Clash of the Titans

Directed by Louis Leterrier

(PG-13)

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A 3-D update of the 1980s kitsch classic

Clash of the Titans is a “colossal waste of time,” said Claudia Puig in USA Today. Louis Leterrier’s “boring behemoth” of a movie remakes Desmond Davis’ 1981 sword-and-sandal spectacle for the 3-D era. Loosely based on tales from Greek mythology, the film follows Perseus (Avatar’s Sam Worthington), the mortal son of Zeus (Liam Neeson), on a perilous journey to stop Hades (Ralph Fiennes) from turning Earth into a living hell. The French director’s “most astounding achievement” is having made such timelessly epic material so painstakingly dull. The original was slapped together, but at least it was entertaining, said Manohla Dargis in The New York Times. Leterrier brings nothing new to this fantasy adventure. The characters are “just as predictable” as the action sequences, and the use of 3-D turns the battles into an incomprehensible blur. Even the monsters are “overscaled and underwhelming,” said Stephanie Zacharek in Salon.com. The original, as hokey as it was, gained a sense of enchantment from the handcrafted stop-motion of special-effects wizard Ray Harryhausen. In this remake, all the magic has been lost.