comment #1

Eloi Manning says ...

It's closer to the Colin Farrell of the early '00s than Bale. Came out of nowhere to suddenly be in several high profile tentpoles in the space of a few years.

I like Worthington enough. He's a bloke, not a girly man. There's a dearth of credible action stars in Hollywood at the moment. At least he looks like he can handle himself in a fight. And I think he's popular among filmmakers because he's professional and gets on with the job without any fuss.

comment #2

drbob says ...

There is nothing bordline embarassing about old school stop-motion animation, especially when created by the master, Ray Harryhausen.

comment #3

Nick X says ...

TITANS...

WILL...

CLASH.

(Clash of the Titans.)

Fucking lame.

comment #4

mitchtaylor says ...

...give me the obviously phony strugglings of Perseus and Calibus which are nonetheless reflecting ACTUAL PHOTONS into a camera lens over the renderings of something inside a computer that could not possibly comprehend the notion that light can be BOTH a wave and a particle as it would short out its binary conceptual framework to suggest so...

comment #5

arch451 says ...

I have never seen such rampant speculation over star potential on the part of movie producers. However, Worthington does not have to carry these types of movies that are completely over-saturated by digital effects.

comment #6

Rich S. says ...

I love Harryhausen, but I always thought Clash of the Titans was one of his lesser efforts. Hence, I have no problem with a remake, particularly one that looks like as much dumb fun as this one does. I doubt Neeson, Fiennes, et. al. will leave a single square inch of scenery unchewed. Thank the gods they're not taking it seriously.

comment #7

Eloi Manning says ...

Yeah, that tagline made me laugh. I wonder how much they get paid for such genius.

comment #8

Chase Kahn says ...

Worthington made me perk up a little in "Terminator: Salvation" if for no other reason than I actually wished he was John Connor.

comment #9

GKLondon says ...

I still find this exaggerated hatred of CG strange.

I watched 'Jason and the Argonauts' with my wife this weekend, we both love it, and the stop-motion is excellent, but given the limitations of the process, do you really think Harryhausen would not use computers were he working today?

The key to the success of his work is the design and the character he imbued these lumpy objects with when he brought them to life. Also, no one else was really doing this sort of stuff, save Phil Tippet and a few others, so people took all they could get.

Is this hatred based on saturation? Personally, I am intoxicated by the possibilities of CG, realising that the technology has, like everything, those who use it well (Del Toro, Fincher) and those who don't (a long, looooong list).

comment #10

actionman says ...

wish I could say it looks better than it does...it looks like

not sold at all on Worthington; he's a blank-slate

some of the FX work is dodgy but some of it is impressive

still, i like some of what Leterrier seems to be going for with the hand-held camera work. i still think his movie Unleashed is severely underrated as a piece of genre entertainment, and i still think it's his best film to date

comment #11

actionman says ...

wish I could say it looks better than it does...it looks like 300-lite (and by lite I mean PG-13 and not as singularly focused)

comment #12

Mark says ...

The apt Worthington comparison is Eric Bana eight years ago. Propels an AFI Best Actor award into co-headlining several back-to-back tentpoles. (Black Hawk Down, Troy, Hulk, Munich.)

comment #13

Josh Massey says ...

SALVATION! WILL! TERMINATE!

Wait, did you call Munich a tentpole?

comment #14

VictorLazlo says ...

I'm all for a full on Greek Mythology movie. Sadly this looks like 300 when it could have been more LORD OF THE RINGS/ STAR WARS. I am so tired of the "golden" filter look.

comment #15

Mark says ...

Black Hawk = Salvation

Avatar = Hulk

Troy = Titans

Munich = The Debt

Lucky You = Mad Max 4

Not perfect, but more apt than Bale or Ferrill, as the movies are immediately huge in scale.

comment #16

lipranzer says ...

Could we please retire the term "girlie man"?

GK London, CGI is, as you say, a tool, but as you also point out, there's a large number of filmmakers who don't know how to use it well, and think it's the end-all and be-all (or, probably more accurate, the studios think it's the end-all and be-all), which is irritating to watch.

comment #17

Ponderer says ...

"..give me the obviously phony strugglings of Perseus and Calibus which are nonetheless reflecting ACTUAL PHOTONS into a camera lens over the renderings of something inside a computer that could not possibly comprehend the notion that light can be BOTH a wave and a particle as it would short out its binary conceptual framework to suggest so..."

So I guess photography is better than all that made-up painting shit? I mean, photography captures something real, whereas painting is just a bunch of goo smears.

And for the record, according to AICN, Clash uses an enormous amount of on-set PRACTICAL effects, which should trump both traditional and CGI work, no?

comment #18

Colin says ...

Bale did American Psycho, The Machinist and other small performance driven films before he did the Batman franchise.

Worthington, if anything, will be what Schwarzenneger was in the 80's.

comment #19

dinovelvet says ...

Nobody will ever be what Schwarzenegger was in the 80s. It can't happen again.

I'm OK with Sam Worthington, this film looks like a good bit of fun, and he looks like he could at least whup some ass in real life. Overexposure/early burnout might be a problem if either this or Avatar flops.

The worst/best example of one of these empty It Boys who are suddenly stars for some reason is Orlando Bloom. Talk about a guy who suddenly went from hot to "where is he now?"

comment #20

Eloi Manning says ...

Orlando Bloom didn't really have much to him before he made it big. He made fuck-all really of note before he was cast as the elf whose name escapes me at the moment.

Worthington at least has some pretty solid stuff he did in Australia behind him. I think he has the chops. He's a quiet performer, not really flashy, and I think that's why he works in CGI epics. He doesn't distract from the absurdity on display. A bit like why Keanu was perfect for The Matrix.

comment #21

Aladdin Sane says ...

I've only seen Worthington in Terminator: Salvation, so I will wait to reserve judgment on whether or not he is the next whomever. I did like him though - I thought the last Terminator was at least better than the 3rd.
But yeah, his ascension is unbelievable in some regards. Hopefully it pays off in the long term for him (artistically speaking).
As for Clash of the Titans - beyond the dumber than dumb tag line in the trailer - I gotta say, it looks fun. Would rather watch this than Prince of Persia.

comment #22

M. Hulot says ...

Just like Bana, Worthington is BORING. He has zero star quality. And his acting ability is mediocre at best.

How does this guy continue to get work? He's either really cheap, or made a deal with the devil?

He would be great in a remake of Jeff Speakman's The Perfect Weapon.

comment #23

Eloi Manning says ...

Bana's not boring - he's just been cast in some boring roles. Chopper ain't boring.

comment #24

M. Hulot says ...

Yeah, you're right. Chopper isn't boring.

That's ONE movie he hasn't been boring in. ONE.

comment #25

lbeale says ...

Where is Toshiro Mifune when we need him?

comment #26

dinovelvet says ...

I don't know if Worthington is going to be one of the greats of our time, but I don't think its really fair to judge him on his performance in a movie that was directed by McG.

comment #27

dinovelvet says ...

Oh and Mads Mikkelsen FTW.

comment #28

frankbooth says ...

"Worthington made me perk up a little in "Terminator: Salvation" if for no other reason than I actually wished he was John Connor."

I actually wished he could maintain a consistent accent.

And yeah, it is weird about Bana. Was the charisma he showed in Chopper actually Chopper's?

Ibeale, Mifune is right there in your local art-house and on DVD. Skip this frenetic, derivative crap and watch one of his movies instead. (Ever seen Samurai Rebellion? That's a good one.)

comment #29

DeeZee says ...

Worthington seems like Channing Tatum, if he actually hit puberty, but that's about it. I also like how they're trying to play up the Middle Eastern war allegory from 300, even though the source material has nothing to do with it. As for the FX, they look like a slightly more polished version of the Kevin Sorbo Hercules, but that's about it.

comment #30

TheGK says ...

I'll reserve judgement here. The trailer doesn't give away much regarding the acting or what's going on except a whirlwind of incomprehensible mayhem.