So, here’s the deal. This isn’t a horrible movie. It’s entirely watchable, as long as you don’t fall for the 3D lure.

The thing is that this movie was not originally made with 3D in mind. It was pitched in 2D, shot in 2D, and was intended to sell in 2D. But, a few weeks from the release, someone decided that they should capitalize on the whole “3D” bug going around, and that was where they made their biggest mistake.

The 3D is sloppy. Because the movie was shot with fast-moving 2D cameras, the 3D often seems like a giant blur. It’s often very confusing to the audience, and sometimes the 3D even disfigures the characters.

This is one of those movies that chose to go with the new technology simply because it was new. It added nothing to the story, and frankly, the movie was leaps and bounds better in 2D. At least in 2D one could get through the headache, and actually get into the story.

Speaking of story, anyone who is even remotely familiar with the original storyline will either love or hate this film. Perseus, the main character, is no longer fighting for love and pride as he did in the first film. Now he is fighting for a less honorable reason—revenge.

Perseus is played by Sam Worthington, best known for his work as the lead in Avatar. The thing about Worthington is that, whether he is a good actor or not, the roles he has been asked to play have always been shallow and one-dimensional. Avatar’s Jake Sully is a simple-minded soldier who falls in love, and therefore decides to go against his superiors and save the day. He isn’t in any way extraordinarily heroic—he’s just some guy who was in the right place at the right time.

Perseus is kind of the same. He’s just a normal guy who finds out his family is seriously messed up and gets a chance to set things right. But, while Jake Sully had some sense of strength in who he was, Perseus often seems more like a lost boy than like a strong hero. Not only this, but Worthington’s character shows little depth.

Another loss when it comes to character depth is Liam Neeson. The man is an acting powerhouse, but in this film he seems more like a grumpy old man. Neeson could very easily embody all that the king of the Gods (Zeus) really is, but instead, he seems to be stifled. It’s as if these two actors, with the potential that they had, did one take of every scene—and no one told them to make anything better. In other words, they flat lined their first take so that they could build on it in upcoming takes.

All in all, this movie is pretty mediocre. It isn’t that the first one was amazing, because it really wasn’t. It was campy, and the stop-motion effects were shoddy. But at least in the original Clash of the Titans, somebody cared. The characters cared. They had a reason to do what they were doing. Perseus was fighting for love and for his own self-worth. Zeus was a gritty hard-assed king. Andromeda actually mattered.

What is sad is that this movie could’ve been something really awesome—something with a heart, with a pulse, and with a brain. But, it decided somewhere along the way to take itself really seriously. Unfortunately for Clash of the Titans, we as an audience simply could not.