Clash of the titans

Harry Hamlin stars in this film as Perseus, the Greek mythological character, a gifted impetuous youth, sent on a heroic quest. His mission is to fight the deadly creature Kraken, a towering sea monster that is the last of the powerful Titans. If Perseus succeeds he will win the hand of the beautiful Andromeda, an imprisoned princess, and gain the ownership of half the kingdom. Having embarked on his quest, Perseus is aided by Pegasus, the winged horse and Ammon, a benevolent playwright. Laurence Olivier stars as the God Zeus and Maggie Smith as Thetis, a Greek Goddess with magical powers. Ray Harryhausen (who worked on Jason and the Argonauts) utilised his skills and experience to create stop animation for many sequences, which to modern CGI eyes can seem quite dated. Some impressive cinematography is let down by the clunky dialogue and inexpressive face of lead Harry Hamlin but the film is fun and provides a background to the wonderful world of Greek mythology. Conceived in the wake of the phenomenal success of “Star Wars”, “Clash of the titans” did not reach its expected audience who were flooding instead to the thrills of “Raiders of the lost ark”.