Clash of the Titans

""Release the Kraken!""

Clash of the Titans is the 1981 film adaptation of the Greek myth of Perseus. Stop motion animation was used extensively in many special effects, and the monsters were created by Ray Harryhausen, who retired from filmmaking shortly after Clash was released. Stephen R. Wilk wrote in 2000 that "most people today who are aware of the story of Perseus and Medusa owe their knowledge to the 1981 film Clash of the Titans."

A remake was released in April, 2010. Reception has been mixed, but pretty much all have described it as 120 minutes of monsters, with little explanation of the plot. Which only vaguely resembles the plot of the original anyway. And by "vaguely" we mean "the monsters are the same, mostly." Whether that works is completely up to you. A sequel, Wrath of the Titans, was released in April 2012.

Not to be confused with Class of the Titans, Crash of the Titans or Trash of the Titans.

Clash of the Titans (1981)
"Thetis: If my son is not to marry her, then no man will. ... As my Calibos suffers, so will Andromeda."
 * Absurdly Sharp Blade: Perseus's magical sword can slice through marble. It never really needs to, but it does need to quickly behead Medusa, whose scales are as hard as iron.
 * Adaptation Distillation: Alan Dean Foster's novelization goes to great lengths, and largely succeeds, in reconciling the story with more standard Greek Mythology.
 * Alternate DVD Commentary: Courtesy of Rifftrax. DVD Podblast blasted the remake, as well.
 * Amusing Alien: Bubo the robot-owl.
 * Ancient Greece
 * Baleful Polymorph: Calibos, who is turned into a beastman by Zeus as a punishment.
 * Beauty Equals Goodness
 * Because Destiny Says So: "Find and fulfill your destiny."
 * Big Damn Heroes: Oh no! The Kraken is about to eat Andromeda! Perseus and Pegasus to the rescue!
 * Bloody Murder: Medusa's blood becomes scorpions when it falls on the ground after Calibos stabs her severed head.
 * Caustic Critic: David Ansen of Newsweek memorably titled his review of this, "Thud of the Beefcake."
 * Chained to A Rock: Andromeda.
 * Claymation
 * Clockwork Creature: Bubo the clockwork owl, sent by Athena as a guide.
 * Cold Sniper: Medusa. As if the petrifying gaze wasn't enough...
 * Cool Old Guy: Ammon.
 * Disproportionate Retribution: In retaliation for his lover and son being sentenced to death, Zeus orders the death of their attempted killer, King Acrisius of Argos. Fair enough. But then he orders the destruction of all of Argos and the deaths of all its inhabitants, too. Later in the film, Thetis does the same thing, declaring that all of Joppa must die in retribution for Calibos's maiming and Cassiopeia's insult.
 * Distressed Damsel: Andromeda, near the end.
 * Divine Chessboard: Perseus and Calibos are both guided by opposing gods, Zeus and Thetis respectively... in a very literal fashion, too! The gods have clay statuettes of their favorites that they move about as they wish in a model amphitheater.
 * Dramatic Necklace Removal
 * Dull Surprise: Harry Hamlin's performance as Perseus.
 * Dwindling Party: All the soldiers end up dead.
 * Engagement Challenge
 * Expy: Calibos = Caliban from William Shakespeare's The Tempest.
 * Everythings Better With Sparkles: Hello, Olympus! (And even moreso in the 2010 film, with its computer-generated sparkles and shines.)
 * Eyeless Face: The three Stygian Witches (i.e. Graeae) had no eye sockets, but they traded a single crystalline "eye" between them. Perseus steals it to get information from them.
 * Fantasy Kitchen Sink: The Kraken is from Norse Mythology. The original creature was Cetus, a giant whale, but it was apparently switched because the writer thought "kraken" sounded cooler. Ray Harryhausen changed the look from a giant squid or octopus to a four-armed humanoid because he thought it looked cooler.
 * Genre Savvy: Ammon, due to being a poet and playwright of stories very much like Perseus' and dealing with some of the same characters, including Medusa.
 * Giant Flyer: Calibos' pet vulture. Mr. Harryhausen dug his giant flying beasties.
 * Go for The Eye: Perseus says this exact phrase when he orders Bubo to steal Stygian Witches' crystal eyeball.
 * Grandpa God: Zeus.
 * Half Human Hybrid: Perseus, as a demigod, fits this trope.
 * Hand Signals: Perseus uses them twice: once before meeting Bubo and while approaching Medusa's lair.
 * Harryhausen Movie: It was more about the animated beasties than the actual plot, really.
 * The Heros Journey
 * Hollywood Torches: In Calibos' encampment and in Medusa's lair.
 * If I Can't Have You:

"Ammon: This would make a fine heroic poem you know. Or perhaps a play..."
 * I Should Write a Book About This:

"Perseus: Just believe me when I say I that I did see you. And the sight of you burst straight through me like an arrow. ... From that moment, I knew that I loved you."
 * Kaiju: The Kraken.
 * Kraken: ↑
 * Love At First Sight:

"Stygian Witch: [Medusa's blood] is deadly and poisonous. But you have touched the eye. Just as it has the power to give us sight, so it can make your cloak -- your red cloak -- proof against the blood."
 * Magi Babble:


 * Mauve Shirt: Thallo. Up until Calibos deals with him.
 * Meaningful Name: Bubo the Owl.
 * Medusa
 * Money Dear Boy: Part of the reason Laurence Olivier was cast as Zeus. Probably the same with Maggie Smith.
 * Ms. Fanservice: Danae and Andromeda show some T&A.
 * Non Human Sidekick: Bubo
 * Non Indicative Name: The title would seem to have you believe that at least two titans will clash at some point in the film. No actual Titans from Greek mythology show up. The Kraken is, at one point, called "the last of the Titans," which would seem to preclude it from clashing with any others. They might has well have left that line out and just tried to play off that "Titan" is supposed to mean "monster."
 * Offing the Offspring: Queen Cassiopeia must sacrifice her virgin daughter Andromeda because she pissed off Thetis. In her own temple. King Acrisius also tries to off Perseus as a child, which would actually be Offing the Offspring's Offspring.
 * Oh My Gods: Ammon's Catch Phrase is, "By the gods!"
 * Overprotective Dad: The film's explanation for why Acrisius "grew jealous and kept [Danae] guarded from the eyes of men, locked behind iron doors" (in the original myth, this was partly due to a prophecy that his grandson would kill him, but You Can't Fight Fate).
 * Owl Be Damned: Subverted by the serene Bubo the owl and his comic relief robotic counterpart.
 * Pegasus
 * Poison Is Corrosive: Medusa's blood
 * Race Lift: In all versions of Clash of the Titans, Andromeda is portrayed as a white European. In the original Greek myths, she was from Ethiopia, a sub-Saharan African country.
 * Red Shirt: Any soldier who goes with Perseus on his quest.
 * Sadly Mythtaken: Amphitrite is the wife of Poseidon in Greek mythology, while Thetis is generally a sea nymph, though some suggest that she was a full goddess, as the film portrays, although she was certainly not among the central circle who dwelt on Olympus.
 * Snake People: Medusa
 * Shadow Discretion Shot: Calibos' transformation from man to monster. Necessary in that such effects were otherwise impossible to render cheaply in 1981.
 * Shout Out: The Kraken bears a strong resemblance to Ymir from Twenty Million Miles To Earth, also animated by Ray Harryhausen. In the remake there was also a brief scene where Perseus was getting ready to depart from Argos with the rest of the group, he pulled out the mechanical owl from the original film and asked what it was, to which was the response "it's nothing, leave it".
 * Standard Hero Reward
 * Stay in The Kitchen: "Too perilous [a journey] for a princess."
 * To which Andromeda responds with all due spunk, "You are not my lord and master. Not yet!" and comes along on the trip to the Stygian Witches anyway. Perseus later does ditch her for her own safety when he finds out he has to fight Medusa.
 * Summon Bigger Fish: Using Medusa on the Kraken.
 * Supernatural Aid: Perseus' helmet, sword, shield, and Bubo.
 * Sword and Sandal: The fantasy subtype thereof.
 * Taken for Granite: Medusa's victims: Two of Perseus' soldiers and the Kraken.
 * Team Pet: Bubo the robot-owl.
 * The Eyes Have It: The statue of Thetis when she's about to throw down.
 * This Way to Certain Death: The statues outside Medusa's lair.
 * Throwing Your Sword Always Works: How Perseus finishes off.
 * Title Drop: Close -- one of the Stygian Witches refers to Perseus using Medusa to defeat the Kraken as "A Titan against a Titan!"
 * Yet neither is a Titan... (it's a Gorgon vs. a sea monster)
 * Traveling At the Speed of Plot: Perseus' journey back to Joppa on Pegasus as Andromeda's sacrifice is being carried out.
 * The Unintelligible: Bubo, except to Perseus.
 * Ammon eventually figures out what he's saying.
 * Virgin Sacrifice
 * Walking Shirtless Scene: Harry Hamlin as Perseus.
 * Wax Museum Morgue: Albeit stone instead of wax.
 * What Happened to The Mouse: There were three giant scorpions, but only two were killed...
 * The X of Y
 * Your Princess Is in Another Castle: Yay, Joppa's free of its curse! Let's throw a party!...

Clash of the Titans (2010)
"Perseus: Screw you, Dad! I'm going to live as a man! [Flies away on Pegasus with immortal girlfriend and magic sword.]"
 * 3D Movie: Although it wasn't filmed that way.
 * Adaptational Attractiveness: Medusa (the source of that image - page 5 of the slideshow - even asks "why is a monster whose face is supposed to be able to turn any man into stone being played by one of the world’s most beautiful models?")
 * This becomes Fridge Logic if one knows that Medusa received her curse because she was so very beautiful driving Posiedon to rape her in Athena's temple. Whether or not she was made so grotesque that her face turned men to stone - or retained her beauty but had her gaze cursed so that "no man could look upon her" is a matter of interpretation.
 * Anachronism Stew: The gods are wearing medieval European suits of armor! Contrast with the goddesses, who wear classic Hellenic attire.
 * The Artifact: Andromeda. There is no real need for her to appear in the remake given she has lost her role as Perseus' love interest and her city has already done more than enough to anger the gods even without her mother's hubris in proclaiming her beauty. She only seems to have been retained at all because Perseus rescuing Andromeda is such a big part of the original story. Meanwhile, Io seems to have been added in as the replacement love interest.
 * Beauty Is Never Tarnished: Io always looks like she's just stepped off the set of a shampoo commercial even if everyone else is completely filthy from traveling across wilderness for several days. Not to mention, none of the male heroes get so much as a single change of clothes, while she throws on multiple outfits. Pulled out of Hammerspace, apparently, since they never say where it came from.
 * Big Damn Heroes: How else would you describe Perseus riding in on a flying horse to kill the Kraken, simultaneously saving the girl and the day?
 * The two monster hunters appearing in the same scene on one of the scorpions to defend Perseus from some of the harpies.
 * Bishounen: Perseus's friend and fellow warrior Eusebios.
 * Bloody Murder: An interesting (and awesome) variation. Through the magic of Hades, Calibos' blood
 * Bolt of Divine Retribution: Naturally, considering we're talking about Zeus here.
 * Broken Aesop


 * This was in the reshoot 'final' version, originally... He was meant to fly into Olympus and throw down the sword to his feet as a big Shut UP Hannibal. The gods that helped him were Apollo and Athena, and Zeus (not Hades) was cast more in a villainous light.
 * Cold Flames: Sheikh Suleiman.
 * Composite Character: Acrisius, Perseus' father, was melded with Calibos, The Brute, into the same person.
 * The Cuckoolander Was Right: Prokopion the zealot.
 * Curb Stomp Battle/Anticlimax Boss: Hades himself finally enters the fray! Oh this is gonna be the big climactic awesome battle -- Somewhat justified in that  However, this does not make it less of a curb-stomp.
 * Cursed With Awesome: Perseus thinks Io is this when she tells him she's cursed with agelessness because she rejected a god's advances (which she didn't do, in the actual myths). Io then tells him the tragic consequences of bearing such a curse: watching her loved ones die while she continues to live, explicitly comparing it to the death of his family when Hades first appeared.
 * Cute Monster Girl: Medusa (except when using her petrification powers).
 * Darker and Edgier: To the point of only giving Bubo the mechanical owl a cameo (probably as they thought it would be too much of a Joke Character). Pretty-boy Perseus in the white toga is replaced with buzzcut grim Perseus in even more anachronistic medieval leather armour; Bubo is briefly show then as quickly cast aside; most of the winged horses are white but the Pegasus Perseus tames is jet black; and the toga-wearing Olympian thespians now wear late medieval plate armour. Of course, as the original was Extremely Cheesy, the remake has only been bumped down to a Quite Cheesy.
 * Dark Is Evil: Hades.
 * Dark Is Not Evil: The Djinn, probably to compensate for Hades being bad. Pegasus is also dark colored too. However, the Djinn aren´t good either... So, we can say that Dark Is Neutral,at least...
 * Defiled Forever: Zeus knocked up your queen? Kill her to get back at him.
 * Demoted to Extra: Literally the case with every deity bar Zeus (and Hades because he wasn't in the original film). Also Cassiopeia and Andromeda -- the former and the latter
 * The Dragon: Calibos to Hades.
 * Do Not Taunt Cthulhu: Note to Acrisius: When attempting to murder your wife and the bastard son of the thunder god, refrain from doing so on top of a cliff, in a storm while waving your sword around like a lightning rod. The results are... unpleasant to say the least.
 * Double Standard Rape Divine On Mortal: Medusa and Danae, both of whom get punished for being raped.
 * Dull Surprise: All of Sam Worthington's performance as Perseus. He's recently apologized for his unconvincing acting in the movie and promised to do "fucking better".
 * Dwindling Party: Don't get too attached to all those soldiers.
 * They wore red. They brought it on themselves.
 * Eldritch Abomination: The Kraken is an incredibly huge monster older than the entire human race, that sleeps on the bottom of the ocean, it killed the Titans, and even the GODS fear it. Plus, there's the fact that its design is rather... alien.
 * Extra Eyes: The Kraken has six eyes.
 * Everybody Hates Hades: Hades is the villain, but has no more malice towards humanity than any of the other gods. He's only doing what he does because he's tired of Zeus' BS, not For the Evulz so it doesn't hit Hijacked By Jesus levels. He constantly gloats about feeding off of humanity's fear and making them quake in terror of him, while the others consistently speak of wanting humans to love them again. His anger with Zeus is also purely personal, for being stuck with the sucky realm.
 * Eyeless Face: The three Stygian Witches' shared eye still has its ocular nerves, which attach in an eye socket in their palm.
 * Family Unfriendly Violence: While the movie does have a PG-13 rating to it, there is a scene where Calibos graphically rips a man in half with his bare hands. And yes, it is shown on the screen with blood splattering. It's over very quickly (probably how the film managed to keep the PG-13), but it does still cause a "Did they just do that?" moment.
 * Faux Action Girl: Io, who does next to nothing. She does cut the tail off a scorpion and help Perseus train to fight Medusa, but the first incident was brief and at long range while the second ended up with Perseus on top of her.
 * Fauxshadow: The two hunters who join the group proclaim; "It is death who should fear us!".
 * Game Face: Medusa, when using her petrification powers.
 * Giggling Villain: Medusa.
 * Gorgeous Gorgon: Medusa.
 * Gods Need Prayer Badly: One of the main points in the war between the gods and man.
 * Half Human Hybrid: Perseus gets double points, as he is played by Sam Worthington, who's pulled this off twice before. Also, Io.
 * Healing Shiv: Sheik Suleiman's blue fire.
 * Heroic Sacrifice:.
 * Home Guard: The Dwindling Party of soldiers assigned to help Perseus in his mission are from an Honor Guard, distinguished soldiers too old to fight on the front lines or young inexperienced soldiers who look good on display. They are all he gets because the rest of the Argosian army had recently been wiped out after picking a fight with Zeus and Hades.
 * Human Sacrifice: Zeus should have just asked for a fruit basket.
 * I Just Want to Be Loved: Eventually, Hades' motive boils down to this. He wants to take over the world as vengeance for Zeus and Poseidon tricking him into becoming Lord of the Underworld, allowing them to get all of humanity's love, while he gets only their fear.
 * Improbable Hairstyle: How does Perseus manage to maintain that buzzcut of his? Or even get one?
 * In Name Only: There are many large deviations from the original, but many scenes are taken from the original, and the basic premise is unchanged -- Zeus has earned himself a whoopin.
 * Zeus was largely uninvolved in the original. Sure he was a jerk (as he should be), but no one dared to step too far out of line because he was ZEUS. The one who receives the most punishment in the original is Hera, her son Calebos being denied Andromeda's hand in marriage and transformed into a beast for a Hand Wave reason. Hera then lashes out at Andromeda and her family at the slightest provocation because that's all she can do (because he's ZEUS). So, yeah. There is no "whoopin" delivered to Zeus. And he opened the movie by destroying an entire CITY because the king threw his daughter and one of Zeus' illegitimate sons into the sea. Why not just punish the king? Because he's ZEUS, the ultimate Karma Houdini.
 * Jerkass Gods: To be expected of the Greek pantheon.
 * Karma Houdini:
 * Kneel Before Zod: When Hades appears on Earth, he demands that mortals kneel before him.
 * Light Is Not Good: The Gods wear really, really shiny armor.
 * Lost Aesop: For the first part of the film, the human heroes are preparing to go to war against the gods in revenge for their tyrannical mistreatment, but then about halfway through, even though Zeus, who was acting like a prick and preparing to put the mortals in their place before Hades arrived on the scene, receives no comeuppance whatsoever. Is the Aesop supposed to be that powerful people can get away with anything?
 * The original film, like classic myths, punished those possessing hubris and rewarded those who humbly went about their world-saving. The remake gave a middle finger to the divine throughout.
 * Made of Explodium:
 * Fridge Brilliance!
 * Fridge Logic.
 * Mass Oh Crap: When Hades makes his appearance in the throne room scene, it's obvious everyone is thinking Oh Crap, especially the queen who had just finished saying that they were the new gods.
 * The arrival of the Kraken seems to sum this up.
 * Mickey Mousing: During the battle with the scorpions, the musical "stings" accompany the scorpions' attacks.
 * More Teeth Than the Osmond Family: The Kraken.
 * Mythology Gag: Perseus and his men, with great effort, manage to fight and kill a small number of scorpions, which are roughly as big as the ones from the original movie. Then their bigger brother comes out...
 * Perseus finds a small mechanical owl in a box. "What the hell is this?" The commander simply tells him to put it back in.
 * Nay Theist: Many characters.
 * Nightmare Face: Medusa's face transforms into something like a demon snake when she petrifies her victims (or in one case, tries to).
 * No Man of Woman Born: Medusa's gaze can turn any creature of flesh into stone., on the other hand...
 * Not Even Bothering With the Accent: Perseus is played by Sam Worthington, whose Aussie accent remains intact.
 * Oh Crap: As if a shadowy black figure materializing in your throne room whilst killing all of your guards wasn't reason enough to have this reaction, Cassiopeia then asks for his name: "I am Hades". Cue Cassiopeia and about half the room looking like they've just soiled themselves.
 * Also the scene where after a deadly battle with a single giant scorpion, they find themselves surrounded by half a dozen or so giant scorpions. Eep.
 * Oh My Gods: Largely averted, at least with Perseus. Sam Worthington seems fond of saying "What the hell is/was this/that?" instead of "Tartarus" or something along those lines.
 * Older Than They Look: Io.
 * One to Million To One: Hades can teleport by having demon imps fuse into him (and he can de-fuse into said imps).
 * Opt Out: The monster hunters (probably wisely) decide to leave the party just before they head off to fight Medusa.
 * Pegasus
 * Plot Hole: The entire plot of the movie hinges on internal contradictions.
 * The gods supposedly need human prayer to survive, yet they predate humanity and even fought a cosmic war with the titans without so much as a single worshiper to empower them.
 * The Kraken is a monster so powerful that even gods and titans could not defeat it. However, the gaze of Medusa's severed head, whose powers were the result of a curse cast on her by Athena in a fit of pique, can instantly turn it into stone. Somehow it never occurred to any of the gods to just make another such monster in order to stop the Kraken, and by extension Hades.
 * Progressively Prettier: You got sexy in my Medusa!
 * Rage Against the Heavens: Aside from Hades, Zeus and many of the other gods are portrayed as being all-around bastards, which is the primary source of the story's conflict. This leads to Perseus spending much of the film trying to act in denial of his divine parentage.
 * Even further on the alternate ending, where Perseus flies to the Olympus to confront Zeus (though mostly verbally, fighting him is another story...).
 * Red Herring: One of those soldiers sounds exactly like Liam Neeson. Considering Zeus' penchant for disguising himself as a supporting character, you'd think something was going to be made of this... But nope, it's just a normal soldier who happens to sound exactly like Liam Neeson.
 * Poseidon is frequently mentioned in the beginning of the film as being one of the gods to stand up to the titans, the ruler of the sea who (at least in the eyes of Spyros) is responsible for the lack of fish, and the guy who raped Medusa. Yet he shows up as often as the other gods, besides Zeus and Hades. Hell, even Apollo had a bigger role in the film than Poseidon, and Apollo had all of one scene of dialogue.
 * Not to mention the entire first group of soldiers that Perseus teams up with. They seem to have at least a little bit of characterization. They survive all the way back to Argos, basically the beginning of the First Act.
 * Rule of Cool: A lot of the human storylines are dropped so the audience can see Perseus fight more monsters. Which a lot of viewers are perfectly fine with. Oddly, while the monsters are impressively animated, the filmmakers have done relatively little to make them distinctive in contrast to the original. Calibos, for instance, has gone from a deformed half-saytr thing to, well, Two-Face in a tunic.
 * The only monsters that weren't in the original were the harpies, and the fight with the two-headed dog was removed. So overall, the number of monster fights is actually even.
 * Sadly Mythtaken: The Kraken is from Norse Mythology, the Gods won the Titanomachy by themselves... Io isn't even from the same myth as Perseus. About three days into their seven day journey (on foot mind you), they enter a desert and encounter Djinn. While there were deserts in the traditional definition of "Greece", which included Turkey (and also explains the Doric ruins), it still doesn't explain how they got there from the Peloponnese in three days, or why they even got that far off course.
 * The original myth has Perseus seeking Medusa's head for a completely unrelated reasons to Andromeda's plight. He saves her because he happens to be flying home on Pegasus and comes across this poor Virgin Sacrifice strapped to a rock. And so they were married.
 * In Greek mythology Hades was not an adversary of the other gods, just a member of the pantheon that oversaw of an area of concern (the afterlife) that most people would rather not think about. He was even married to his beautiful niece Persephone.
 * One thing weirder about Sheik Suleiman? While the title Sheik and legends of Djinn predate Islam, Suleiman is a very Islamic name for something set in the same vague time period as Mythological Greece. The Roman Empire should cover the Mediterranean and Christianity should be around if Djinn have Muslim names.
 * In Greek Mythology Io wasn't "cursed with agelessness"; she was a priestess of Argos who was turned into a cow by Zeus to hide her from his jealous wife Hera when she caught the two canoodling (she certainly didn't spurn Zeus' advances).
 * Contrary to the reference by one of the Stygian witches, Medusa and the Kraken were not Titans. The Titans were Elder Gods, who were overthrown by a race of younger gods, their descendants, a.k.a., the Olympians.
 * Zeus revolted against his father, Cronus and the other Titans, defeated them, and banished them to Tartarus, a dungeon in the Underworld. Hades was not banished. He drew lots with Zeus and Poseidon, for shares of the world. He drew the Underworld, making him also the god of the hidden wealth of the earth, including gold and silver. He was cool with it. The movie also says he was not worshiped and while he was seldom worshiped as Hades (that name mostly refers to his realm) he was often worshiped in Greece under the name Pluton, the god of wealth.
 * Mankind was created by a Titan called Prometheus, not Zeus. By some accounts, Zeus delegated the job to brother Titans, Prometheus (the wisest Titan; his name means "forethought") and Epimetheus (the stupidest Titan; his name means "afterthought"). For the record, Epimetheus was granted a wife by the name of Pandora...
 * Perseus was Acrisius' grandson, not his son.
 * Zeus impregnated Acrisius' daughter by appearing as a shower of golden light, not as her husband. She was never married, due to this wacky prophecy about her son being the one who kills Acrisius (some versions make the murder intentional, others account his death by Perseus pulling out Medusa's head at a dinner party. It makes sense in context). Coincidentally, Hercules (aka Heracles) was the one created by Zeus masquerading as some woman's husband... Still another holds that Perseus entered a discus competition and his discus went astray and killed a spectator.
 * Medusa doesn't live in the Underworld.
 * Pegasus (there was only one, not a herd) sprang forth from Medusa's blood.
 * Scorpion Tank:
 * Screw Destiny: The three witches predict that Perseus will die in trying to kill the Kraken.
 * Serial Escalation: Just how much bigger can the Kraken get?
 * Shining City: Argos (somewhat). Olympus takes it Up to Eleven.
 * Shout Out: The super-shiny armor of the Olympians? Apparently, they were modeled after the "cloths" of the Saints of Saint Seiya.
 * So My Kids Can Watch: Liam Neeson took on the role of Zeus because his sons thought it would be awesome.
 * Taking You With Me: The does this to . It doesn't quite work, but does provide a crucial distraction.
 * That Man Is Dead: "There is no Acrisius. Only Calibos!"
 * Those Two Guys: Those two hunters who tag along with Perseus and the soldiers from Argos. They when they head to kill Medusa,
 * Too Dumb to Live: Pretty much all of humanity in this movie. Because pissing off beings who govern the universe seemed like a good idea at the time. Incredibly cruel and fickle beings who govern the universe, even.
 * The gods-fearing peasant is determined to see Andromeda's sacrifice go through. He probably doesn't even want Perseus to slay the Kraken.
 * The Unintelligible: The Djinn, sort of. Sheikh Suleiman was speaking Arabic in some scenes, especially when the Djinn saved Perseus and Co. from the scorpions.
 * Wag the Director: It has been revealed that there's a significantly different edit that has a plotline much closer to classical mythology. The reason why it wasn't released is unclear, but there are indications that Sam Worthington successfully argued that it wouldn't be entertaining to children.
 * We Can Rebuild Him: The djinns were once human.
 * What Could Have Been: Matthew Belamy was writing the score, but had to abandon midway through as Muse started a tour.
 * The original ending is closer to the original myth and movie.
 * Perseus slapping Zeus with a fish would've been closer to the original myth than the release ending.
 * The original idea for the movie was a Crossover Cosmology with Tiamat waging war against the Greek pantheon and Perseus being assisted by Thoth, Osiris, Marduk and Yahweh. He would also apparently have a romantic affair with some "Cthonian Earth goddess." (The filmmakers apparently have something against Andromeda for some reason...)
 * What Measure Is a Non Cute: Out of universe example: the unprovoked killing of Cute Monster Girl Medusa has gained a lot of criticism, however there wasn't much for the original, in which Medusa had the exact same backstory, but was a hideous Snake Woman. See Woobie Destroyer Of Worlds.
 * Who Wants to Live Forever: See Cursed With Awesome above.
 * You Fail Biology Forever: Zeus' totem is a bald eagle. Bald eagles live in North America. The ancient Greeks would not have known about bald eagles, since bald eagles do not live anywhere known by the ancient Greeks. Somewhere an Ornithologist Is Crying. Could be You Fail Geography Forever and You Fail History Forever as well.
 * The movie flunked out of history on a dozen points, not the least of which being ancient Greek gods in medieval plate armor.
 * In-universe, this would be ok, since the Gods would have had knowledge of any creature, and the Greeks would have just carved/sculpted/whatever any animal they were told/shown.
 * Our-of-universe, it's probably Viewers Are Morons at work, as it's the one species of eagle the filmmakers could be sure audiences would recognize as an eagle, rather than some kind of hawk.
 * Your Princess Is in Another Castle: "Huzzah! We've set fire to a bunch of temples and knocked over statues of the gods! That'll show 'em! Let's throw a- Oh hi there, Hades. What are you doing here? Man, this is awkward..."

Wrath of the Titans

 * A Load of Bull: Perseus fights a Minotaur in the Labyrinth. The Minotaur has a more human, yet deformed, face than the more common bull-headed depiction.
 * Antagonistic Offspring: Ares to Zeus, Zeus and Hades to Kronos. For that matter, Perseus still isn't all that thrilled with his dad.
 * Anyone Can Die: Unlike Classical Mythology, in which the gods are completely immortal, the gods in this film can be killed. And some are.
 * Ascended Extra: Given Andromeda spent the remake being Demoted to Extra, seems like she's back in her place.
 * Bash Brothers: Zeus and Hades at full power. Bonus points for them being actual brothers.
 * Big Bad Duumvirate: Hades and Ares.
 * Bigger Bad: Kronos.
 * Breath Weapon: The Chimera can breath fire.
 * Cyclops: The group encounters a trio of them in the film.
 * Cain and Abel: Ares is Cain to Perseus' Abel.
 * The Cameo: Bubo the mechanical owl from the original (and the remake) reappears as a prop in Hephaestus' home, whom he considers to be some kind of oracle. See Cloudcuckoolander below.
 * Carry a Big Stick: Ares uses a large mace as one of his weapons.
 * Cessation of Existence: Apparently what happens to the gods when they die. Fear of this is what motivates Hades to side with Kronos rather than fight him.
 * Cloudcuckoolander:
 * Hephaestus has been alone for so long he talks to a broken mechanical owl (Bubo from the original) as if it were alive and inteligble. Andromeda manages to talk him down with a Whoopi Epiphany Speech.
 * Agenor's speech and mannerisms are also rather loony.
 * Crucified Hero Shot: The chained Zeus.
 * Disney Death:
 * Comes Great Responsibility: Uttered almost verbatim in one of the dialogues.
 * The Dragon: Ares served as Hades' dragon until...
 * Dragon Ascendant: ....
 * Eldritch Abomination: Kronos.
 * End of an Age: The era of gods ruling over the universe and human destinies is quickly coming to an end.
 * Everybody Hates Hades: Played straight, though he's much more sympathetic here than in the prior film.
 * Expy: Kronos looks almost like Perses from God of War 3.
 * Face Heel Turn: Ares betrays Zeus and side's with Hades. For certain values of "Face" anyway. Being the god of war, he was always kind of a dick.
 * First Girl Wins: Technically speaking, Andromeda. Whilst Io had apparently been watching Perseus his entire life, she neglected to introduce herself to him until after he'd already met Andromeda. At the end of Wrath, the two apparently begin a relationship.
 * Genius Cripple: Hephaestus.
 * Gods Need Prayer Badly: Zeus mentions that prayer is the only thing that keeps the gods immortal towards the beginning of the film.
 * Gotterdammerung: The gods are dying out, but most of them aren't going without a fight.
 * Heel Face Turn:
 * Heroic Sacrifice:
 * Impaled With Extreme Prejudice:
 * Karma Houdini:
 * Killed Off for Real: Many of the gods.
 * Lady of War: Andromeda, although more as a strategist.
 * Last of His Kind: By the end of the film, there's only one real god left, and even he is no longer immortal.
 * Legendary in The Sequel / Remember When You Blew Up a Sun: Perseus is still hailed as a great hero for his victory over the Kraken and is given a salute of honour by Andromeda's army.
 * Love Redeems:
 * Made of Iron: Compared to the first movie, Perseus takes a lot of punishment, and it shows on his body, yet it's still much more than a normal human would be able to take - he's a demigod after all.
 * Missing Mom: Io is dead by the time the events of the sequel take place and is Heleus's mother. It never really is properly explained what happened to her.
 * Multiple Head Case: The Makhai. If you look closely you can see that if one head is killed, the other one still fights.
 * Hybrid Monster: Instead of having a lion head and a goat head, the Chimera has one head resembling a manticore-gorilla and the other one like a deformed rhinoceros. And if you look closely, you just might notice - the Chimera's faces have no skin at all on them!
 * No Body Left Behind: When the Gods die, their bodies turn to dust.
 * Non Indicative Name: Subverted. Now there are Titans. Only one of them, though.
 * Organ Autonomy: The Chimera's tail, which for most of the fight just flails about like an ordinary mindless appendage, then halfway through it inexplicably comes to life and tries to bite Perseus! Suverted in that the tail has a small head at the end, but still...
 * Papa Wolf: Pretty much Perseus's entire motivation for the film.
 * Plucky Comic Relief: Agenor.
 * Second Love: Andromeda to Perseus.
 * Shout Out: The Chimera's fire breath requires the two heads to work in tandem - one head breathes gas, and the other head lights it.
 * Sudden Sequel Death Syndrome: Io appears only as a tombstone.
 * The High Queen: Andromeda.
 * The Other Darrin: Rosamund Pike replaces Alexa Davalos as Andromeda.
 * Too Dumb to Live: It's really a very ill-advised idea to pray to the same gods you're presently fighting.
 * Took a Level In Badass: Andromeda in the first film? Distressed Damsel. Andromeda in the second? Leader of an entire army.
 * The Unfavorite: Ares views himself as this.
 * Well Done Son Guy: Ares betrays Zeus because he loathes that he casts his favor and affection more on Perseus, his mortal half-brother, instead of him.
 * Well Intentioned Extremist: Hades bargains with Kronos that if he would set him free, Kronos would allow Hades and the surviving Gods to keep their immortality. However, he does so knowing that Kronos will wreak havoc upon the earth and cause untold millions of mortals to die (And possibly lead to their extinction).
 * What Happened to The Mouse: Four Chimeras were unleashed from Tartarus by Hades, but only one was encountered by Perseus. The other three never appeared again (not even in the battle of the Makhai), and so, their fate is unknown.
 * Wreathed in Flames: Kronos' body composes of magma and fire.
 * Wrestler in All of Us: Ares performs a vertical suplex on Perseus during the final showdown, to which Perseus later responds with a sleeper hold.
 * Xenafication: Andromeda is now a Lady of War.
 * Wreathed in Flames: Kronos' body composes of magma and fire.
 * Wrestler in All of Us: Ares performs a vertical suplex on Perseus during the final showdown, to which Perseus later responds with a sleeper hold.
 * Xenafication: Andromeda is now a Lady of War.