Harryhausen definitely went all out for his final film he would work on, and considering how I love Harryhausen and Greek and Roman Mythology, it worked like bread and butter. The stop motion is top notch as always for Harryhausen, and the acting is also very well done especially Burgess Meredith as the playwright
Ammon, then newcomer Harry Hamlin as the protagonist Perseus, and Laurence Olivier as Zeus. The effects look good if you invest yourself in the time this film was made, and though it looks really cheesy now and somewhat bad, for the time it looks incredible, such as the blue screen effect where Perseus is riding a Stop Motion Pegasus in the sky. The plot is also very well told and the characters do a great job at telling this story. Though the only thing I find distracting in this movie is the nudity and gore in this film, because I know the R rating existed at the time this was created, but it was pretty shocking to see a womans breasts once and a womans bare behind, now I know at the time where this movie took place that was common, but when you look at it now, a film couldn't be made like this nowadays and not be R. But overall Harryhausen does fantastic at animating this stop motion and the story is well crafted just like the monsters in it.
July 12, 2011
