Clash of the Titans

When I was a kid, in grade school, I didn't know from science fiction and fantasy, but I knew what I liked. Mythology, that's what, and I read every book of myths that the school library had. We had some kind of book at home that had some of the same stories, and I read them over and over. I loved that stuff.

In 1981, I saw the Ray Harryhausen Clash of the Titans the night it opened. It was a mythological mish-mash, but I didn't care. I didn't love the movie, but I liked it. I thought maybe I'd like the remake, too, even though everybody else seems to have pretty much hated it. So I watched it.

Sure enough, I had a good time. It's even more of a mish-mash than the Harryhausen movie, and the CGI effects aren't an improvement over stop-motion in my book. The characters lack any depth or development at all, which is okay, since they're all stereotypes; we know them so well already that we don't need more. Which is also true of the story. It's a routine quest, pretty much by the numbers. Some of the action scenes weren't bad, but some were so herky-jerky that I had trouble following them. I liked the look of some of the vistas, and since I saw this in 2-D, the look and color of the whole movie were good.

What the heck, I'm easy to please. I don't necessarily recommend it. All I can say is that I had fun.