I'll be honest. I hate Clash of the Titans. Hate. Pure hatred.
And I'm at the perfect age where I should love it.
So Kasdan writing a remake has me hoping for an improvement on the level of the latest Battlestar Galactica (yup, I hate the original series of that one also).
Oh dear...those are some pretty strong words. I could see indifference, but hate? I'm fairly indifferent to Harry Harryhausen's other work, but this one just knocked it out of the park for me.
Its always been in my top 15 favourite films list, pretty much my whole life. I love the story, the characters, the stuttery stop-motion animation, the visual look, the actors and the acting, the music, the pacing, the natural nudity and somewhat disturbingly real violence for what some consider a "kid's movie" (these are things I even appreciated at an early age).
I do know its a post-modern blender of the Greek myths (with a few Norse elements thrown in for good measure), but however much I'd love to see straight-on adaptations of Greek Myths someday, I certainly don't mind mixing some of the best parts in order to create an otherworldly adventure film that features some occasionally strong character moments.
What reasons do you have for disliking it so much?
I love the idea of the film, especially the cavalier attitude to mashing up all the myths, but the horrid acting, lousy script, limp direction, and unjustified, boring two-hour running time kills it dead.
The concept and Ray Harryhausen effects are the lone graces.
I was the only one of my friends not to love this movie as a youngun, and I've had to sit through it entirely too many times...
Ah, the old getting-stuck watching the same movie all your friends love routine! That was James Cameron's The Abyss (1989) for me.
I guess I always thought of the acting as natural; not theatrical as in the 1950's sword-and-sandals vein, and not super-serious as in the tired habit of realism in the modern dramas. The two heroes have a vulnerability about them that I think fits the story well.
But I certainly understand how subjective films can be. Thankfully I've grown in understanding the past several years. If it were the year 2000, I'd have spent two hours writing a 5,000 word defense of the film, with shot-by-shot analysis. I wish I had all that wasted youth back...
You, Ted, a warm night when no one will miss us all for a few hours.
I would miss Ted for a few hours. But not enough to drive into nowhere with you all to watch a so-so movie on a creepy old bridge (that I hope has been demolished anyway). I'm sure that he'd be up for it, however.
Re: damon typosmonsterofmudApril 17 2007, 13:08:54 UTC
Yeah...For some reason Ted and I have been the only ones really wild about the idea for the past several years, prompted by our love of the film. Every time we've suggested it people kinda kick the ground and look at their feet in indecision. Poor Jessica apparently doesn't know any better by not having seen it before.
>>Clash of the Titans is a far better fantasy film than The Two Towers (2003) or Return of the King (2004).
I'm not sure if I consider Greek Mythology movies Fantasy or not.
Though they have a lot of similarities, I think fantasy and greek mythology deserve their own independent genres. Lord of the Rings or Narnia compared to Troy, The Illiad, Odyssey, Jason and the Argonauts, or even Clash of the Titans is apples to oranges to me.
Yeah, I started thinking about that later in the day. I suppose there's the general fantasy label that blankets everything from Mirrormask to Lord of the Rings to Night Watch to Star Wars. But you can then break those down into smaller subgenres, of which the Western fantasy (LOTR, Ring of the Niebelung, Howard's sword-and-sorcery Conan Tales of the 1920's) is distinct from Greek/Roman myths. So yes, I was over-generalizing.
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And I'm at the perfect age where I should love it.
So Kasdan writing a remake has me hoping for an improvement on the level of the latest Battlestar Galactica (yup, I hate the original series of that one also).
We can still be friends, though, right? :)
Shalom, y'all!
L. Bangs
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Its always been in my top 15 favourite films list, pretty much my whole life. I love the story, the characters, the stuttery stop-motion animation, the visual look, the actors and the acting, the music, the pacing, the natural nudity and somewhat disturbingly real violence for what some consider a "kid's movie" (these are things I even appreciated at an early age).
I do know its a post-modern blender of the Greek myths (with a few Norse elements thrown in for good measure), but however much I'd love to see straight-on adaptations of Greek Myths someday, I certainly don't mind mixing some of the best parts in order to create an otherworldly adventure film that features some occasionally strong character moments.
What reasons do you have for disliking it so much?
Reply
The concept and Ray Harryhausen effects are the lone graces.
I was the only one of my friends not to love this movie as a youngun, and I've had to sit through it entirely too many times...
Shalom, y'all!
L. Bangs
Reply
I guess I always thought of the acting as natural; not theatrical as in the 1950's sword-and-sandals vein, and not super-serious as in the tired habit of realism in the modern dramas. The two heroes have a vulnerability about them that I think fits the story well.
But I certainly understand how subjective films can be. Thankfully I've grown in understanding the past several years. If it were the year 2000, I'd have spent two hours writing a 5,000 word defense of the film, with shot-by-shot analysis. I wish I had all that wasted youth back...
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That's three factors that hang in the balance: You, Ted, a warm night when no one will miss us all for a few hours. Of course, it'd be better if many people particpated; Drive-in screening on Crybaby Bridge©? It could happen...
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I would miss Ted for a few hours. But not enough to drive into nowhere with you all to watch a so-so movie on a creepy old bridge (that I hope has been demolished anyway). I'm sure that he'd be up for it, however.
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I'm not sure if I consider Greek Mythology movies Fantasy or not.
Though they have a lot of similarities, I think fantasy and greek mythology deserve their own independent genres. Lord of the Rings or Narnia compared to Troy, The Illiad, Odyssey, Jason and the Argonauts, or even Clash of the Titans is apples to oranges to me.
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