Perseus vs. Percy Jackson

In essence, they should be the same right? No, not really. No.

Besides the same character names, I find nothing else in common, most especially not the genre. Oh dope! Right, both are based from Greek mythology. I should also probably mention that Perseus (Sam Worthington) is way hot and Percy is…a gay name.

Seriously though, both are great movies with a great “monster cast” by which I meant that the effects are beyond this world, except Medusa from Clash of the Titans. I noticed she was a bit rubbery and fake. I wonder why. It’s probably because in the movie she moved too fast and the FX people couldn’t catch her to put more details into her movement. Oh, well.

While Perseus is Zeus son from a mortal woman, Percy is Poseidon’s son (Zeus brother) from another mortal woman. What is up with these gods? Did they create the women to…you know? Conceive their half god – half human offspring and to multiply…whatever? And who the hell is Leonides? – Oh right, he’s my boyfriend  Moving forward…

The Clash of the Titans has very well conceived special effects. Especially the Kracken. Ohmigod! Must watch in 3D! The same goes for Percy Jackson and the lightning thief, although a little bit on the goody-goody side. But you know what lacks in both movies? -The storyline. I can vouch for Percy Jackson because it has a book which I haven’t read. Some “what- the?” moments MIGHT be in the paperback which includes the part why he was suspected as the lightning thief. But Clash of the Titans? It’s a 1981 (I think) remake. I was not able to watch the original version obviously because I was born a couple of years after (literally a couple of years). Not even on DVD. Anyway, all I can say for both is that the special effects rock! – That’s all. And that both movies had Medusa’s head cut off. I think I’m having aneurism just trying to get all the words for both movies right. No more comments.

I read this movie review of Clash of the Titans from “http://www.mania.com/clash-titans-movie-review_article_121598.html” (some parts of it) and thought you should read it too. It’s a good review. Ow! Ow! Aneurism!

“Zeus’s brother Hades (Ralph Fiennes), who volunteers to go down and smite the mortals on Zeus’s behalf. Why the king of the gods can’t do his own smiting is something of a mystery, especially since he nails King Acrisius (Jason Flemyng) with a ginormous lightning bolt early in the proceedings. But no matter. Hades heads to Earth to lay the smackdown on mortaldom… then says he’ll spare them if they sacrifice Andromeda. Given free rein to commit wholesale genocide, he settles for a single hot chick, a move which will doubtless get him tossed out of the Evil Mastermind’s Guild on general principles. It’s all part of some scheme to seize control of the universe from Zeus, which involves stopping Perseus for reasons never made entirely clear.

Leterrier shows no interest in untangling these thorny knots, content to leave the audience sputtering in bewilderment while the monster mash kicks into high gear. Even then, Clash of the Titans might had prevailed if said monster mash displayed any sense of grace or timing. But the fight scenes are edited into pointless sound and noise, defined only by the particular CG beastie which Perseus and his pals are fighting at any given time. The Pegasus shows up to aid him at one point–black instead of white to emphasize how much more bad-ass this version is than the original–but Leterrier has no sense of how to properly set up such a concept. The horse just gets thrown into the mix haphazardly until it becomes indistinguishable from the other sights onscreen.

So too do Perseus’s companions appear to us in a random hodge-podge. As if realizing that Andromeda doesn’t register enough screen time to make a proper love interest, the script provides Perseus with a guide, Io (Gemma Arterton), who delivers ungainly chunks of exposition and differentiates which monster is which as they come barreling at us. The slapped-on 3D imagery don’t help matters, darkening the film’s palette and rendering the action even less comprehensible. If there’s any justice, it will crash and burn in 3D and put a quick kibbutz on this burgeoning gimmick to which Hollywood suddenly seems addicted.

The effects themselves are solidly rendered, and Fiennes does well as the ostensible villain, reminding us how much he’s going to rock the house as Voldemort this fall. But that’s cold comfort for a film as clumsily delivered as this one, crushing the modest charms of its predecessor beneath soulless computer-rendered bulk. The creators of the first Clash had a keen understanding of how Greek mythology worked, with its capricious gods that you could outwit but never openly defy. This new Clash lacks the wit or insight to recreate such a notion, or even deliver half-decent action. The myths it presumes to reinvent serve only as empty grist for its effects houses, mangled by storytelling incompetence past the point of recognition. The gods should be thankful for that, at least: they don’t need to take responsibility for the mess created in their name.”

My thoughts (akasha824): Before I end this blog, I leave a question which is not necessarily an exceptionally intellectual inquiry. In fact it’s the opposite. I just thought of it (Oooh I’m so clever. Not!) If Perseus and Percy were put in an arena to fight ‘til death, which of the two do you think will live? The uber hot Perseus with no other ability than sheer strength while wearing a short dress or lil Percy with the power to clean your clothes with his whirlpool water any time of the day?

~ by TM on April 8, 2010.