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69%
Overall Rating
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Ranked #2,501
...out of 20,698 movies
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Sent with his mother to their deaths at the wild open sea by King Acrisius of Argos, the newborn Perseus, son of the King of the Gods, Zeus, escapes his cruel fate and grows up to a man with a mission in life. Without delay, Perseus has to return to the affluent city of Joppa, where the daughter of Queen Cassiopeia, the beautiful Princess Andromeda, is to marry the hideously grotesque monster, Calibos, the mortal son of Thetis, the sea goddess. However, in his quest to rescue the cursed Andromeda, Perseus will soon find himself up against formidable adversaries, only the gifts from the Gods themselves could give him a fighting chance. Will heroic Perseus fulfil his destiny?
--IMDb
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Review by Tristan
Added: June 28, 2007
To preface this, I'm just going to say that I hate CGI, and despise the lack of creativity and commitment a filmmaker has now, when they can leave everything up to a geek in a chair. I am a huge fan of Ray Harryhausen, and what he has done for special effects. Even watching this at the young ol' age of about 5 or 6, I knew it was something special and groundbreaking. Now, seeing it 15 years later, the magic is still there, and I have an even greater appreciation for what Mr. Harryhausen has accomplished.
Our feature film begins when King Acrisius of Argos(Donald Houston) seals his daughter Danae (Vida Tayler) and her young son Perseus in a coffin and banishes them to the sea, much to the anger of Zeus (Laurence Olivier) , who is the father of young Perseus. In retaliation, Zeus commands that Poseidon (Jack Gwillim) release a hideous sea monster, known as Kraken to destroy the city of Argos, and everyone residing there. Poseidon is also given orders to see that Perseus and Danae arrive safely at a remote location. Roughly twenty years later Perseus (Harry Hamlin) has grown up into a dashing and handsome young man. Meanwhile Calibos (Neil McCarthy), who has hunted and killed all but one of Zeus' winged stallions, is being punished for his crimes, and is turned into a deformed monster, much to the dismay of his mother Thetis (Maggie Smith). Calibos is banished to a swamp on the outskirts of Joppur, home to the beautiful princess Andromeda (Judi Bowker). Enraged, Thetis extracts her revenge by transporting Persues to Joppur where he falls in love with the princess, and meets Ammon (Burgess Meredith) a playwright and poet. Ammon acts as a father figure to Perseus, by providing him with advice and mild to moderate comic relief.
After battling Calibos in his swamp, Perseus returns to Joppur to win Andromeda's hand in marriage. Thetis steps in to honour her son, and tells the Queen of Joppur (Sian Philips) that in a month's time, unless Andromeda is chained to a stone and offered as a sacrifice to the Kraken, still a virgin I might add, that the beast will destroy the city. Perseus then sets of on a quest to find out how to defeat the Kraken, and meets some interesting characters and monsters along the way.
This movie is a delightfully entertaining telling of some of the most popular Greeky myths, all combined into one epic story. Even with a limited budget, Davis is able to recreate these stories in some amazing locations. The story moves from swamps to mountains, temples, ancient cities, and culminates in an infamous seaside battle. One of the most memorable scenes is Perseus' battle with Medusa inside her lair. This scene provided an amazing amount of tension, considering it was all stop motion animation, and the snake-haired monster looked amazing.
All compliments aside, I have only two beefs with this movie. One is the atrocious acting job done my Laurence Olivier. Zeus is supposed to be all wise, all knowing, and a feared King of the Gods. In this, he came off as a slightly sarcastic, every day schmuck. I didn't feel he played the part well, as he was not intimidating, but wandered around as though he seemed almost bored. And two, I would love to know who's idea it was to include an R2 D2 owl. I can tolerate a little cheesiness in a movie like this, especially since it is somewhat dated. But an armoured, beeping, clicking owl with Christmas lights for eyes just completely ruined it for me. I know this movie was made shortly after the success of Star Wars, but this is an adventure fantasy movie, with swords and princesses and monsters. We don't need a comic relief owl.
Sadly, films like this just aren't made anymore. They died out shortly after this one, and only remain in the hearts of true movie buffs. People who have seen this movie are few, and even fewer are the people who can still enjoy it. Like I mentioned earlier, this was something I saw as a young child, along with several other Harryhausen films, and they are probably a big part of the reason I enjoy films as much as I do. Knowing that someone took the time to make a film like this, for nothing more than the enjoyment of others, no matter what age, just reinforces the fact that there is such a thing as movie magic. And I do know that if I ever have a kid, this will be in the pile of must-sees for the little devil.
10/10
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#1:
bluemeanie
- added June 28, 2007 at 10:21am
Classic, all the way around. Ray Harryhausen was
a genius and "Clash of the Titans" rocks for
1,000,000 different reasons. 10/10.
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#2:
Optimus Prime
- added June 28, 2007 at 2:46pm
One of the most entertaining for about the first 3
times you watch it. 10/10
Nice review
Tristan. Covered it perfectly.
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#3:
Tristan
- added June 28, 2007 at 4:09pm
Thanks cupcake.
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#4:
Chad
- added November 5, 2007 at 9:24am
That owl was annoying as hell, but it's going to
be downright horrible in the remake. Other than
that, loved this one.
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#5:
Lucid Dreams
- added June 5, 2010 at 12:13am
Great movie, even though some of the acting was a
little cheesy I still liked it. 10/10
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#6:
Jack Desmond
- added May 28, 2013 at 3:44pm
As much as I loved Ray's "old fashioned"
effects work here, the film itself was dull as
dishwater; thanks largely to the flat direction of
Desmond Davies (a not very talented TV director)
and similarly dull acting from Harry Hamlin in the
lead performance. Too bad, especially as this was
the master's swan song in film.
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