This loose take on the Perseus legend was the last of the great stop-motion movies by Ray Harryhausen. Star Wars had taken special effects to the next level but ironically The Empire Strikes Back made heavy use of stop-motion with the ATAT attack on Hoth a year before the release of Clash Of The Titans.
As a movie Titans has bags full of monsters and an all star cast, plus an incredibly dark tone which many childrens' films suffer a lack of in todays climate. Surely the Greek Myths are ripe for a return to the big screen with the breathtaking developments in CGI? The battle with Medusa is still an incredible spectacle, sinister, scary, and exhilarating; but perhaps it was Harryhausen's devotion to character detail that make these films so enjoyable so many years later? Golum in The Lord of the Rings trilogy proves that a CGI character can have durability but Lucas in his prequal trilogy for Star Wars equally showed how over reliance on CGI can destroy a film.
Let's hope… more »

This loose take on the Perseus legend was the last of the great stop-motion movies by Ray Harryhausen. Star Wars had taken special effects to the next level but ironically The Empire Strikes Back made heavy use of stop-motion with the ATAT attack on Hoth a year before the release of Clash Of The Titans.
As a movie Titans has bags full of monsters and an all star cast, plus an incredibly dark tone which many childrens' films suffer a lack of in todays climate. Surely the Greek Myths are ripe for a return to the big screen with the breathtaking developments in CGI? The battle with Medusa is still an incredible spectacle, sinister, scary, and exhilarating; but perhaps it was Harryhausen's devotion to character detail that make these films so enjoyable so many years later? Golum in The Lord of the Rings trilogy proves that a CGI character can have durability but Lucas in his prequal trilogy for Star Wars equally showed how over reliance on CGI can destroy a film.
Let's hope that a happy medium can be found as Clash Of The Titans still continues to dazzle and amaze with each viewing. The possibilities of Greek Mythology in the movies are endless. As a genre they are well overdue a decent movie and Troy just doesn't cut it.

I collect Ray Harryhausen's work and this big budget 1981 release is his last feature film and therefore his swan song, as he retired shortly afterwards, and also is the only one in which he had assistants and this does unfortunately show.

The big opening action sequence says it all with it's rather poor marrying of live action and model work, particularly in the underwater release of the Kraken, and there are many infamous gaffes and poorly finished visual effects, and later the whole scorpion scene, well, as a man who loves Ray's work I could make a long list on my dissatisfaction with this one, but sufficed to say it just doesn't have the polish and attention to detail any Ray Harryhausen fan might expect and is very obviously a victim of the changing times where his modus operandi just wasn't valid anymore and the script and characters were apparently chosen by committee.

Still, younger kids will still love it and it's still watchable by all, there's plenty to see… more »

I collect Ray Harryhausen's work and this big budget 1981 release is his last feature film and therefore his swan song, as he retired shortly afterwards, and also is the only one in which he had assistants and this does unfortunately show.

The big opening action sequence says it all with it's rather poor marrying of live action and model work, particularly in the underwater release of the Kraken, and there are many infamous gaffes and poorly finished visual effects, and later the whole scorpion scene, well, as a man who loves Ray's work I could make a long list on my dissatisfaction with this one, but sufficed to say it just doesn't have the polish and attention to detail any Ray Harryhausen fan might expect and is very obviously a victim of the changing times where his modus operandi just wasn't valid anymore and the script and characters were apparently chosen by committee.

Still, younger kids will still love it and it's still watchable by all, there's plenty to see here, Gods bicker, whole cities fall, magical creatures battle, horses fly, the Medusa scene is beautifully done and nearly worth seeing this movie for on it's own, and this print of the film is clear and happily complete, the over shown TV version is a very poor quality print and chopped of 'adult' content that may surprise you to see here, and I must say, the scene with the witches and their single eye is still wonderfully Shakespearian!

The cast of the Gods is an appropriately stellar one and the two lead English actors do a great job, and the musical score is one of the best you'll hear on any Harryhausen movie, but for me this film is a poor example of the great man's work, horribly inconsistent from scene to scene and just messy, but y'know, as a fan, my need to forgive it's faults is strong, but I wouldn't say this is a must have movie.

There is a nice interview with the great man himself included on the DVD extras, but nothing else of note.