Clash of the Titans (1981)

All great adventure story ideas have to begin somewhere, and most of them can be traced, in one way or another, to the Greek and Roman myths of our ancient history. The damsel in distress, the hero against all odds and good against evil are only a few of the many concepts that have been handed down us and are today being made into movies that we all love and enjoy. Here with stop motion effects master, Ray Harryhausen, we are given a wonderful tale of myths and monsters, and with the magic of Hollywood, some of the best-known characters from Greek mythology are brought to life.
Perseus, the mortal son of Zeus, must fulfill his destiny in the eyes of his father, and in the process goes up against some of the most powerful creatures of the ancient world. The stop motion photography that is used here is dated and looks fake but that also helps the story with the idea that these creatures are not on the same plain of existence as the human in the story. Some of the acting that is done here seems a little stale but that also goes along with adding to the idea that the story that we are watching has been handed down over time. The two true veteran actors in the cast are Burgess Meredith and Laurence Olivier, Meredith as the playwright Ammon and Olivier as Zeus, father of the Gods. Both play their parts well and throughout the film you can see their classical acting skills come through to uplift their roles.
A movie like this can be appreciated for the hard work that went into making it, with all the CGI work that is now being done in movies its hard to say where the true art form in creating a world such as this. I would love to see if they could remake an adventure movie such as this, just to see if it could be as good as the original, but for now this is the movie we have to enjoy. A lot of people who enjoy the more modern effects in their adventure films will probably be disappointed with the effects here but if you can see past that, you'll see that this movie is well worth the time spent.