Yes, because I’m a sucker for myth movies even if they disappoint me in the end, my curiosity will win over.
Grace Rating: 6/10
Sir Mark
Thanks to Lady Katy for her review.....now its me again, to add my thoughts :)
As this is a film we have both seen you can enjoy our first double review...I can feel the excitement just went up a lot there!
To start off with I must confess I have never seen the original film....something that I will rectify soon as I am convinced from Katy's description that it is worth seeing. I therefore only have my knowledge of parts of the mythology as a background to my viewing of the film. I was very interested in Greek mythology, a well as Norse legends when I was at school so the plot of this film appealed to me...also I was interested in seeing what Sam Worthington got up to after he left Pandora....he was bluer the last time I saw him....
OK well he is as good a place as any to start....he was average. Maybe his acting was no better or worse than in Avatar but I thought he was disappointing in this. I am afraid I thought the same of most of the actors in the film, none of them stood out for me as having given a great performance. Lets face it, this is a story which could have been so much more narrative driven and less giant scorpion based (that scene went on a bit...maybe giant scorpions are cheap to hire for film work). A lot of times a film resorts to massive effects when it has not much in the way of a tale to tell...this is different, there is such a deep well of story here, great characters, exciting adventures, that I felt a bit cheated by the over use of CGI and the lack of character development. It felt a bit like a computer game....jumping from one cut scene to the next with some game play in between.
Its funny what Katy said about Voldermort...I had the exact same thought...throw in a Patronas charm and a few Dementors
So what did I like?
You can tell its not going to be a long paragraph here....I could pad it out a bit....did I ever tell you about the time I wrestled an alligator whilst on a secret undercover mission?...good times....good times..... OK that's padded a bit. I liked the introduction, the animation used to tell the initial background story was slick and creative. I liked the sets and the look of the film...that was one of the most annoying things...the film looked sweet, looked like it should rock the mythological world and for it to be as soulless as it was made it a bit of a let down.
It was not a truly awful film and comes nowhere near the Mark and Katy's Worst of the Year award.... I actually like films that say to you "its OK, leave your mind outside the door, you won't be needing it for this film" and when done well they leave a smile on your face....this one just didn't. The Gods would not be impressed.
Grace rating
By Poseidon' trident...only 4/10
PS Round of applause again for Lady Katy's first review :)
Overall Grace rating: 5/10
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