by Chris Bakker, Contributing Writer
Back around the time of the previous Avatar movie, some 14 years ago, Sam Worthington was “that guy” for a little while. The kind of actor who’s suddenly in everything for some reason; a reason not necessarily understood by much of the audience. They were trying to make him “a thing,” you’ll have heard or possibly even thought. Between Avatar, Terminator: Salvation, and yes, Clash of the Titans, he was suddenly the lead in three big blockbusters in the span of a year. He’s been working steadily ever since, but his profile has never been as high as it was in 2009/10, even with his reappearance in Avatar: The Way of Water.
All three of those films have their share of criticism, of course, but Clash of the Titans — with a 27% critics rating on Rotten Tomatoes, a 2.4 average on Letterboxd, and a 5.8 on the IMDb — sits squarely at the bottom of his breakout totem pole. Yet, to my mind, Clash of the Titans is easily the most enjoyable film out of the three, and its sequel, Wrath of the Titans, easily his most well-known movie in between the two Avatar films, is a perfect companion piece to the ride.
Key to my enjoyment of these movies is their cast. While Worthington did come out of seemingly nowhere to lead these franchises, the Titans movies surround him with both veteran actors like Liam Neeson, Ralph Fiennes, Bill Nighy, Danny Houston, and Pete Postlethwaite, as well as supporting actors that are now stars in their own right, like Mads Mikkelsen, Nicholas Hoult, Rosamund Pike, Gemma Arterton, Toby Kebbell, Kaya Scodelario and Lily James. While Worthinton’s acting abilities have been much discussed (though perhaps not as much as his haircut in the first film), much of the rest of the cast knows exactly what these movies are about. Fiennes’ performance as Hades is deliciously slimy, and while the dialogue is nothing special and even cheesy at times, the way the actors know to lean into that style in a plot that basically goes a mile a minute into the next set piece does these movies a lot of favors.
It can be said that the set pieces take over from any acting that’s required, and there’s certainly a kernel of truth to that. However, when you have these actors to lend some weight to what plotting and character development there still exists between the mythological spectacle, it does become more than a simple set of rails between action sequences.
Of course, at the center of these movies is still the way it translates myth to a modern action film: large set pieces featuring gigantic scorpions in the desert, the famous story of Perseus slaying Medusa, large battles against demonic creepy crawlies. It’s a classic frying-pan-to-fire romp. Both movies come in under two hours, and while the mythology nerd inside me really wants more music steeped in ancient myth that take their time to tell an epic tale, the movie fan in me really appreciates the fact that these movies simply use those supernatural tales to blow them up onto the big screen with as much spectacle as they can manage. The idea of Perseus staring down Kronos himself in the sequel, armed with an ultimate magical weapon, is exactly the kind of thing that appeals to my love of heroic fantasy. It’s one of those things I developed an affinity for as a teenager that’s firmly cemented itself in my personality. Movies like the Titans movies aren’t the reason I play Dungeons & Dragons — that credit, of course, goes to The Lord of the Rings — but they are the kinds of movies that put the kind of spectacle we imagine at the table on the big screen.
With that being said, there are some choices in the design of these movies that I really enjoy: the stone-like look of the Djinn is really interesting to look at on one side, and the exceptionally gaudy lighting on Olympus with the armor of the gods literally gleaming at every edge on the other. There’s a balance in the production design where it seems very deliberate which elements were heightened for effect, and it lends a lot of character to the look of these films, even though they lean into that cheesy and campy style.
As film fans, our expectations naturally evolve with the cinematic landscape, and sometimes I wonder if we don’t lose things along the way of that evolution that should’ve been held onto. The 2010 version of Clash of the Titans certainly isn’t worse than movies from the ‘60s, ‘70s, or indeed the ‘80s with the 1981 Clash; it’s just evolved along with modern sensibilities, in a way that still holds to the cheese and camp of the original. We can complain all we like about Worthington’s hair and shaky dialogue, but to my mind, these are exactly the sorts of movies that should hold on to somewhat shaky filmmaking.
We should get more grand epics; spacious, three or four-hour films that actually tell three or four hours worth of story and take it as seriously as they can be taken. However, that’s not where movies are these days if there’s not a guarantee of massive box office. In that space, we get tight but somewhat silly two-hour action movies, and if we can get a few like these where that action is based in myth, and at least attempts to speak to a little bit more than a simple good versus evil, I’ve found I’m easy to satisfy.
You can read more from Chris Bakker, or follow him on Letterboxd