Well considering the trend...

.....

The Last Airbender - Clash of the Titans - Alice in Wonderland

If you aint shooting stereo then don't pull convergence in post. 

Crash of the Titans.

Clash of the Titans released here in Singapore on the 1st of April. When I saw the initial trailers I knew it was going to be a visual effects reel of sorts but I had some hope thinking about the original and considering the backdrop of Greek mythology. Well, I hoped for too much. Let me split this into two - Film making Perspective & Technical Perspective.

Film-making Perspective.

The film starts off with a nice pace that lasts for just 20mins, after that you just don't know what hits you. It feels like a bunch of sequences placed next to each other and printed out to film. The story has so much in it that it could have been really epic. I felt nothing for the characters it didn't matter to me if anyone lived or died. The character development was shallow, considering how much of a personality and backdrops Greek Gods have. 

Sam Worthington as Perseus feels like he walked out of the motion capture sets of Avatar and into the sets of Clash of the Titans keeping Terminator Salvation in his mind. Liam Neeson as Zeus was cool but even he cant save the film from an adrenaline junkie. Oh whats with the gods wearing overly polished stainless steel armors that seems be stolen from the  English Crusades? The bling effect from the armor was ridiculous. The introduction of Io, played by Gemma Arterton, as Perseus's guide makes you think that Perseus has a hallucination problem for the first half of the film as she keeps popping in and out. The only character I liked in the film was Ralph Fiennes as Hades, who was my only solace in the film. Hades did come across as someone you don't want to mess with.

The reason for Perseus to go on his quest is to save Andromeda from being sacrificed to the gods and if am not mistaken in the original Perseus is in love with Andromeda which doesn't have an inkling of presence in the film. It seems more like Perseus and Io have something going.

Medusa was another disappointment, I thought she'd be scary and creepy enough to get you to jump off your seat. The scene had a lot potential for something like that, especially knowing that you couldn't look Medusa in the eye or you'd be turned to stone.

A lot of story time is wasted on un-necessary areas just to show off action sequences. I agree that for a film like this you need that amount of action, but what I feel is the battle in the desert with the Scorpions before Perseus & Co. meet the Djinn could have been shorter, and more time given to the fight between Perseus and Hades, which ends in a flash when you'd consider a big bad one there.

Technical Perspective - 

Nothing much to complain here, the film lives up to the expectations in terms of Visual effects, which looks like the sole reason the movie was made. The opening sequence, the prologue takes you through the stars giving you a nice three dimensional look to the constellations and gives you a brief on the Greek myths.The early shots with sea and lighting were nice but nothing to talk about as they seemed quite bright for a stormy setting. Olyumpus for some reason looked like a futuristic city with long spiked architecture it didnt feel like a kingdom in the clouds, but Zeus's throne room looked nice with the floor made of clouds and little mountains give you the sense of the large size the gods were. Like I mentioned earlier, the armor was disappointing. 

Hades was done well, he had a good entry and exit concept, dark smoke\clouds mixed with fire and ash forming his cloak  and the furies that spawned from his clothes were pretty cool, I personally thought it looked better than the Death Eater apparition effect in the Harry Potter films. On the same lines the Kraken was nice, the scale at which he was depicted was done well. The fluid simulation surrounding the Kraken was impressive, which is now a job well done in most films that require large scale water sims. 

The scorpions who attack Perseus and the men of Argos were pretty cool. The action in that sequence was well choreographed  and brilliantly composited. The dust and debris in the shot was fantastic and gave you the feeling that you were in the thick of it all. The Djinn which lived in the desert and controlled the scorpions were also handled well. I thought the blue flames used in the Djinn's black magic to help Perseus was nice but nothing you haven't seen before in Harry Potter.

Medusa, looked plastic. Though the animation was done well, reflecting her weight and numerous snakes on her head, she just didn't come across as a scary person. I wish she was given more love in terms of concept and setting.

Pegasus, Perseus's winged horse was handled well. A good mix between prosthetics and full CGI wings made is very convincing. Even the shots where Pegasus was entirely CGI was done really you just couldnt tell the difference and making a CGI horse isnt easy.

Over all the effects are cool, but if I compare it to similar set films like Pirates of the Carribean (Seas, Storm, Kraken), Lightning Thief (Greek Gods, Underworld) - The effects in Pirates feels more organic and convincing but its definitely better than the Lightning Thief.

Conclusion - 

This movie is hard proof that its Visual Effects thats making ticket sales. Audiences\Directors\Studios are only looking at eye candy and are forgetting the art of story telling. It is disappointing mainly because a film like Clash of the Titans has so much scope to make it look epic. 

Looks like we'll have to depend on the likes of Ridely Scott and Christopher Nolan who know how to maintain the balance. Watch with film with lots of popcorn and truckloads of butter. It'll meant to be that way.