By Sean Harris ’11
THE ROUNDUP

Greek mythos has always taken a place in pop culture, whether it is with video games like the “God of War” series or movies such as the recently released “Clash of the Titans.”

There is a good reason for this; Greek mythology is incredibly interesting. Its stories often intertwine gods and humans, and have the moody gods dangle their human puppets to provide for their every whim.

“Titans” is a remake of the original 1981 film, which is mostly known for the Ray Harryhausen special effects that look very cheap by today’s standards.

Based on the trailer, “Titans” looked anything but cheap; it seemed like a fun, big-budget action-adventure.

Upon actually seeing the film, I was reminded once again that trailers lie. “Titans” seems more like a cruel trick from the gods.

The hero of the story is Perseus (Sam Worthington), a demi-god and the son of Zeus (Liam Neeson), who is raised as a fisherman by his loving adoptive father (Pete Postlethwaite).

Perseus is called to save the city of Argos after the gods decide that humans have become disloyal and decide to unleash the Kraken, a beast created by Hades (Ralph Fiennes) many years ago to destroy the Titans.

The journey will take Perseus to the underworld where he must decapitate Medusa (Natalia Vodianova) which is the only weapon that can be used against the Kraken.

The movie is a mess, a giant action film that is devoid of interesting characters and a coherent story. Never truly understanding the motivations or conflict of the characters, they are worthless, only serving as bodies to fall before the special effects.

Even the main characters suffer from this. The only one who puts any effort into it is Neeson, and he cannot save the movie alone.

Worthington and Fiennes stand out mostly because they are so mediocre and boring; these actors have proven that they can do better. Although not all of the blame goes to them; they are not given a lot to work with.

The story is filled with plot holes and not enough explanation in some scenes. Characters like Hades, Zeus and Perseus drop their motivations when the plot requires them to.

The only good thing about the movie is the special effects, or rather a special effect; the Kraken, who looks amazing. But all he does is stand around until the big exit.

All the other special effects are rather sub-par, and if the film was trying to get off on special effects and action, it fails miserably. Even the actions scenes are hard to make out, especially since you never truly know the characters.

It is action movies like these that give Hollywood a bad rap; big-budgeted and heartless, this is one “Clash” that needs to be avoided.

1 out of 5 horseshoes