Personally, I rather liked the original. Stop motion is impressive, as Wallace and Grommit continue to prove. Yes, the merging of the stop motion with the live action was not very convincing at times, but it still had a certain charm.
Apart from the title and the theme of using Greek mythology as "inspiration", the new film has very little in common with the original. The story is completely different, as are many of the characters. So no, not a remake. It's not even a "re-interpretation" since the original film was itself a hybrid of several Greek myths thrown together.
This is a totally new beast.
And yes, they have ditched Bubo.
The new synopsis:
"In the film, the ultimate struggle for power pits men against kings and kings against gods. But the war between the gods themselves could destroy the world. Born of a god but raised as a man, Perseus (Worthington) is helpless to save his family from Hades (Fiennes), vengeful god of the underworld. With nothing left to lose, Perseus volunteers to lead a dangerous mission to defeat Hades before he can seize power from Zeus (Neeson) and unleash hell on Earth. Leading a daring band of warriors, Perseus sets off on a perilous journey deep into forbidden worlds. Battling unholy demons and fearsome beasts, he will only survive if he can accept his power as a god, defy his fate and create his own destiny."
So, more clash of the Olympians than Clash of the Titans actually – at least the first film did actually have Titans clashing. Barring the presence of Gods, Perseus and Andromeda, this resembles the first film not at all. By the sounds of it this doesn't even much resemble the Greek myths either, but is original made up Hollywood nonsense, the sadly so-typical "we'll use the names but forget the actual characters and events and make up our own bastard child versions that resemble the source not-at-all". Which drives me crazy incidentally. Actually using the Greek mythologies, albeit all mashed together, was something the original had going for it.
Hades trying to take down Zeus? Hades, now some kind of "Dark Lord," trying to make hell on Earth? Err, I must have missed that one in the mythologies. Talk about not understanding your material.
There was no "war betwen the Gods" – not the Olympian Gods anyway – it was the Giants and the Titans they fought, before the Olympians even came to power. They then squabbled by proxy in such conflicts as Troy, using mortals as pawns in their games and petty rivalries – the original Clash of the Titans actually got that right. But they were never in open war with one another. Hades wasn't a dark lord/devil/satan type figure bent on overthrowing his brother and his underworld wasn't a christian/judean type hell. But seemingly that's what we'll get this time around.
Oh dear.
I could actually take the original seriously. I fear it is this one I will struggle with.
