A Comparison of Legion and Clash of the Titans

I recently watched both Legion and the new version of Clash of the Titans. While neither movie is great, they do have a common theme; The relationship between humans and their creator(s). Both deal with man abandoning his god(s) and then being attacked by those self same god(s). I found it interesting and probably wouldn’t have noticed it If I hadn’t watched the two movies so close together.


Movies and literature are sometimes able to reflect what our society is feeling or our current trends. They often do so in a subtle way (zombies=commercialism/social conformity). I won’t pretend that either Legion or Clash of the Titans were subtle, but what were the movies really saying and what does that reflect about current society.

In Legion, God is tired of mankind and just decides to wipe us off the Earth. He sends down angels that are more like demons to possess and kill as many people as possible. The title of course comes from the bible quote “My name is legion, for we are many.” The quote deals with a possession by demons. It is worth note that the actual Greek word used is more like country or the space between two limits or an empty expanse (Wikipedia). The movie specifically applies the term legion to the angels that God has sent down to wipe out mankind. The hero is, of course, a fallen angel. The actual roles of good and evil are turned on their heads. The baby, is a Christ figure, but he comes not from a virgin birth but is a child born out of wedlock after the father runs off.

Clash of Titans goes farther. Man is tired of being ruled by the Gods and rebels against them. Mankind is sure of the existence of the gods and actually has encounters with them, but wants to cast them aside. Even though they realize that they were created by the gods and that the gods can destroy them they rebel against their worship, mostly for prideful reasons. The queen felt she was more beautiful than Hera or some goddess, I can’t remember, and the king wanted the people to bow to him and not to Zeus. The people who still chose to worship the gods were represented by the crazy “the end is nigh” guy.

As you can see, both movies question religion and the role of a God or gods. In the end of both movies we find the gods caring and forgiving and willing to pass along the rule of the land to humanity. In both movies, the gods seem willing to take a back seat and fade into nothingness. This, I think is the intended reflection on society. Humanity, currently would like to give up on the whole god system. As a whole, we want to become our own gods. People are mislead to believe that science can explain life, while it can’t. I am not sure these movies realized what they were doing. Actually, I am pretty sure they didn’t. So, there is no way of knowing if they were celebrating or critiquing it.

Regardless of the movie themes of God giving up on us or us giving up on God, the outcome is the same. People no longer have faith, or have misplaced their faith in man. As a Christian, I feel it is encouraging that these movies were not well accepted. Maybe the messages of these movies don’t represent our society.

Or maybe I just over analyzed two mediocre movies.

Clash of the Titans: A Comparison

Image via Wikipedia

I have watched the two versions of Clash of the Titans, not back to back, but within a week or so of each other. I will attempt to compare and contrast the two movies.

Accuracy- Neither movie is historically accurate and take several liberties with Greek Mythology. Some are okay with this as Greek Mythology is constantly contradicting itself. The more recent incarnation has the burden of being accurate to the first movie. It isn’t. . . at all, which is strange, seeing how the original was quite well loved. They both get failing marks for accuracy, but I don’t think either even tried.

Graphics- You know what? I prefer the claymation of the original to the slick CG of the remake. They were able to make everything smoother and shinier, but I think the herky jerkyness and roughness of the monsters added to the original. Hands down the new movie had better graphics, but I don’t think it helped the movie.

Acting- They were both lacking in this even though they both had some heavyweights. This isn’t a movie that you go to see the actors act. It is an action movie. It looked as though a lot of people weren’t even trying on the new one. The old wins because people were taking themselves seriously.

Story- The new one finally gets a win here. They made an attempt at a coherent storyline. The original just kind of picked Perseus up and puts him down in situation after situation. I am not saying that the new story was good, but it made a bit more sense than the original. I mean, the Greek legend still made the most sense.

Charm- This is where the original separates itself. It had loads of charm. It was iconic and daring. The new movie was almost boring, and that is the cardinal sin for an action movie.

Babes- Another win for the remake as Io was drop dead gorgeous. I have not seen Gemma Atterton in enough movies, but I like.

The winner is the original by a landslide in my book. Let me know if you disagree and why in the comments.