Rating: 3/5
Anti-Criterion Challenge 2024 | 30/52 | A character that has more than 4 limbs
Argive soldiers, led by King Acrisius, carry a wooden box through hazardous terrain to the sea. He calls Zeus to bear witness as Acrisius drowns his daughter Danaë and her infant son Perseus. The soldiers put Danaë and Perseus in the wooden box and cast it into the sea.
A seagull carries the news to Mount Olympus and Zeus. Though Acrisius has shown devotion to the gods in the past, this murder stirs Zeus’ ire. He calls for Acrisius’s death and for Poseidon to pull out all the stops to destroy Argos — namely, to release the Kraken.
Hera doesn’t understand why Zeus shows no mercy. Thetis and Aphrodite give her the big secret. Zeus loves Danaë, and Perseus is Zeus’s son. And so, Danaë and Perseus float to Serifos where he grows to adulthood and learns some sick horse tricks.
Because it’s Greek mythology, we get an onslaught of betrayals, retributions, and transforming dudes into monsters. Perseus is our hero, though, so we watch him use Zeus’s power and Thetis’ jealous rage to take on the Kraken, the Gorgon, and whatnot.
This film has a few things going for it. Foremost, they get Ray Harryhausen to do the special effects in his signature Dynamation. Also, you get my boy Laurence Olivier to play Zeus, and baby, we got a stew going.
I could list off half the cast with excitement but look at the cast list. Producer Charles H. Schneer wanted the movie to feel like an epic theatrical experience and not a genre flick (which it is), so he sought bigger names for the gods. Many agreed to do it because their scenes took eight days to finish.
The plotting is the weak link here. I don’t care about anyone or why they do anything in this movie. And that’s, like, a huge part of this movie.
The Gorgon fight is so good! If only the whole movie was of this caliber.
Also, Judi Bowker.