The most drastic changes in the film come at the expense of the gods. Many watching the movie wonder why Danny Huston would have been hired to play Poseidon when he has almost absolutely nothing to do in the film; the answer is that nearly two thirds of the business with the gods was edited out of the film, and the very tenor of the god scenes was changed in fundamental ways.
Yeah I was wondering why Huston was in it for a second, just like Alex "Dr. Bashir" Siddig. I wanted to see more of those Gods from the background, and some intrigues and plotting would have been great.
In the original version of Clash, Zeus is the bad guy. He's a god who has sort of lost it, and it's unmistakably his fault that the humans have turned against the Olympians. The rest of the gods play a significant role in events, especially Apollo and Athena, who barely appear in the theatrical cut of the film. The younger generation of gods are afraid, realizing that Zeus' mismanagement has led them to a serious crossroads in their history, and that if they don't take action, they'll lose all their power.
Meanwhile, the very nature of Perseus' quest is quite different in the original version. As I mentioned in my review, my visit to the set of the film had revealed that Gemma Arterton considered the relationship between her character Io and Perseus as a brother/sister one; the finished film isn't quite so fraternal, with the two having a romantic connection. But Arterton was speaking before the reshoots that redefined the relationship.
Yeah, halfway through the film I thought: She has more of a mentor / aide status, don't turn Io into the love interest. In the end I wasn't hoping for Andromeda to turn out to be the one either, though, because her and Perseus did not have much screen time together.
In the original version Perseus was in fact romantically drawn to Andromeda, giving Alexa Davalos much more to do. But there was more to it all than that; while falling for Andromeda gave Perseus a better reason to go questing in the first cut (as you'll recall the finished film has him hitting the road only to get vengeance on Hades, a concept that was added in reshoots), it also gave the script a chance to lay out some of the film's basic thematic points. Perseus felt that it was important to save Andromeda not just because of how he felt about her but because he believed no humans should be sacrificed to placate the gods. To Perseus the quest was not just to save the woman he loved but was also a way to prove a fundamental belief - that humans were just as, if not more, important than the gods. To Perseus sacrificing anyone to the gods was the act of a subservient people who were in bondage, and that humans should break free of that bondage. There are elements of this secular humanist viewpoint in the finished film, but this was a much bigger, more important aspect in the original.
That makes sense, and with more scenes laying out this between Perseus and Andromeda, their love story could have worked.
These changes are, technically, minor - but they add up in a big way. The theatrical cut of the movie repositions Zeus from a more villainous character to a bumbling but sympathetic distant dad. Yeah, maybe he raped Perseus' mom, but he's not that bad a guy, and he's there for his son in the end. By making some judicious cuts and reshooting only a few scenes, the current cut of Clash betrays the spirit of the shooting script.
I was fine with Zeus changing his mind when seeing Perseus struggle, especially with Neeson playing him. I would not have liked Zeus being really evil, more...misguided. But I liked the final scene between him and Perseus, so I hope it would have come to their being okay with each other either way.
To start off - there's no defeat of Hades in the original script. While Hades is a villainous story motivator, he's not the Big Bad of the tale, so Perseus is only dealing with the Kraken in the finale. Perseus' victory, along with Apollo and Athena's help, reveals Hades as a manipulator and the gods are able to crack down on him. This is a huge improvement simply because Perseus casting Hades back to the underworld is so unsatisfying in the theatrical cut; it's not a real victory of any sort, since Perseus' quest in the film was to kill Hades and he doesn't really do that.
Hades's defeat was a bit silly, indeed. Him getting shit from the Olympians instead and having to draw back would have been much stronger.
There are other, smaller changes from the shooting script, many of which flesh out the group who travel with Perseus on his quest. The original script reads more like a men on a mission movie, with each character having their own moments.
I found Perseus' group was one of the stronger parts of the film. Of course it would have been great had they been fleshed out even more.
What now? Some script changes were made on set, so some scenes never got shot, but there is a ton of footage of the gods that exists. Could there be a director's cut of the movie one day released? There are two major obstacles to that at the moment: first of all, all of the god scenes presumably need FX work (all of the Olympus scenes have a processed, fantastical look, and the floor of Olympus is a very cool birds-eye view of Greece, which I'm assuming is CGI). But more sticky is the fact that this cut would be a movie that has a completely different throughline and ending. With Clash performing as it is it's not unlikely that a sequel could be greenlit, so would Warner Bros want to put out a version of the movie that completely contradicts whatever will come next for the franchise?
Yep, the ending smelled of sequel.
I didn't find the movie felt like a mess or anything, but this version sounds like it would have had a lot more depth. Here's to hoping for a director's cut.
*MySmiley*
You mustn't be afraid to dream a little bigger, darling.
You mustn't be afraid to dream a little bigger, darling.
By Zeus! The Version of Clash of the Titans You Didn't See (Spoilers)
- 10/04/2010 12:47:38 AM
989 Views
That's interesting.
- 10/04/2010 03:21:38 PM
628 Views
- 10/04/2010 03:30:20 PM
431 Views
- 10/04/2010 03:30:20 PM
431 Views
I am becoming steadily less enthusiastic about this film
- 10/04/2010 03:23:41 PM
493 Views
Just enjoy for what it is if you decide to see it. It's not cerebral. It's a simple movie.
- 12/04/2010 12:33:51 AM
461 Views
That sounds much more awesome. I found the film a big disappointment *NM*
- 14/04/2010 01:28:34 AM
244 Views