By Sam Christopher
Rating: 4 out of 5 Stars
I’ll be the first to admit I’m a sucker for a good adventure story. Anything where a single person or group of people is battling against near-impossible odds and I’m pretty much there. Oh, sure, there are times where I’ll blow off one of these stories—like with Day After Tomorrow—or end up hating the picture—like with Avatar—but that’s usually just because I think the stories will be overpowered by the F/X—like with Day After Tomorrow—or I just think I’ve seen the story a thousand times—like with Avatar. But those are exceptions to the rule. And throw in Greek gods? FUHGEDDABOUTIT!
So… even though this is a remake, and even though they’ve replaced the incomparable work of the great Ray Harryhausen with CGI, and even though the 3-D we have now doesn’t look to me to be much different than what we had in the ‘70s (which wasn’t that different to me than what they had in the ‘50s), and even though they’ve also replaced Harry Hamlin’s magnificent hair for Sam Worthington’s close-cropped coif, despite all of these things and a couple more minor gripes here and there this is an excellent film that in some ways manages to surpass the original. First, speaking of effects, I really liked Medusa better here than in the original but that’s really it—I liked what Harryhausen did better than almost everything they did here, dated though it may be. I don’t have a problem with the changes they made in the F/X department but there’s just something about that old style that appeals to me. Your mileage may vary, and I’m sure the younger viewer will in general prefer the newfangled wizardry but that’s just not where I am. But I don’t hate it. And I do believe that Liam Neeson’s Zeus is better than Sir Laurence Olivier’s, though not by much, while Ray Fiennes’ Hades is a fine replacement for all the goddesses and gods from the original, since his part basically replaces all of them.
About the story: In this version, Perseus is found and raised by an old fisherman and his family, growing up to blame the gods for most of men’s troubles—and let’s face it, the Greek gods were always a meddlesome bunch even in the best of lights—and even upon finding out his divine heritage decides he’d rather rise and fall as a man than as a god. (Which leads us to what could be an interesting sequel I thought about during the film I’ll mention in a paragraph or two.) He eschews every gift Zeus offers him. Well, almost every gift; Perseus does eventually prove himself a typical Americanized teen by accepting money from the father he hates and wants nothing to do with. If you saw the original—and if you haven’t you should RUN not walk someplace to find it and watch it—then you already know the big stuff that happens here, the differences in the two films lays mostly in details and character motivations. As stated above, I have some quibbles here and there with the story, mostly just little logic problems that don’t really amount to much, but this is overall an excellent study in characters that never forgets the story it’s supposed to portray while at the same time adding a little texture to an old legend.
Now for my sequel idea—and there is a bit of a spoiler in this so I give you fair warning now that you might want to stop reading here. Perseus largely denies his demigod heritage, preferring to live as a man rather than take what Zeus refers to as his “rightful place with the other gods” on Olympus. Heracles, another son of Zeus who you may know better as Hercules, had this same choice to make and went with the latter option. A sequel to this film might be a battle between these two for the minds and hearts of all men. Or I could renew my call for filming a story based on Cygnus X-1/Hemispheres, a pair of old songs by Rush also based somewhat on Greek gods and their meddling in Man’s affairs. Just a thought.
Buy the Original Movie on DVD from Amazon.com:
