Within the early 2000s, Hollywood was at a crossroads: Iron Man made almost $600 million, however 300 made nearly $500 million just a few years earlier. Was the way forward for motion motion pictures in comedian books or in vaguely historic fantasy? Much more complicated was the success of James Cameron’s Avatarwhich made infinite cash and simply needed to be the beginning of a really thrilling profession for star Sam Worthington. Sadly for director Louis Leterrierhis remake of Conflict of the Titans managed to guess on nearly each fallacious horse, regardless of being a reasonably enjoyable film in its personal proper.
2010’s Conflict of the Titans truly outgrossed 300 worldwideregardless of holding simply 27 p.c on Rotten Tomatoesand it spawned a sequel in 2012 referred to as Wrath of the Titans. Regardless of that, each motion pictures really feel primarily forgotten immediately, with not one of the cultural sway of Avatar, Iron Man, or 300. (Individuals a minimum of nonetheless bear in mind the well-known quotes from 300however when was the final time somebody mentioned the well-known quote from Conflict of the Titans?)
What Occurs in ‘Conflict of the Titans’?
A remake of the 1981 film of the identical identify starring Harry Hamlin and with iconic Ray Harryhausen particular results (love these skeletons), Conflict of the Titans is a unfastened adaptation of the Greek mythological story of Perseus. Sam Worthington performs Perseus, who’s the son of Zeus, as he will get caught in the course of a struggle between the gods and the people. Now, earlier than we get to the remainder of the solid, simply take into account that that is all true: Liam Neeson performs Zeus, Ralph Fiennes performs Hades, Gemma Arterton performs Perseus’ information Io, Luke Evans performs Apollo, Danny Huston briefly exhibits up as Poseidon, and Mads Mikkelsen, Liam Cunningham, Nicholas Houltand Rory McCann play a number of the troopers accompanying Perseus.
Hades is mad at Zeus for tricking him into ruling the crummy underworld, Zeus is mad on the people for shedding their religion within the gods (and since a human killed his lover and kidnapped his son), and the people are mad at all people as a result of being a human is tough. All people begins preventing all people, and the one hope is Perseus, who can bridge the hole between the gods and the people by exposing that Hades is the true dangerous man. Sadly, alongside the way in which, Zeus deploys his final weapon: A monster generally known as the Kraken. Naturally, he releases the Kraken by shouting, “Launch the Kraken” — a scene that consistently appeared within the movie’s advertising however is definitely slightly extra understated than you may bear in mind.
Why is ‘Conflict of the Titans’ Underrated?
Picture through Warner Bros. Photos
It’s much less of a intelligent alternative than it was the one potential alternative, however Conflict of the Titans properly performs just about the whole lot completely straight. It’s all high-stakes melodrama and large, flashy performances, as a result of that’s what matches the fabric, so if everybody was additionally winking at it or making little Marvel-y jokes on prime of it, the complete factor would deflate and there’d be no weight to any of it. By performing prefer it’s all actually vital, the film doesn’t turn out to be goodhowever it does turn out to be enjoyable.
A lot of the performances observe this, and the costume design for the gods is fairly cool. They’re all carrying fully over-the-top armor units like they’re max-level characters in a online game (or like they’re pulled straight out of Saint Seiya). It’s not a secret nice film, however it’s the form of film you can give your self over to — now that it’s free from the context it got here out in — and simply get pleasure from. Even the sequel, which tried to increase on what was good concerning the first one since there was no traditional Conflict of the Titans sequel to repeat, is identical form of entertaining nonsense. Sadly, by that point, Hollywood had realized that no person needed Greek mythology epics and Sam Worthington. They needed superhero epics and actually anybody however Sam Worthington.