Clash of the Titans and Serenity just couldn’t get a break with critics. They say that Clash is “slow and clunky”, the acting is bad, the effects are bad. Serenity is “too much like television.” Leonard Maltin called it a “low rent Star Wars,” which makes no sense, as all Star Wars and Serenity have in common are rickety spaceships with outlaw captains.
So, what’s with the mad Clash hate? Is this an instance when an old movie is held ot modern visual standards? Yes, the Kraken and Medusa and other monsters move about in a herky jerky fashion. It’s stop motion, genius!! The model is moved a fraction of a millimeter for each frame, and then each frame is strung together. Yeah, it’s jerky. Clash of the Titans was released in 1981, when animation and monsters were still done by hand rather than CGI. And at the time, it was awesome.
I just think if someone is going to criticize the visual look of a movie, it should be criticized by the standards of the day, not what’s current. That’s all I’m saying.
Clash of the Titans is the story of Perseus, a mortal son of Zeus, and his attempt to save Andromeda from. . . CERTAIN DEATH!!!!! It takes wild liberties with the actual myth, combines it with other myths and just makes some stuff up. But, Ray Harryhausen’s effects were good for the time it was made. Calibos, the Kraken and Medusa were the scariest things I’d ever seen at that point.
However, it’s the scenes on Mt. Olympus that are the most worthwhile. The gods and goddesses are played by respected British actors including Lawrence Olivier as Zeus and Maggie Smith as Thetis. I love the gods and goddesses standing around playing games with miniature figures that represent humans.
Helpful hint: don’t watch this movie with a classics major. I watched it in college once with a friend who was studying ancient literature in Greek and Latin and every few minutes she’d go on another tirade about the liberties taken with the mythology. It was about as much fun as watching X-Men 3 with Harry Knowles. I wanted to kill her.
Serenity was better than I hoped it would be. Whedon did a nice job of catching up people who weren’t familiar with Firefly. Those people probably weren’t as moved by the deaths of Wash and Shepherd Book as the Whedonites, but who cares? The willingness to kill off main characters created real tension at the climax. Since I don’t read spoilers, I really didn’t know if the gang was going to make it or not when attacked by a gaggle of mad Reavers.
The only real complaint I had with Serenity was Mr. Universe, who I thought should have been older. David Krumholtz seemed too young to have developed that kind of weird behavior brought on by years of isolation. Tom Waits or Iggy Pop fit the image much better.
The movies are on equal footing when it comes to story: each is valid and makes sense. I can’t choose a winner based on visuals, because in 1981, Clash was cool. Serenity does a better job of developing characters than Clash of the Titans. It has more humor, and it’s humor that doesn’t feel forced and artificial; it’s all appropriate to the characters. Clash is largely made up of static characters. The delivery feels very staged, like watching a local theater group perform Shakespeare in the park. Also, the robotic owl was silly. It was a little too much like Dagget and R2-D2 had a baby.
Serenity wins this match and it’s back to the shelf for Clash of the Titans.
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Lisa Fary's earliest influences are Princess Leia, Rainbow Bright, Astronaut Barbie, and her 6th grade teacher, Ms. Palmer. She's angry that it's 2011 and she still doesn't have a hovercraft, but will accept a jetpack as consolation. That jetpack had better be pink with a rhinestone monogram. 
Yaaaay Serenity! “I love my captain.” *swoon*(Though I think Clash of the Titans is a fun flick.)
I read that there is a Clash remake in development. There’s no one attached to it, hopefully it won’t be a made-for-tv nightmare.
“Clash of the Titans” is a classic. How many movies can boast a cast of Harry Hamlin, Burgess Meredith, and Laurence Olivier?
I love Josh Whedon, Nathan Fillion, Firefly, and “Serenity”, but I’d still have to go with “Clash of the Titans”. Granted Harry Hamlin’s acting is a tad wooden but it’s covered by the awesome cast of supporting actors and actresses he was working with. I love Ray Harryhausen too; I think the man is a genius. The only thing that could have made the movie better is if Burgess Meredith had called Medusa a punk.
Unlike many SciFi fans who haunt the internet, I’m not a big fan of “Serenity”. It’s an okay-ish SciFi yarn with 2-dimensional characters. That said, it knocks “Clash of the Titans” into a cocked hat. Obviously you can’t expect 21st Century SFX in a 1980s movie but you have every right to expect SOME progress since “Jason and the Argonauts” two decades earlier. Oh, and that mechanical owl-thing – possibly the worst idea for a sidekick until George Lucas foisted Jar-Jar Binks on us!