Remaking old movies is pretty much all Hollywood wants to do anymore.
Usually it is stuff that should just be left alone and was fine as it was.
Anymore, if you make something from an original script, you get lots of Oscar attention for it, no matter what.
Clash of the Titans was not on that list of classics that were fine as they stood. A campy, cult classic from my early childhood that had a lot of strengths and even more weaknesses, sure. But it didn't stand terribly tall as it was.
Nearly 30 years later, the special effects are up to where the story they were trying to tell in 1981 really needed them to be.
The new one is a worthy update.
It tells the same story of Perseus battling Medusa and the Kraken that the original told, but with better special effects and lesser acting.
Louis Leterrier helms the new one and treats it with reverence that comes from having been a fan of the original when he was young. The French director has a short but impressive directing resume that consists of three other fun action flicks, two of which were written by the great Luc Besson. The other was the better of the two recent Hulk movies.
Avatar's Sam Worthington is the star of this 3-D spectacle as well. He rocks the same haircut in this one, but doesn't have any blue counterpart this time around.
As Perseus, he has to figure out a way to save Argos from Hades and his mighty Kraken.
The story is classic.
The effects are well done.
The action is constant.
There isn't a whole lot I didn't like about this movie.
Except the woman who plays the legendary beauty Andromeda is actually less attractive than the actress portraying Io, the creepy lady who stalks Perseus his whole life and basically plays Watson and explains the parts that Perseus doesn't have time to figure out himself.
Much like the original, there are few people who will call this great cinema, but most people who watch it will have a good time doing so.
2010's Clash of the Titans gets a B+