It’s not just the world of movies that’s filled with magical creatures, super-powered beings and struggles between good and evil; the vastness of human mythology has more of all of that than Hollywood could ever fully encompass.
It should come as no surprise, then, that when penning the next big blockbuster, screenwriters often borrow heavily from these old myths and legends from times past.
After all, these are stories that predate popular culture, and many of us grew up learning about these tales of the ancient worlds – and the creatures, Gods, and people who populated them.
While using established ideas for inspiration is the basis for almost every story we know and love, that doesn’t mean that we can’t call out a few of the worst offenders for the extensive creative license they’ve taken with their chosen mythologies.
6. Clash of the Titans (2010)
Clash of the Titans might present itself as a loyal retelling of the Greek myth of Perseus, but there were more than a few things wrong with the “mythology” it had to offer.
The most glaring is that the titular Titans do not appear in the movie, and they certainly don’t clash. The story follows Perseus as he prepares to combat the Kraken, a sea monster controlled by Hades (the God of the Underworld, not the sea, and therefore not the one who would be in control of the creature).
The movie also uses Perseus’ reluctance to become a king as a plot point, which is pretty far from the original myth. Perseus founded and ruled over Mycenae – historically, that’s sort of his whole deal.
Basically, just because Clash of the Titans claims to depict the myth of Perseus, that doesn’t mean it did so faithfully, and its story should be taken with an incredibly liberal pinch (or fistful) of salt.