Clash of the Titans

Last weekend I watched “Clash of the Titans” with a bunch of friends.  I was insisting on watching it in 2D, since it was widely known that 3D in the film was added in post-production and hence won’t be anything remotely similar to the real 3D, but my arguments weren’t convincing enough and we went to 3D cinema anyway.  Don’t make the same mistake.

As I expected it, 3D really sucked.  Do you remember those bulky CRT monitors that we used to have with our desktop computers, back when everyone wasn’t a happy laptop owner?  If you do remember them, then you probably remember the horrible experience when such a monitor was configured for a low refresh rate, say 60 Hz.  The images on such a monitor were flickering, there was no sharpness, and your eyes and had would start hurting pretty soon.  That’s very similar to the experience of the pseudo-3D.  Horrible experience in other words.  In fact, it was so horrible that we kept taking glasses on and off constantly.  One could watch this film totally without 3D glasses, but in certain places it was easier to have them on.

So, was pseudo-3D the only thing that spoiled my experience?  Nope. I felt that the movie was very shallow in pretty much every aspect – acting, story, special effects, drama, scale, and so on and so forth.  Just to give you some idea with a little spoiler – there wasn’t much of a clash in this film, and there were no titans.  About 40 seconds of screen time were given to a rather large creature, which many might confuse with a titan.  But when we are in Greek mythology, a word “titan” actually has a very particular meaning.  So, no titans.

And yet another something else that didn’t help my perception of this film was a fresh memory of “Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief” – another Greek mythology action movie that was released recently.  And as much as I didn’t want to watch “The Lightning Thief” it turned out to be quite a nice flick.  And it happened to be way better than the titans with no titans.

Overall, I’ll give the titans a 3 out of 5.  Skip it and you won’t miss much.  If you really want to see it though, make sure you watch it in 2D – save yourself some money and a headache.

P.S.: I only now realized that I forgot to review “The Lighning Thief”.  I will correct this shortly.

Rob Roy

Rob Roy

I just watched “Rob Roy” a truly classic film, which I somehow missed when it came out back in 1995.  This is something!  I can’t remember the film which would have been so packed with moral, and which would be as engaging to watch.  Really.

The film has it all – honour, love, friendship, and more.  It shows how hard simple things can be sometimes.  And how place, time, age, gender and social status have nothing to do with who you really are, how much of a human being you are.  It also touches upon marriage, and the places of both husband and wife in the family.  Compared to this film, most of the other modern film seem to be quite empty.  Yes, there is plenty of action and special effects these days, but so little of what people are made of and how they are supposed to be.  I think that we need more films like this, and this film in particular should be a part of formal education and character development.  If it influence me so much, I suspect it’ll have a quite an effect (and a positive one at that) on the teenagers’ understanding of the world.  However, it’s been a while since I was a teenager, so I might be wrong there…

There is plenty of good in this film beside moral.  The story itself is quite interesting, even if not new.  There is lots of good acting by talented cast.  The directing and the visuals are also nice.  I also remember positively noticing the music score a few times during the film.

One thing I wanted to mention separately are the sword fights.  There are a few and they are awesome.  The final fight deserves a film on its own.  It’s original, dynamic, and powerful.  One of the best ones I’ve seen ever.

Overall rating – 5 stars.  Highly recommended.

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

Watched “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” in the movies yesterday.  Excellent film!

First of all, an original story.  Secondly, interesting historical recreaction and mix of times from beginning of the last century to these days.  Thirdly, impressive technically – acting, make-up, camera work, special effects, etc.  Fourthly, the film is both entertaining, as well as philosophical.

And if that all sounds like way too perfect, maybe it is.  However there were a few things that could have done better.  I thought that the film was a bit too long, and that the ending was somewhat unrealistic – which is fine, but just doesn’t fit the rest of the film.

Overall, an excellent experience.  Much recommended.  5 stars.

Transporter 2

I’ve been eager to see “Transporter 2” since I finished watching the first film. I got my dirty hands on it today. Finally!

Directed by: Louis Leterrier
Genres: Action, Crime, Thriller
Cast: Jason Statham, Alessandro Gassman, Amber Valletta, Kate Nauta, Matthew Modine, Jason Flemyng, Keith David, Hunter Clary, Shannon Briggs, François Berléand, Raymond Tong, George Kapetan, Jeff Chase, Gregg Weiner, Gregg Davis
IMDB raintg: 6.3
My rating: 8.5 [rate 8.5]

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