Clash of the Titans - Blu-ray

Film: True, Desmond Davis' 1981 fantasy historical film "Combat of the Titans" was not exactly showered with critical praise. But the film's high fun factor, which featured stars like Laurence Olivier and Ursula Andress, and legendary tricks by effects guru Ray Harryhausen have made it a true cult film over the years. Reason enough to rehash the battle of the Greek gods in 2010 and bring it to our cinemas as an effects-packed 3-D spectacle. However, the result is anything but divine.

The story centers on demigod Perseus (Sam Worthington), who grew up as the son of a simple fishing family and has no idea that the all-powerful Zeus (Liam Neeson) is his real father. When Perseus witnesses his beloved family perish at the cruel hands of Hades (Ralph Fiennes), he vows revenge. He goes to battle against the god of vengeance, whose plan is to overthrow Zeus and plunge the earth into hellish chaos. Together with veteran soldier Draco (Mads Mikkelsen) and a handful of brave men, Perseus sets out to battle monsters and demons, determined to avenge his family - no matter the cost.

There are several factors at once that make "Combat of the Titans" a real disappointment. But one thing has to be mentioned first: if you still want to make your way into the world of the ancient legends of the gods, you should definitely not do so in 3-D. Because director Louis Leterrier ("The Incredible Hulk", "Transporter 2") shot his fantasy flick in 2-D, which is clearly noticeable in the film. The 3-D effect was then, in order to get a little of that sweet "Avatar" gold, implemented in a hurried afterthought and relatively uncharitably. The result is washed-out action sequences or even hair and helmets that miraculously seem to float behind the protagonists' heads. The 3-D effect here is not only completely unnecessary, but just annoying and poorly implemented.

However, even if the film works better visually in 2-D, it's not really good in this version either. One of the main reasons for this may be the fact that the 2010 version of the "Fight of the Titans" has become a pseudo-grim revenge story that sorely lacks the fun factor of the 1981 original. While Perseus' drive here was still to save the beautiful Andromeda, this romantic aspect of the story becomes completely secondary in the remake. Rather the Andromeda embodied by Alexa Davalos ("Unbeugsam - Defiance") is degraded to a pale minor character, whose fate is completely indifferent to the viewer. But since Andromeda's fate is inextricably linked to that of all humanity, there should actually be some interest in the outcome of the story. But this is unfortunately not achieved in any second with the completely overloaded script. Here the film shows strong parallels to Wolfgang Petersen's "Troja", which also failed to convey in a believable way that a long lasting, bloody war has broken out because of Helena, portrayed colorlessly by Diane Kruger.

Sam Worthington, who in "Avatar" still convincingly played against computer effects and thus was able to establish an interesting character, remains here simply wooden and one-dimensional. But even actors who can otherwise always be relied upon, like the great Mads Mikkelsen ("Adam's Apples", "Casino Royal"), Liam Neeson or the completely wasted Danny Huston with just one line of dialogue, fail to breathe a little soul into the lifeless script. But there are bright spots: the scenes in Olympus are a real feast for the eyes, and Ralph Fiennes plays the underworld god Hades so gleefully over-the-top that it's a real joy. A nice nod to the '81 original and some convincing special effects, including the furious finale with the murderous Kraken, may well satisfy fans of the genre.

But the bottom line is that "Combat of the Titans" is a string of wasted opportunities that additionally suffers from the studio's greed for profit. Had the 3-D conversion been dispensed with in favor of this time and money invested in scripting and editing, 2010's "Fight of the Titans" could have been a whole lot of fun. But as it is, the end result is a bitter and, above all, almost completely fun-free disappointment, with which one wishes the responsible directly to Hades.

Picture + Sound: Technically, the Blu-Ray is on quite a high level. The picture is very sharp in many moments and has good contrasts. The coloring varies between natural and somewhat garish, but can convince overall. The downside to the good picture quality, however, is that the artificiality of the many computer effects is even more apparent here than it was in the cinema. Even in the first scene between Perseus and his human father, it is impossible not to notice that the scene was shot in a studio in front of a blue (or green) screen.

The sound, while not at reference level, is a very good multi-channel mix, consisting of lots of great sound effects, more subtle ambient noise, the dialogue and the music, all mixed equally well.

Extras: Central to the extras is Maximum Movie Mode, where the actual movie shares the screen with quite a few behind-the-scenes features, interviews, pre-viz footage and the like. Also part of Maximum Movie Mode are ten short documentaries, called Focus Points, which can also be played in one piece (about 35 min.), making for a making of that is quite worth watching.

In addition, the disc offers a nearly 7-minute tribute to lead actor Sam Worthington, as well as a nearly 5-minute alternative ending, which, however, due to the numerous unfinished effects rather trashy and unintentionally funny.

Worth watching are the nearly 18 minutes of cut scenes, in which especially the gods are much more prominent. Surely, even with these scenes "Fight of the Titans" still would not have become a really good film, but here again it becomes clear that the film could have been much better than the rather disappointing end result.

Conclusion: Admittedly, in the 2-D version "Fight of the Titans" is actually fun in some moments. Nevertheless, in the end a rather disappointing aftertaste remains, which, however, will not be able to prevent that there will be a sequel, which is being worked on after the great success at the box office. The Blu-Ray is technically absolutely convincing, but the extras are disappointing for such a blockbuster. Still: especially without the subsequent bad 3-D effect, this Blu-Ray is actually quite recommendable for fantasy fans!

An article by Frankfurt-Tipp