cash of the titans triler

Cash of the titans

The first Clash of the Titans is an example of a movie you liked as a child, but when revisited as an adult it's just not as good as you remembered. Indeed, it's quite hokey and boring, and the special effects -- as dated as they were even when it came out -- are very the biggest reason why it's still talked about. But for many people of a definite age, myself included, the first Clash was often one's first exposure to Greek mythology, and at least in this reviewer's case it helped trigger a lifelong interest in the subject. That said, the acting in the film was pretty bad, with Harry Hamlin as a rather drab and passive Perseus who just has things happen to  him. While Worthington's Perseus might not have a terribly complicated or first arc, at least he actually drives the narrative forward, makes his own decisions, and has objectives he wants to achieve rather than just reacting to the actions of others.

Worthington's Perseus is alike a cross between Russell Crowe's Maximus and Jason Statham; he's an intense, scowling loner who speaks in a low and gravelly voice, kicks plenty of ass, and is rather wanting in the humor department. I wouldn't go so far as to say he was wooden -- when compared to Hamlin's bland version, this Perseus at least has a pulse. Gemma Arterton as Io seemingly serves only two purposes: to arouse men and to provide Perseus with completely the necessary back-story. She succeeds on both counts. She's basically a sexpot version of Basil Exposition, but she handles her thankless role with aplomb.

Liam Neeson brings his requisite gravitas to the role of Zeus, although it'd be pretty tough not to dominate the screen when you're as tall as he is and dressed in Excalibur-esque shining armor. He ably conveys the conflicted nature of the king of the gods, who is torn between anger and eternal love for his creations. Ralph Fiennes as Hades is sort of Voldemort Lite, but he must have enjoyed the taste of that Olympian scenery since he sure chews enough of it. Danny Huston has a blink-and you'll-miss him cameo as Poseidon; why even cast an actor of his talent if you're not going to use him? (I suspect his scenes will end up on the DVD.) Ditto Elizabeth McGovern as Perseus' stepmother and, to a lesser degree, Rome's Polly Walker as the queen of Argos, who very should have known better than to trash talk the gods.

As the aging warrior Draco, Mads Mikkelsen plays the kind of world-weary mentor usually associated with Neeson. He's fine, but it's often difficult to understand many of his dialogue due to his marble mouth delivery. Pete Postlethwaite makes the most of his brief turn as Perseus' stepfather Spyros, a kindhearted but beleaguered fisherman who is tired of the gods testing him. Postlethwaite could class up and bring warmth to any bit part, and that's certainly the case here. Davalos is underutilized as Andromeda; she's not quite a cliche damsel-in-distress, but she's not developed enough as a character to truly care if she's sacrificed to the Kraken or not. At least she doesn't embarrass herself when she's tied up as bait; a lesser actress could have been grating during completely that, but Davalos underplays it just enough.

While the remake's special effects might lack the old school appeal of the original's Ray Harryhausen stop-motion creatures, they are inarguably superior in quality, with many -- e.g. Pegasus and the Kraken -- achieving moving levels of photo-realism. But whether modern filmgoers -- who are treated to CG spectacles on an almost weekly basis now -- will even vividly remember these beasts a week after watching the movie remains to be seen. At the very least, you'll believe a horse can fly. Personally, I preferred the old Calibos and Medusa, as cheesy as they were; these early incarnations are generic and polished-looking. Overall, the special effects are cool, but in this technologically advanced age is there very any reason why they wouldn't be?

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Iron Man 2 Trailer 2

Iron Man 2

Starring: Robert Downey Jr., Mickey Rourke, Gwyneth Paltrow, Scarlett Johansson, Samuel L. Jackson, Sam Rockwell, Don Cheadle, Clark Gregg

Directed by Jon Favreau

In its best moments, and pretty much all of them were best moments, the first Iron Man felt like a direct extension of its main character, snazzy and charming and way smarter than it lets on. It's probably a bad sign, then, that Iron Man 2 opens not with the dashing and magnetic Tony Stark, but with blue-filtered cinematography and a crashing, Dark Knight-reminiscent score as we visit Ivan Vanko (Mickey Rourke), the Russian crazyperson who may as well have the word "VILLAIN" strewn in among his numerous tattoos.

Ivan's introduction only takes up the opening credits, and it's barely any time at all before we're tossed into the tawdry excess of the Stark Expo, but the precedent has been set-- Iron Man 2 is constantly, nearly unintentionally, moving away from its central character, and it suffers for it throughout. Tony Stark spends most of the movie in a slump, poisoned from the inside by the core reactor that's keeping him alive and dealing, maybe a less belatedly, with some daddy issues. Everyone around him, from rival industrialist Justin Hammer (Sam Rockwell) to newly appointed Stark Industries CEO Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow), is keeping busy, but Tony, who seemed to develop a conscience at the end of the first film, is right back to the same old motivation of booze and women. Robert Downey Jr., marvel that he is, manages to make even Tony's stupidest, most selfish antics endearing, but it's nearly as if he realized his character-- the title character!-- had been written as a passive bystander, and he had to work double time to make up for it.

That's all fine in the film's first 45 minutes, which introduce Vanko's evil revenge plan, show off Tony's boundless charm at a tense Senate committee hearing, and lead into the film's first, and probably best, action sequence, when Whiplash interrupts a Monte Carlo car race to attack Tony with beautifully realized electrical whips. Preceded by a long and elegant party scene that sets up the film's numerous rivalries and capped by a comic getaway for Pepper Potts and right-hand man Happy (Favreau himself), the Monte Carlo sequence is everything Iron Man does best: fluid storytelling, over-the-top enjoyable action, inventive gadgets, and humor thrown it at precisely the right moments. Unfortunately it's another solid forty five minutes before we reach the next action scene, and it's a colossal misstep that throws the entire film off its game. Tony's military pal Rhodey (Don Cheadle now, Terrence Howard last time) is fed up with his friend's drunken antics and shows up at Tony's birthday party to reclaim the suit, but Tony is busy DJ-ing in his suit and doing party trick. I won't spoil the details, but you probably already cognize that War Machine makes an appearance in this film, and well...you see where this is going.

From there Tony is occupied by a Da Vinci Code-esque hunt through his father's old documents, which leads pretty much nowhere, while Hammer and Vanko team up, Rhodey questions his allegiance to his friend, and Tony's comely early assistant Natasha (Scarlett Johansson) is revealed to have another employer-- let's just say, Marvel fans, that he wears an eyepatch. It's a lot to keep track of, but Iron Man 2, despite its failings, avoids the villain overload that has felled any number of superhero sequels, and all the pieces are set nicely into place for the final showdown. The problem with all of it, though, is that it just doesn't very matter. Ivan Vanko seems set on nothing but avenging the death of his father that he believes Howard Stark caused, and Hammer, annoying as he is, isn't a villain-- he's just Tony's business competition. The first film found Tony Stark getting over his petty business concerns and learning to fight for the greater good, but Iron Man 2 puts us exactly where we started, getting worked up about things like intellectual property theft and who slept with that cute Vanity Fair reporter first. It's fun and glamorous and all, but we've generally come to expect more from our superheroes.

Iron Man 2 was very publicly made in a rush, and it shows-- the script suffers from long stretches of nothing but dialogue scenes, and character arcs that should have connected the whole film show up crammed into scenes, just to make sure they fit into whatever happens in the sequel. That's never more apparent than all the scenes involving Samuel L. Jackson's Nick Fury and S.H.I.E.L.D.; the entire agency was introduced only after the credits of the first film, but going into this one we're expected to understand the purpose of S.H.I.E.L.D., where Iron Man might fit into the Avengers, and even why a maverick like Tony Stark would want to be in that superhero club. Jackson's mighty over-acting and Clark Gregg's smarmy Agent Coulson give these S.H.I.E.L.D. scenes a less zip, but they're effectively just another distracting subplot in a film that could have stood to drop a few.

Tony Stark is practically alone among modern movie superheroes in that he suffers very less self doubt, charging ahead with his plans, damn the torpedoes and that sensible Pepper Potts. If only we could say the same of the sequel that surrounds him, a movie that is so good when it pulls itself together, but is frequently disorganized or uncertain to soar to the same heights as the first film. There's plenty in to enjoy, and overall Iron Man 2 give s more entertainment, guilt-free, than anything you're probably to see this summer. But based on the first film and numerous sections of this one, we had think to expect even more.

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