I used to love this film, watching it time and time again on VHS as a child, I thought it was awesome !!!
I have just finished watching it on DVD as a grown adult, its terrible ! The sfx are worse than in jason and the argonauts from the 60's and as much of a Ray Harryhausen fan I am this does not look good for a film made 20 years later.
It's a shame the remake was equally as disappointing !
I just watched it for the first time in 10 years or so. I'll always have a soft spot for these kinds of movies. The mythology, the stop-motion, the grandiose music, etc. It has its problems, but I still like it. To each his own of course.
shareDo you agree that its not nearly as good as the Sinbad films and Jason and the argonauts ? I still think these are brilliant and have a real charm about them that Clash of the titans is missing.
shareI did enjoy Seventh Voyage of Sinbad and Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger more. Couldn't get into Golden Voyage for some reason.
shareI've got to disagree Silvester, I think the new films with CGI are terrible. Most movie makers are relying on easily made computer graphics than making a good story. Sure I loved Jason and the Argonauts as a child and the effects were better. But Clash of the Titans is a fantastic story made with the constraints of the special effects of the makers on this particular film.
As for the new one, I think I lasted 15 mins then gave up in disgust.
I did actually say in my original post that the new version was equally as disappointing ! Im still a big fan of Jason and the argonauts and the Sinbad films, just not Clash of the titans anymore.
shareThis last week alone for some odd reason it seemed cable resurrected everything I used to watch as a little kid: Clash of the Titans, Conan the Barabarian, Goonies, White Water Summer, The Outsiders, there was even a Lou Ferrigno Hercules movie on. Stuff like this just always had a twinkle, yeah it was hokey but for me, it was OURS. Theres just still something about stuff like this that always takes one back to days of yore, sometimes you gotta see it as you saw it way back when, its difficult with an adult mind but sometimes its still there as you liked it. But thats just me though.
"You win some, you lose some. But you live, you live to fight another day."
I haven't seen it in years but the last time I saw it I saw how bad the effects were. However, when I was a child and I saw this film, I was blown away.
I thought it was so real and I was really scared when I saw this in the theater.
When you see things through the eyes of a child it looks so different.
I agree but when i go back and watch the Goonies, Conan, Sinbad and the eye of the tiger, The valley of gwangi, etc etc i get the nostalgic feeling from my childhood and appreciation of these old classics. However not when i watch clash of the titans, it just leaves me really disappointed !
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I used to love this film, watching it time and time again on VHS as a child, I thought it was awesome !!!
by - silvester333 on Sat Feb 25 2012 16:00:44
I used to love this film, watching it time and time again on VHS as a child, I thought it was awesome !!!
I have just finished watching it on DVD as a grown adult, its terrible ! The sfx are worse than in jason and the argonauts from the 60's and as much of a Ray Harryhausen fan I am this does not look good for a film made 20 years later.
It's a shame the remake was equally as disappointing !
I feel the same way as the OP. Just watched it last night (well, more like half-watched it, I only tuned in for the better parts) after don't know how many years, and it all seemed way shoddier than before. Even the Medusa scene, which I used to love, had no effect on me.
shareI haven't seen this movie since I was about ten (cira 1990), and I was worried it would be that bad, despite the positive nostalgia I'm sure to experience.
Full of Graceshare
I agree with the OP!
Even when I saw this in the theater, I was conscience that Harryhausen was dwelling on the SFX
longer than normal with the creatures doing little more than posing for the camera.
And the REAL actor characters were 'dumbed-down' to create more opportunity to give
the creatures more screen time.
Instead of the SFX serving the story;
the story seemed to be serving the SFX.
The top of Harryhausen's heap will always be his 4 film pinacle when he collaborated with
Bernard Hermann:
7th Voyage
Gulliver
Mysterious Island
Jason
Gwangi was Ray's last good film (for me).
After that, his last 3 films made me cringe;
in spite of how masterful some of those later Sinbad creatures were.
STAR WARS cost a little more than $10 million.
CLASH cost $15 million.
By then, Ray was using the same SFX technology he's used for over 20 years.
EMPIRE STRIKES BACK was released the year before;
and immediately outdated the look, the sets and the effects of CLASH.
But that doesn't make Ray Harryhausen any less than brilliant for what he has done for fantasy films.
In their time...his were simply the best!
STAR WARS cost a little more than $10 million.
CLASH cost $15 million.
By then, Ray was using the same SFX technology he's used for over 20 years.
EMPIRE STRIKES BACK was released the year before;
and immediately outdated the look, the sets and the effects of CLASH
It is always a bad comparison, as we are looking at two totally different filmmakers AND different techniques. STAR WARS had the team that would become ILM. Ray Harryhausen, by contrast was an independent filmmaker, virtually using his own resources. Plus, Lucas wasn't setting out to make a complete stop-motion movie. That was not his specialty. On the other hand, Ray Harryhausen was!
One doesn’t have to like CLASH or even the effects, but comparisons to what different people were doing, just doesn’t fit the shoe.
Big G2:
I agree with you 100%;
but you misunderstood the posting.
No one was making a comparison between Lucas & Harryhausen.
What I refered to was the public perception when Clash was released.
The reason why many people liked, but didn't love Clash, was because of the way
Industrial Light & Magic raised the bar in movie SFX quality.
By then the audience expected more of the same in that level of quality.
But the kids were a different matter.
Being kids; their previous exposure to movie magic was more limited than kids today.
On another post, one entry acknowledged how great JASON and the Argonauts still looks;
yet CLASH looks like the older film,
even though it was filmed almost 30 YEARS later.
Even the critic's reviews were respectful; but I don't remember any of them being raves.
And by the time of Clash, Ray gave his creatures TOO much screen time at the sacrifice of dumbing down the characters to justify
the creature crisis and meneace.
Being a business man (and a very shrewd one), he understood that his creations were the stars of the movie.
I have all 15 of Ray's movies on dvd; 3 of them on Bluray;
but even in 1981; at the theater, I was aware how shoddy and grainy some of the film and miniture sets looked.
If an audience gets treated to a surf & turf dinner the night before;
they're not gonna rave about a hamburger the nite after.
And in no way am I implying Ray's films to be burgers.
Growing up, his movies gave me more pleasure than just about any other,
along with the Universal Classic Monsters.
I'm a HUGE fan of:
Beast 20,000 Fathoms
7th Voyage
Mysterious Island
Jason...
because the effects served the story.
By the time of Clash; the reverse happened;
and the story was serving the effects at the expense of character motivations.
Unlike the above films; Clash has not aged as well.
BUT...that's only my opinion!
And I believe the post ended with an acknowledgement of Mr Harryhausen's brilliance;
in that his films were like no other during his 32 year tenure.
They have an epic quality in adventure and magic and showed us creatures so well executed
in all their fantasy glory.
I couldn't FATHOM what IT would be like without all those VOYAGES and WORLDS of MYSTERIOUS wonders and VALLEYS filled with adventure with the likes of MEN like SINBAD and men like the ARGONAUTS and the MILLION MILES it took for Ray to get us there.
Thank the gods for Ray Harryhausen.
Fair enough assessment jbirtel-1.
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