Clash of Opinions

So, just went to see Clash of the Titans. My thoughts will probably not surprise anyone. It was very shiny, the action was good, there was an acceptable amount of cheese and...it was not a good movie. Well, it was not a great movie, certainly in the tradition it theoretically stems from.

First, it should be noted that the script was written independently, the director didn't even want to CALL it Clash of the Titans. It was supposed to be a totally different story, but the studios knew they'd make more money with a "remake." Furthermore, as many of my cohorts noted, it felt like there was a lot cut-out.

My father, upon hearing some of my initial comments, asked some insightful questions, which I will copy/paste here.

"Want to hear more - was it because the hero was in cropped hair and had an australian accent or because they monkeyed with original mythology and revised the stories? And really, is that so bad? Don't mythologies evolve over time and don't they serve the needs of the time and the societies in which they are told? Given the disparity between ... See Moreancient pagan Greek culture and our post Christian Western culture - aren't there numerous cultural gaps that are bridged easier by revising the story for our audiences to better relate or understand? Just asking."

To the first issue: To be honest, I don't care that poor Sam Worthington is forced to play the same character all the bloody time. Well, I doubt he's forced, I mean, he's basically Mr.BadassSciFi Guy now, and who wouldn't want to play those sorts of roles? If I could get type cast as a sword-weilding hot-chick, preferably one with snappy comebacks, believe me, I would not be bothered. And it's not like anyone else had even remotely Greek accents. Actually, I approved of a lot of the costume choices, the full togas, the rich fabrics. The only one I didn't care for was some of Io's outfits. A world of WTF for that thing that looked like she hooked a rug around herself.

For the second, and really more intense criticism, my good friend, and fellow history/mythology lover, Z, was visibly bothered by some of the alterations made to the "original"/"traditional"/known myths. This is thoroughly understandable, because they "monkeyed" a LOT. The Pegasus (or in this case, Pegasi) had absolutely no basis in the literature and the origins of Perseus were nudged a bit.

[Edit: It has been pointed out to me that, quite correctly that the story regarding Medusa was actually "correct" and so I apologize for not being more explicit about the plurality of Medusa's origin stories. Here is the Wiki entry.

In one version of the Medusa myth, Medusa who was very beautiful and very arrogant, boasted that she was even more beautiful then the goddess Athena. For this Athena became wrathful and cursed her that anyone who looks at her face would be turned to stone. In a late version of the Medusa myth, related by the Roman poet Ovid (Metamorphoses 4.770), Medusa was originally a beautiful maiden, "the jealous aspiration of many suitors," priestess in Athena's temple, but when she and the "Lord of the Sea" Poseidon lay together in Athena's temple, the enraged virgin goddess transformed her beautiful hair to serpents and made her face so terrible to behold that the mere sight of it would turn men into stone. In Ovid's telling, Perseus describes Medusa's punishment by Athena as just and well-deserved.

/end Edit]
The reason this is so frustrating is because the source material is already SO rich and epic, there doesn't seem to be any reason to change it. Quite simply, it couldn't be 'improved.' And I admit, it didn't seem to help much. They could have kept their basic storyline intact and maintained a closer version of the mythos, particularly Perseus and his birth.

There is another aspect though, that softened the frustration blow for me. There is no TRUE version in Greek mythology. Even in their own time, they maintained contradictory versions of their religion. Aphrodite has two different origin stories, yet the Greeks were not concerned by this conflict. To them, it was more important to keep everything, rather than risk losing even one. So, yes, the evolution of the story, the changing...it's actually very Greek.

What DID bother me is related to the last statement my father made.
A great deal is made in the movie, about sin and redemption. And of course, the entire premise is people being angry with the gods, wanting to rise up and say they wanted no part, and after all, didn't the gods really need them?

This is a VERY post-modern idea. It would never even OCCUR to the Greeks to question their place in the universe in respect to the gods. Like the "climate of opinion," there was a certain way they understood things to work. That the gods need worship to survive is very much a 20th century invention, masterfully penned by the likes of Neil Gaiman, Terry Pratchett and other people with funny accents.

However, this is another place where they (perhaps inadvertently) maintain a highly Greek tradition. There is no real conception of "sin" as Western Post-Christ people would understand it. However, the notion of "hubris" is very important to Greek legend. Most of the time, when a human is punished, it is for this flaw, for arrogance, for their presumption. Ajax is not punished for raping Cassandra, he is punished for doing so inside Athena's temple, at the very foot of her statue. Arachne is punished for competing with Athena, even though Arachne's weaving is superior and she wins the competition. Belleraphon is loved of the gods until he decides to take Pegasus to be with them. Time and again, the theme of pretentiousness and then destruction comes up in Greek mythology. "Pride goeth before the fall," as the Bible says. So, in that way, the movie does a fine job. The humans get all uppity and a lot of them die for it.

So there is my paradoxical review of Clash of the Titans. I can't say they got a lot "wrong" since there is no right, but they certainly ignored traditional literature, or else chose to alter it for reasons I did not quite understand. However, they got a lot of the SPIRIT of the lgends right, though that may not have been intentional.

From a technical standpoint, I was a bit disappointed that the special effects were not more hardcore. Considering that the original Clash of the Titans is one of those huge moments in science fiction/fantasy where special effects were taken to a whole new level, I hoped that this would at least try to keep up. It didn't need to be Avatar, but I expected better than The Mummy Returns. As someone said though "It was the longest metal music video ever!" Seriously, you could use virtually any shot as power metal album art, and should.

~Peace out~

Nerd Weekend Rockout!

As I sit on my bed, munching away at what I think are meant to be Cookie Dough bites from the theater, I consider the two films I have seen in as many days.

Summer is certainly starting off well for the geek in all of us and I look forward to seeing if Terminator will complete the trifecta of fandom.

In the meantime, here are my thoughts on Star Trek and Wolverine. Please note that while I strive ever to be spoiler-free, there are some items which simply can't be avoided. I try to keep these to fairly well-known tidbits of information, but if you have not read or hear ANYTHING about either of these movies, if you have been locked in a cave and not even a rumor has made it to your ears...or if you just don't care to read reviews (I know most of the time I don't), then feel free to wait for our next Review-ridden segment.

I went into Star Trek with very high expectations and into Wolverine with very low expectations and both probably helped serve me.

First, to space...the final frontier...

The very first scene has some pretty mind blowing action, all the things we liked about the Star Wars prequels without any of the stuff we DIDN'T like about the Star Wars prequels (so basically, lasers, fighting, explosions, that fun stuff). The special effects were solid and I'm not even going to lie, guys, in the first ten minutes, I was holding back tears.

The premise of the movie through me off just a bit, because it greatly involves alternate realities, time-space paradoxes and the like and those just hurt me simple lady mind. In some ways, I felt like this was a cop out so they did not have to work within the constraints of the original universe but I realized by the end that there was SO much respect for the source material and that they were simply being ambitious and setting up for future movies. This is literally a reboot in the purest sense of the word.

Script, as you know, is extremely important to me, and this did not disappoint. While it wasn't shot full of punchy one-liners, there were a few memorable lines and the story never dragged.

Of course, what everyone is concerned about is: How was the acting? How do you recreate the magic that held so many enthralled, and obviously continues to do so after over forty years? I think the director and the producers had a good formula. The cast was a mix of veteran actors, not only of "respectable" (/snarl) films, but sci-fi goodness as well...along with some relative new comers. Because this was such an ensemble cast, it never felt like 'Oh he was just stuck in there because he's a known name', it was apparent that the casting was done based on ability, physical appearance and character dynamics (also known as chemistry).

Kirk, obviously, has to carry much of the movie, but like most animes, he was not my main focus, though he was certainly strong. My only qualm is not so much of a problem, simply a hope that in the following films he has matured a bit, at least to the point where he appears more compassionate to his crew. Star Trek wouldn't be the same if Kirk didn't seem to have the concern he had in the show, but as this was an origins story, and one where the rules were completely knocked "out of orbit" (ha...haha.../sigh), those relationships hadn't developed yet. My favorite thing about Kirk is how well he pulled the lovable manwhore off. He chased soooo much tail, but it was still kind of endearing, and almost always hilarious.

The relationship between Kirk and Bones was what I was most concerned about, as it was always one of my favorite dynamics in the show, and in this, I was blown out of the water. Their scenes were perfect, they played off and complimented each other well and had some of the best dialogue. Karl Urban has officially been forgiven for the vomit-inducing Pathfinder.

Spock is the other side of the equation, as he plays such a prominent role. I think that Zack Quintus (whose name I totally just butchered I think) did a remarkable job showing the conflict between the human and Vulcan halves, though I admit, it is easier to not sound like an automaton when you have Leonord Nimoy's resonating voice. Still, his was probably the most difficult role to pull off, and he did so admirably. His dynamic with Kirk was not the most ideal for me but again...this was because of the way the story was structured and it wasn't enough to ruin it for me.

Uhura was competent as well as witty and gave off that 'girl everybody likes' vibe, which was great because that was always one of her characteristics. She may or may not have been a bit OP'd at her job...>.>...but I certainly didn't mind.

I honestly think they went out and found the cutest kid they could to be Chekov. He had mile long eyelashes and his accent was giggle worthy. At first I thought maybe he would make the movie too silly, but it became apparent quickly that he was a necessary figure. He filled a much needed space as the innocent.

Finally, there was Scotty. And the problem with Scotty is...HE DOES NOT GET ENOUGH SCREENTIME. Seriously. However, when he's there, he delivers some great lines.

With all these characters, there was a bit of caricature involved. The impression I got was that as they got older, they mellowed a bit and what you saw as streaks in their characters from the show are demonstrated in full hormonal bloom in this movie. Kirk is MORE impetuous, Scotty is MORE of a joker, Bones is MORE of a paranoid "Dear God, man!" spouting ball of aggravated angst.

The villain was done, I thought, quite well by Eric Bana. He is not seen too much in the film, which gives the impression he is not well developed but I think that's not quite accurate. The underlying premise of his character is simple and doesn't require a lot of backstory or character build-up. What IS impressive is how sympathetic he is without you losing sight of the fact that HE IS THE BADGUY.

The Starfleet uniforms were more in keeping with Next Gen then the original series, which is good on lots of different levels.

The most important thing about this movie is FANSERVICE. There is a Red shirt. He is obviously a Red Shirt. You see it coming a mile away and it is quite rewarding. There are lots of moments of irony (Bones says the first time they meet Spock, "I don't know who he is, but I like him") and numerous connections made to the original films, especially 2 and 3. We see how Kirk beats the Kobayashi Maru dilemma, and the list goes on and on. The point is that if you've never seen any Star Trek, you're going to appreciate this movie as a solid film and if you HAVE, you're going to be blown away at how well they balanced new and old.

My only problem with this movie was that relationships between the crew as a whole and especially between certain key characters was not as developed as I'd like but that's what sequels are for. ^.^

The problem with Wolverine is that I saw it AFTER Star Trek, and now all summer movies are going to have to compete with that. We saw this last year (or was it the year before) where Iron Man was just dominating...until Dark Knight came out. Like those two films, these two have very different roles and push very different buttons.

When you go to see Wolverine (and I would encourage you to do so), remember that you're seeing a comic book movie and all that goes with it. Dark Knight does not count :P. Think about the classic Batman, Superman, heck, even Spiderman movies. Go in there, don't think, don't question the physics, just enjoy people doing crazy stunts and pulling off physically impossible feats because THEY CAN.

From what I'd read of the Wolverine Origins comic, the movie follows it pretty faithfully, though there are gaps in my knowledge that I'm sure Ardent Sluggard or Holden could fill in for me. The link between Wolverine and Sabretooth that is postulated is not one I'm familiar with but one I think all kids reading X-Men thought of at some point.

And no, "Wade" (Ryan Reynolds) was not totally nerfed. The first time you see him, the first scene he is in, he has nothing but hilarious lines. You don't see him again almost for the entire movie, so it wasn't like he was there but not doing anything. He just wasn't there. When he comes back and is "muzzled", it's okay because he's KICKING ASS. I was like 'Holy crap, he's OP'd'.
This movie was also fanservice, but mostly to the ladies. I think Hugh Jackman spends at least 47% of the film with his shirt off. There were a few funny lines and to be honest, the script was smarter than I thought it'd be.
There were also super cliche'd moments where you were going "What? really?" but I actually found these strangely comforting. It was nice to get back to basics. Special effects were fairly consistent, only a few where you were like 'that probably should have been thought out better'. Gambit was cool but his accent wasn't nearly thick enough. Like there was a lot of obvious potential, I don't think there was anything wrong with the casting, but he didn't say a single french word the whole time.

The fight scenes were good, which was important for a movie like this. I really liked the Deadpool fight scene, it was like watching the Duel of Fates in Episode I all over again. Although, saying that makes me think of music.

The music in Star Trek was definitely better, I mean one of the first songs they play is "Sabotage" by the Beastie Boys and it fits so well that you've barely started and already want to rock out in your seat. The rest of the music was quite moving, very epic, and fit quite well (those who had issues with the musical choices in Watchment, myself not being one of them, will not have that problem with this movie). Wolverine's music was just sort of...there. It wasn't bad, but none of it was particularly memorable.

I'm really looking forward to the Deadpool spin off, I think they've set down some great groundwork and have some good material to work off of.
Yes, Wolverine was cheesy, yes, there were stereotypical moments we'd all forgotten about in our bliss of originality (isn't it funny when comic book movies are the ones being original?), but it was FUN, and I'm glad I went.

So...I went in with high hopes to Star Trek and it exceeded them, which makes me happy inside and out. I went into Wolverine with low expectations and was quite pleasantly surprised. I hope this review will inspire you to go out and decide for yourselves. <.<...And...if anyone is thinking of seeing Star Trek anytime soon...>.>...can I come?

~CiS