I've been using a lot of statistics and facts when making my arguments about whether or not I personally believe one of these films should in fact be on the 50 most hated movies of all time list. As you can tell, the vast majority, I believe that answer is a resounding no. There are a few where you could make the case to me, based on who you are and what your personal tastes are. The bottom line is, up to this point, I seriously don't believe many of these films should be on a universal hate list -- after all, I believe it was the Penguin who stated simply but brilliantly in Batman Returns "you flush it down your toilet, I put it on my mantle". While the analogy is more than little...disgusting, I think it's a very effective way to state that not everyone looks at something the same way. With Clash of the Titans though, much like Superman Returns, the debate is a little more on the side of hate, in my opinion.
Why? First of all it's a remake and not just any old remake, a remake of a classic film. The original Clash of the Titans was the last film ever made with Ray Harryhausen working on the visual effects. For those of you who don't know, Ray Harryhausen is a legend in the effects field, the amazing effects we all take for granted today could not have been achieved without Ray Harryhausen pioneering stop-motion animation. So, when you remake a film involving a legend of cinema, you better be pretty damned good, which this movie actually isn't. In fact, it's a mere shadow of its predecessor, which is already enough reason to make me dislike the film. However, there is also the problem with shaky-cam.
Okay, I think we've all mentioned this to death, but if you've stumbled across this blog for the first time and have no idea what I'm talking about, here's a crash course: shaky cam is that effect where the camera is un-anchored and basically bounces around the frame like a alcoholic stumbling home. On stationary objects, it's an annoying effect, with action, its annoyance factor increases a hundredfold simply because you cannot see what's going on. Add to that the fast editing that filmmakers in North America seem to favor and what you have is a total waste of time. I'm serious, shaky-cam does not add excitement to an action scene, a well-executed and choreographed action scene is exciting enough without tricks. What shaky-cam actually does is try and mask how really inferior the stunts and the action really are.
So, this movie did not start the whole shaky-cam process and did not begin the era of the shameless remake, so why the hate? Because it has all these elements. The movie is not exciting, it's storyline is full of holes and the you can't see the action. Everything that you can possibly dislike and yes you could say hate about modern-day movies can all be summed up in the problems this movie has. That's a reason to hate a movie, not because you're bored with a movie series or because you happen to want a certain genre of movie from a certain filmmaker, it's because you have valid points about what you don't like about movies and then present a movie as an example. That's what Total Film's list missed out on and that's what I'm trying to figure out and qualify in this series.
So if you were a fan of the original or if you just don't like your action scenes bouncing around like a ball in an ocean, then I can understand you hating this film. Hey, Total Film can't be wrong all the time, can they?
Rating: Worth the hate? Sure.
- Stephenstein
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