- Whatever its other qualities, Clash of the Titans remains, even thirty years after its release, the best film depiction of the Greek Pantheon that I have ever seen. As presented here, the Olympians are petty, subtle, and arrogant. They scheme against one another, holding old grudges and using humans as their pawns in a very literal sense. Offend them and they send the monstrous Kraken to destroy your city. Their behavior reminds me of my favorite lines from King Lear, "As flies to wanton boys are we to the gods. They kill us for their sport." Even the casting of the gods is inspired, with the authoritative Sir Laurence Olivier as Zeus, the beautiful Ursula Andress as Aphrodite, and the imposing Maggie Smith as Thetis.
- Clash of the Titans' other claim to fame, of course, is that it was the last feature film for which Ray Harryhausen provided the visual effects. By this time, Harryhausen was already recognized as the uncontested master of stop-motion animation whose work, to put it bluntly, made otherwise uninspired films like Jason and the Argonauts eminently watchable. Though Clash of the Titans has slightly more to recommend it than just its effects, Harryhausen's outstanding talents are displayed here to great effect. The Pegasus flies in as believable a manner as a flying horse can. The mechanical owl, Bubo, looks like it could have been constructed from pieces of the Antikythera mechanism. For me, the film's highlight is the hideous Medusa, who drags her slithering bulk across the floor like a snake. The film handles her terrifying emergence so well, in fact, that later battles with giant scorpions and the Kraken actually pale in comparison.
- While the film treats its gods and monsters with equal skill, I am sorry to report that the human characters are generally much less compelling. With the exception of the always excellent Burgess Meridith as the playwright Ammon, the other cast members, including Harry Hamlin as Perseus and Judi Bowker as Andromeda, lack even the charm of their stop-motion adversaries. This is particularly obvious in the case of the deformed villain Calibos, for whom Neil McCarthy occasionally stands in as a disappointing substitute for his clay counterpart. Speaking of Calibos, purists may complain that the writers play a little too fast-and-loose with Greek mythology. True, the Kraken wasn't a titan, but details like that are far beneath the consideration of a film like this. The point I took away was that the gods were fickle, the monsters were great, and the humans...well, things work out okay for them in the end.
- The Cerberus-like guardian of the underworld had only two heads because, according to Ray Harryhausen, three is too tough.
