Puntabulous

New Clash of the Titans Trailer

Here’s the second trailer to next year’s Clash of the Titans, which has more dialogue than the last one, and a lot more fancy special effects.

Love the shots of Pegasus. Frankly there aren’t enough flying horses in movies these days. Plus I could watch an entire two hours of Liam Neeson shouting “Release the Kraken!”

MOVIES, WATCH THIS | Craig | December 18, 2009 7:54 am

30 Comments

By Dave S., December 18, 2009 @ 8:12 am

Holy shiznit, that looks awesome! And not a mechanical owl in sight! Woohoo!

And from a marketing perspective, I love love love the tagline: “Damn the Gods.” Awesomeness.

Obviously, I recognize Liam, but who’s the bald guy? He looks familiar and not at the same time.

I’m disappointed that they actually showed the Kraken. It would’ve been cool to let my brain wonder what it looked like until the reveal in the theatre itself.

But, yeah, I’m definitely going to be seeing that!

Avatar tomorrow with Chaz! (Matt’s totally jealous) (heehee)
By Craig, December 18, 2009 @ 8:22 am

Aw, I liked the mechanical owl in the first one!

And I think they might as well get the Kraken reveal out of the way. The cloverfield monster was a lot scarier when you had no idea what it looked like. All big monsters like that aren’t very scary anyway. They just gotta make good use of them.
By Dave S., December 18, 2009 @ 8:27 am

It’s funny that you bring up Cloverfield — that’s the first thing I thought of when I saw the Kraken. Its eyes and pug nose are very reminiscent of our favorite baby-monster-on-a-confused-motherless-rampage.

And I liked the owl when I first saw the original (yes, in a theater) (yes, I’m that old) (dammit), but when I saw it later as an adult, I suddenly turned on little Bubo.
By john, December 18, 2009 @ 9:50 am

I Love Bubo! Owls in general are awesome and mechanical only makes it better.

This looks great. Not Oscar great, but mindless action great. I’m still a little bummed they made Medusa into a naga, but it is reminiscent of the first movie, so that’s ok. I’m curious to see how they render the turning to stone effect.
By Justin, December 18, 2009 @ 9:50 am

So, this is a very interesting topic for me personally. And I’ve always had a massive love-hate relationship with the original Clash of the Titans.

See, I am a colossal pedant. (Yes, I use that particular phraseology because of one of the best lines in Black Adder, but I really do mean pedant, as in pedantic, and not something rude.)

And I’m a huge classicist. Greek and Roman history and language are a huge part of my interests.

When the original Clash of the Titans came out, it just made me cringe in a billion ways, most of them due to my pedantry:

(1) The “Kraken” is a Scandinavian monster, not a Greek one. *cringe* *cringe* *cringe* There *is* a sea monster in the Perseus myth, which is a very important part of the myth, because he saves Andromeda from the sea monster. But it’s just a generic monster and doesn’t have a name.
(2) Neither the sea monster nor Medusa are “Titans”. There *are* no Titans in the Perseus myth.
(3) “Calibos”. Ugh. First off, name obviously stolen from Shakespeare’s Tempest, slightly modified from Caliban. Secondly, no character remotely resembling that one exists in the myth.
(4) WTF was up with Lawrence Olivier’s cringe-making performance of Zeus-as-tired-old-man? *ARGH* Zeus never looked old. He radiated energy and wrath and power and would never have looked or sounded like that in a million years.
(5) Sorry, Craig, but I’m with Dave S on the R2D2-rip-off Owl. Must. Smash. Owl.

I think there were a lot of other things I hated but that’ll do it.

What I loved about the original:

(1) Harry Hamlin’s chest. Obvs. I have the movie on DVD of course. I use the pause button a lot.
(2) Maggie Smith. Maggie Smith simply cannot be not Awesome. No matter the vehicle.
(3) The cheesy Ray Harryhausen special effects. I have always loved Ray, I always will (speaking of which, Jason and the Argonauts *ACTUALLY IS* a faithful version of the Argonauts myth, much more than not.

It just has always BUGGED ME that for some reason whenever a producer or director or screenwriter gets their paws into Greek mythology, they can NEVER be content to just leave it AS IS, and they have to muck with it until it’s unrecognizable. Like the horrible 1990s Odyssey mini-series with Armand Assante where Isabella Rossalini plays the goddess — the GODDESS — Athena as someone who just sits on the deck and goes “uh huh”. The interaction of a mortal with a god is not like a normal conversation. It’s a hair-standing-up-on-the-back-of-your-neck terrifying experience. Theophany. (Oh — and — producers of the Odyssey? Hades doesn’t have fire in it. That’s hell.)

Nonetheless, I’ll still go see this. Even if they are still using Kraken (which I guess they feel they have to as a tribute to the original).

I’ll cringe at the mistakes and unnecessary alterations. But I’ll enjoy the special effects.

(And David, you must be a lot younger than me. I was 20 or 21 when that movie came out in the theaters so the owl was just — intolerable. I suspect you must have been a kid when you saw it if you liked it.)
By Tam, December 18, 2009 @ 10:01 am

Wow Justin, that’s quite the in depth analysis. I lurve me some Greek myths. This from the mother who read the Iliad to her daughter in poetic form as a bedtime story. Geek much?

I also agree with Craig. You can’t have too many flying horses in a movie. I’ll definitely be going to this one.
By Justin, December 18, 2009 @ 10:31 am

Tam: Geek VERY much! <3 <3 <3
By Enrico, December 18, 2009 @ 11:24 am

Huh? I’m on “The Serpent’s Pass” right now! Halfway through season 2 in one day! It was pretty sweet in “The Desret” when Aang went all Avatar on those bisonnappers.
By M. Nicodemus, December 18, 2009 @ 11:31 am

HELLS YEAH! I am so going to see that, even if I *do* have to drive 90 miles to get to the theater! Oh, and I am bummed that Bubo isn’t in it; as a kid he was one of my favorite parts of the movie.

Justin: I gave up a long time ago trying to compare movies to their print counterparts. There is just no way they can stay 100% true to the original text AND appeal to a large enough audience to recoup production costs AND keep said audience engaged throughout the show (e.g. removing long-winded speeches and slow moving character development) AND have all the wiz-bang FX that is expected of a blockbuster movie AND keep it under two hours long. As long as it is fun and exciting I am happy.
By Justin, December 18, 2009 @ 11:34 am

Enrico. My brain. So confused.
By Craig, December 18, 2009 @ 11:36 am

Tom Bombadil: The best thing NOT to happen in the Lord of the Rings movies.
By M. Nicodemus, December 18, 2009 @ 11:52 am

Craig: my point exactly
By M. Nicodemus, December 18, 2009 @ 11:55 am

Craig: although I would have liked to see them enact the scene with Tom Bombadil where all the hobbits are running around the forest and swimming in the river buck nekkid.
By Justin, December 18, 2009 @ 11:57 am

M. N.: I’m not expecting “100% true”. I’m expecting “not savagely brutalized and mutilated”. And it bugs the hell out of me that nobody thinks that authentic versions of the Greek myths could not appeal to a wide audience. They aren’t slow-moving and for the most part aren’t full of long-winded speeches.

Don’t get me started on the Xena and Hercules TV shows. Hercules (1300 bc) Ulysses (1200 bc), Homer (750 bc), and Caesar (30BC) all in the same show (and yes I know the first two characters are fictious and probably actually so is the third). It reminds me of the Simpsons episode with the Zorro movie that had King Arthur and President Van Buren in it. *PEDANTIC BRAIN EXPLODES*

Craig — yes, Tom Bombadil was a good thing to miss out. And I did love the movies. For the most part. There was a *lot* that I hated that they either got totally wrong (i.e. they didn’t understand from the original) or they changed for no good reason (i.e. it didn’t make it more accessible, didn’t make the story move faster). I’ve already written too much in this post so that’ll wait for another day.

And by the way Craig. *sniff* for the total lack of interest in the B5 back-story explanation I wrote on your FB wall
By Justin, December 18, 2009 @ 12:01 pm

M. N. — isn’t it “butt naked”?

This is like “duct tape” vs. “duck tape” …

And — frankly — although Sean Astin *can* be cute (especially with a beard) when he’s not chunked out (though he’s no MacKenzie Astin — *woof*), the *****ONLY**** hobbit I would have wanted to see bu(tt)(ck) naked was Dominic Monaghan, of whose nekkidness we did not get to see enough in LOST.
By Craig, December 18, 2009 @ 12:18 pm

Oh no! I loved the B5 explanation! Facebook is just blocked at work, and my time at home is limited so I didn’t get to respond.

I just can’t for the life of me remember stuff like the name Valen. It’s happens with most shows but it’s particularly bad with B5. My short term memory sucks. So when he comes out and says his name is Valen, I’m like “Okay, and?” I wish I could remember this stuff better, but I can’t. It also doesn’t help that I watched Season 2 about a year ago. But thank you very much for the explanation! It was much appreciated and don’t let my late response deter you form explaining later episodes!
By M. Nicodemus, December 18, 2009 @ 12:33 pm

Justin: OK, now we are entering dangerous territory; it is “duct” tape, and for Bageebus sakes if I hear one more person pronounce “caulk” as “cock” I will come unhinged. Oddly, I am fine with being either butt or buck nekkid.
By Enrico, December 18, 2009 @ 12:44 pm

Being sick of tea is like being sick of breathing.
By Justin, December 18, 2009 @ 12:53 pm

Craig — I’m glad you enjoyed it

MN — I know it’s really “duct” tape. Though there is a brand of it actually called “duck tape”.

Enrico — I could not **POSSIBLY** agree more. But then I’m an affected and pretentious anglophile who although he was born in England of English parents was raised from age 4 in the US of A and has no excuse to be such a tea-and-scones fanatic.

And I think you *enjoy* making my brain explode avec les non sequiturs…
By Brian, December 18, 2009 @ 1:26 pm

I was wary about this remake when I first heard about it. Clash of the Titans was one of my favorite movies when I was a kid. However after watching the trailer, I am suddenly *very* excited to see this movie. “Release the Kracken!” Love it!

I hope there is at least little bit of Bubo, the R2D2 owl, in the new movie.
By john, December 18, 2009 @ 2:49 pm

Aww man, what’s with all the hatin’ on Bubo? OK, I’ll admit it was pretty bad and poorly animated (and for Justin’s sake, completely inaccurate), but Athena’s love for her owl was the reason she had Hephaestus make the mechanical one.
By Tam, December 18, 2009 @ 2:53 pm

I don’t like tea. Scones are good though. Or crumpets.
By Dave S., December 18, 2009 @ 2:56 pm

From Kraken to buck naked to duct tape.

Ahh…it’s nice to be back…
By josh, December 18, 2009 @ 3:04 pm

Good observation about the Cloverfield monsta [aka mah future bride].

And anyone else think that the monster at 1:20 looked like the fucked-up eye dude from “Pan’s Labyrinth?”
By john, December 18, 2009 @ 4:27 pm

Josh: YES! Totally looking like the Pale Man.
By Polt, December 18, 2009 @ 5:17 pm

josh, I thought that too!

I’m not at all sure I’ve even seen the original (blasphemy, I know), I’m definitely seeing this one. Kranken, and Pegasi, and giant scorpions, oh MY!

HUGS…
By Mel, December 18, 2009 @ 9:11 pm

Okay, my pedantic nitpick is a fucking giant rattlesnake. A group of species native to the Americas. In Europe. Ancient Greece didn’t even know such creatures existed.
By Justin, December 18, 2009 @ 9:38 pm

In the grand scheme of inaccuracies, Mel, I’m afraid the “fucking giant rattlesnake” is just the least of my worries
By Michelle M., December 18, 2009 @ 10:41 pm

I kinda thought the Kraken looked like a cross between Alien and Predator (well, just from the profile).
The rock music is a little anachronistic – but I guess the trailer wouldn’t be as exciting with lyre music.
I need to look up naga.
I don’t like tea.
By Will, December 20, 2009 @ 1:57 pm

That trailer makes me really happy that Legendary Pictures is handling the Warcraft movie.