You’d be hard-pressed to find a more apathetic actor right now than Sam Worthington, an Australian whose appearances in Terminator Salvation and the gazillion-dollar-grossing Avatar have inexplicably transformed him into Hollywood’s go-to guy for big-budget CGI extravaganzas, the latest being this adequately entertaining remake of the cheesy 1981 fantasy flick.

I’m not saying he’s a bad actor. Just a lazy one. He says his lines, hits his marks and, well, that’s about it. There’s no character in his characters. No fire. That includes his performance here as Perseus, demi-god and son of Zeus (Liam Neeson) who embarks on a mission to find a way to stop a colossal creature created by the gods from destroying mankind.

Worthington is really no worse in the part than the original’s Harry Hamlin, who played the hero as a somewhat vacuous pretty boy, but I still would have appreciated some effort. As it is, Mads Mikkelsen (Casino Royale) does the best thesping as one of the soldiers escorting Worthington on his trek. Neeson and Ralph Fiennes, who plays the god Hades, are suitably theatric.

It’s more about the effects anyway, I suppose, and this thing’s got loads of them, from the eerie sight of Medusa slithering through her underworld lair, to the occasionally frenetic finale featuring the dreaded Kraken (which resembles the Rancor from Return of the Jedi). In the film’s best sequence, Worthington and the soldiers battle a pack of gigantic scorpions in the desert.

Director Louis Letterier (The Transporter) moves the action along briskly and for the most part refrains from any kind of hyperactive editing. This is especially helpful during the energetic sword fights with the disfigured former king known as Calibos (Jason Flemyng), scenes in which Worthington briefly comes to life, jumping and somersaulting about.

In the end the film’s not nearly as enjoyable, nor as memorable, as its predecessor. That movie, while hardly a work of art itself, benefited from Ray Harryhausen’s stop-motion techniques and Laurence Olivier’s scenery chewing. This one’s got Liam Neeson and $125 million worth of CGI, neither of which is nearly enough to make up for a lethargic leading man. – [DVD] [Blu-Ray]

Action/Adventure/Drama/Fantasy

Rated PG-13

DVD Release Date: 7/27/10

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,