Review: Stiff Gods and Monsters Mar Clash of the Titans

By Hugh Hart

Talk about your Greek tragedies: Armed with an ancient story for the ages, the filmmakers behind the new Clash of the Titans movie fail to refresh mythology’s gods and monsters for 21st-century audiences.

Following on the 1981 movie, which at least featured entertaining animation by stop-motion pioneer Ray Harryhausen, this Clash disappoints on multiple fronts.

There was plenty of reason to hold out hope for the remake. Director Louis Leterrier made a pretty good The Incredible Hulk two years ago. Sam Worthington, starring here as the hero Perseus, brought brains and brawn to his human-turned-Na’vi character in Avatar. Yet sparks are few and far between in this by-the-numbers retread.

For one thing, the gods of Mount Olympus stand stiffly on mist-enshrouded pedestals like reality show contestants facing elimination. Meanwhile, back on Earth, Perseus — aided by comely spiritual guide Io (played by Gemma Arterton) — goes on a quest to slay the Kraken.

Once unleashed by its gloomy keeper Hades (Ralph Fiennes), the squirmy sea monster is ready to devour Princess Andromeda (Alexa Davalos) and destroy the rebellious city of Argos.

This, after Hades convinces his divine brother Zeus (Liam Neeson) that humans need to regain respect for the deities. Hades promises to achieve that goal by scaring the crap out of earthlings.

Saddled with generic dialogue and the kind of stentorian acting style that went out of fashion half a century ago, the actors in Clash of the Titans emote on cue and fight with vigor, but their humorless characters go begging for distinctive personalities.

The CGI- and animatronics-powered monsters might have fried eyeballs five years ago but now wow only in fits and starts.

Hades, for example, announces his presence with sooty plumes that could have been lifted straight from Lost’s Smoke Monster. Flying monkeys whip through the air in apparent homage to The Wizard of Oz. And a crew of blind witches seem more like cave-dwelling bag ladies than genuinely scary scourges.

Then there’s the giant, crablike Scorpiochs. Attacking Perseus and his men in the wilderness, they shed milky fluid instead of blood — an effectively freaky touch — but otherwise don’t show much in the way of fighting skills.

Medusa, crowned with coils of writhing skull snakes, turns men into stone per legend before meeting her perfunctorily gory fate. And the Kraken, baring its reptilian incisors, snags a couple of fearsome beauty shots before Perseus comes to the rescue with help from a magic sword bequeathed by Zeus.

The film’s most compelling character is the majestic winged horse Pegasus. In conjuring a fur-and-feathered steed, visual effects supervisors Neil Corbould (Gladiator) and Nick Davis (The Dark Knight) produce the kind of effects magic that’s otherwise missing in action.

Clash of the Titans, rated PG-13, might thrill younger audiences, but the 3-D version won’t blow away anybody who’s seen Avatar. Filmed conventionally and converted to 3-D in the wake of James Cameron’s sci-fi blockbuster, Clash’s action sequences pale next to Avatar’s groundbreaking visuals. Figures tend to appear in rigid planes: foreground, middle distance, background. Aerial scenes lack vertigo-inducing impact while the fast-edit fight scenes rarely exploit immersive depth-of-field.

In one of the rare efforts by screenwriters Travis Beacham, Phil Hay and Matt Manfredi to add edge to Clash of the Titans, Perseus spits out a warning to his men as they enter Medusa’s lair: “Don’t look the bitch in the eye”.

With or without 3-D goggles, it’s advice worth heeding.

WIRED Medusa rocks.

TIRED Two-dimensional characters clad in generic costumes; tired dialogue; un-scary CGI monsters.

Wired

Sudan:- Umma opposition party gives Bashir ultimatum

A key northern opposition party in Sudan has issued an ultimatum to President Omar al-Bashir to ensure free and fair elections this month.

Ex-Prime Minister Sadiq al-Mahdi's Umma party says if its terms are not met by Tuesday it will boycott presidential, parliamentary and state polls.

Its eight conditions include a delay of four weeks for a new body to supervise the election commission to be set up.

Most major parties have already withdrawn from the presidential race.

President Bashir, who is wanted for alleged war crimes in Darfur, has frequently rejected the idea of delaying Sudan's first multi-party national poll in 24 years.

The BBC's James Copnall in the capital, Khartoum, says the Umma party's eventual decision is likely to influence what several other northern opposition parties do.

Some parties have already said they will boycott the 11-13 April elections completely, while others are unsure.

Our reporter says if the main northern opposition do drop out, the credibility of the elections will be damaged hugely.

Crisis talks

The Umma ultimatum came after Mr Mahdi had met with the US special envoy to Sudan, Scott Gration.

Mr Gration had said earlier that if the main opposition withdrew from the legislative elections it was not clear whether they would still be held.

The Umma party say it wants a new body to oversee the National Electoral Commission, which it accuses of bias in favour of Mr Bashir's National Congress Party.

It also asked for "oppressive national security laws" to be frozen for the elections and demanded fair access to state media as well as caps on campaign spending.

On Wednesday, the southern Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM) - which serves in a coalition at national level with President Bashir - announced it was withdrawing from the presidential election and from polls in Darfur over fraud and security fears.

The one party not to be worried by the political climate is the Popular Congress Party of veteran Islamist Hassan al-Turabi, who has said the PCP will take part in the polls.

In a statement, the Umma party leader also said the referendum on independence for the south should not be used as a political tool.

President Bashir has threatened to cancel the January vote if the SPLM boycotts the poll.

The SPLM joined the unity government in 2005 as part of a peace deal ending a two-decade civil war.

Some 1.5 million people died in the conflict between the mainly Muslim North and the South, where most people are Christian or follow traditional beliefs.

BBC News

Ukraine agrees budget with IMF

By Natalia Zinets

KIEV (Reuters) - Ukraine expects to have a new International Monetary Fund programme in place in May and has agreed on the size of the budget deficit, seen as a key sticking point in talks, Prime Minister Mykola Azarov said on Friday.

An IMF mission visited Ukraine this week for talks on resuming a suspended $16.4 billion (10.7 billion pounds) bailout that is seen as vital to restoring investors' confidence in the cash-strapped ex-Soviet republic.

The Fund said on Friday that progress had been made, but outstanding issues on fiscal policy remained and would be discussed in coming weeks.

The size of the 2010 state budget deficit had been one key problem, with the Fund pressing for fiscal prudence and Ukraine's new leaders committed to social spending initiatives.

"We have reached an agreement on the key issue of the state budget. We have agreed that the state budget deficit could be within the limits of around 6 percent (this year)," Azarov told reporters.

"A memorandum will be prepared in April and then will be signed. After that the board of directors meeting on a new programme will take place. We expect that in May we will resume the cooperation with IMF," he added.

Kiev officials had indicated they were seeking a deficit figure of 10 percent of gross domestic product (GDP), suggesting the IMF had won concessions from the government on the headline number.

In 2009, the deficit was around 14 percent of GDP, Azarov said, acknowledging that the 6 percent target would not be easy. "We agreed that ... it was an internal matter for Ukraine and the government how it will guarantee such a deficit," he said.

Meeting monthly bills of $700 million for imports of Russian natural gas and reform of the state energy firm Naftogaz, which sells gas to utilities at home for less than it pays for it, are two big factors weighing on the budget.

The Azarov government says it aims to pitch its 2010 draft budget to parliament for a first reading in mid-April.

ISSUES OUTSTANDING

Some $6 billion of the suspended IMF package is yet to be distributed to Ukraine, whose economy shrank 15 percent in 2009. The programme was suspended late last year when then President Viktor Yushchenko approved a rise in minimum wages and pensions despite earlier undertakings to the IMF not to do so.

Negotiations resumed with the election of Viktor Yanukovich as President in February. Ukraine's new leaders have signalled that resuming cooperation with the IMF is a priority, but they also want to go ahead with social spending plans.

It was not clear if the sides had agreed to a resumption of the present suspended programme or whether they were talking of a new programme altogether.

Hopes of more cash from the IMF have cheered investors, sending yields on Ukraine's 2016 dollar bond below 7.5 percent -- levels not seen since mid-2008 -- and boosting demand at auctions of domestic debt.

In a statement issued on Friday, IMF resident representative in Kiev, Max Alier, said the IMF mission had found signs of a "gradual resumption of growth".

The current account deficit had narrowed, the hryvnia currency was "broadly stable" and core inflation, though still comparatively high, was falling, he said.

He said the mission had made progress in discussing ways of strengthening confidence in the banking system but a number of outstanding issues -- notably relating to fiscal policy -- remained and would be discussed in coming weeks.

Reporting by Natalia Zinets; writing by Toni Vorobyova and Richard Balmforth; editing by Patrick Graham

Reuters

Missing Quebec boy's hat found

Hope fades in search for 4-year-old Nicolas Pineault

A hat belonging to a missing boy from central Quebec was found in the Nicolet River, four kilometres downstream from the boy’s home, police said Friday afternoon.

The search for Nicolas Pineault focused on the river Friday after volunteers and police spent two days searching the area near the boy's home in Sainte-Clotilde-de-Horton, near Victoriaville.

Nicolas was wearing a black tuque when he disappeared Wednesday afternoon while playing outside the house, built about 50 metres from the riverbanks on an island in the Nicolet River.

The boy’s mother, Chantal Jobin said her son has been warned about the river and she can’t understand why he would go near it.

"For me, it is unimaginable that he would have gone towards the river," his mother, Chantal Jobin, said Friday. "But it is looking like that is what happened".

Though the yard is not enclosed by a fence, the family has established clear limits for their children, Jobin said.

"It has been four years that he has been playing outside and he has never gone near there," she said. "Our rule is if the ball falls in the water — so be it. We’ll buy another ball. Security comes first".

Whether Nicolas is dead or alive, Jobin said, she needs to know what happened.

Three police divers searched the river Friday, an operation made difficult by the quick current, police said.

“Yesterday we started in the most likely area,” Sgt. Yves Michaud said. “We tried to find areas where he could be hidden under a rock or behind a tree in the water. … Today, we are further from the place where he would have fallen if that is what happened”.

Investigators will also meet with villagers in case anyone saw something.

The ground search for the boy was called off Thursday evening after more than 100 volunteers and provincial police officers combed the area all day using a helicopter and search dogs. Soldiers on a training exercise in the area lent a hand.

Nicolas was wearing the tuque, a black fleece coat and green pants when he vanished.

CBC News

Division among Iraq's Shiites good news for Allawi

By ELIZABETH A. KENNEDY (AP)

BAGHDAD — When the coalition led by Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki narrowly lost at the polls, he raised the prospect that he could pull ahead by gaining the support of other Shiite-dominated alliances. Since then the largest of those groups have been reaching out — but not to him.

Al-Maliki's secular challenger, Ayad Allawi, gained a significant advantage when he won the unexpected support of a major Iranian-linked Shiite party. That came after anti-American Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr made a move widely seen as ominous for al-Maliki: asking his followers to decide which candidate his movement should support in a two-day, unofficial referendum that began Friday.

Those developments may be only the beginning of a flurry of dealmaking that will determine the leader of Iraq's new government, but they highlight al-Maliki's struggles to overcome his personal unpopularity among rival Shiite leaders.

The leading contenders in the March 7 election each failed to score a decisive win, which left them scrambling to get enough parliamentary support to form a government. Allawi's cross-sectarian bloc tapped into heavy Sunni support to come in just two seats ahead of al-Maliki's mainly Shiite list, 91-89; 163 seats are needed to rule.

Many fear a drawn-out political debate to form a government could spill over into violence and complicate American efforts to speed up troop withdrawals in the coming months.

The close results raise the prospect of unlikely alliances, but the support Allawi received Thursday night from the Iranian-linked Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council was particularly stunning because Allawi has been outspoken against the influence of Tehran and religious parties.

Allawi, himself a Shiite who was prime minister in 2004-2005, also has been seen in the past as a U.S. puppet who drew the ire of both Shiite and Sunni Muslims. His backing of the U.S. offensives to take back the Sunni city of Fallujah in Anbar province in 2004 and against al-Sadr's Shiite militiamen in Najaf that same year was deeply unpopular at the time, though now supporters say his decisions show that he does not play favorites in cracking down on sectarian conflict.

Allawi appeared to be benefiting from stark divisions in the Shiite community despite purported efforts by neighboring Iran to push al-Maliki and his rivals into a coalition that could cement Shiite domination of the government.

Ammar al-Hakim, the leader of the Supreme Council, did not endorse anybody as prime minister but said he was open to an alliance with Allawi's Iraqiya list.

"We will not participate in the next government if Allawi's list is not in it," al-Hakim said in remarks broadcast late Thursday on his party's TV station.

Retired Army Lt. Col. Nathan Freier, a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, called it a move that could sideline al-Maliki while shoring up al-Hakim's power base in the Shiite south.

"They see this as a route to weaken Maliki in a way to reassert their prominence in areas of Iraq that they consider the most important to them," he said. "This is a way for them to nullify Maliki and play for time".

Al-Sadr's polling has no legal authority and was seen by many as grandstanding. But it could give the Sadrist leadership an excuse not to support al-Maliki and openly back another candidate under the guise of following the people's wishes.

Al-Sadr supporters set up polling tents across the capital and other predominantly Shiite cities, drawing hundreds of people, some of them fingering prayer beads and holding umbrellas to shield them from the sun. Organizers expected to release results Sunday.

Election workers acknowledged that only voters' consciences stopped them from casting more than one ballot. At one largely deserted polling place in Baghdad, young children were seen filling out ballots.

"It is a good idea to let the Iraqi people choose the next prime minister," said Samir Abbas, 35, who owns a food shop in eastern Baghdad's Sadr City, when asked why he was joining the poll less than a month after official elections.

Allawi's American ties could pose a challenge with the Sadrists — but they are also virulently opposed to al-Maliki because he unleashed U.S.-Iraqi offensives against their militias and jailed their followers.

Al-Sadr and the Supreme Council are united under a Shiite religious umbrella known as the Iraqi National Alliance, which came in third place. But SIIC and its sister Badr Organization only received 21 of the 325 parliament seats, while al-Sadr's movement got 39, putting him in a kingmaker position along with some Kurdish parties.

Al-Hakim did not specifically back Allawi as prime minister but called him a "friend and partner in the political process." In a significant gesture, al-Hakim also rejected allegations that Allawi's list had ties to Saddam Hussein's Sunni-dominated Baath party, an issue that has stoked sectarian tensions during political maneuvering before and after the elections.

Negotiations for a new government are expected to take months and it is unclear what impact the Supreme Council will have on the final outcome after its poor showing in the election.

Allawi's group, which consists of both Sunnis and Shiites, has reached out to all sides.

"Absolutely we welcome the support, which will help build an authentic government," Allawi spokesman Abdul Rahman al-Bayder said. He added that the party is "ready for a coalition that serves the political process and democracy".

Associated Press writers Adam Schreck, Saad Abdul-Kadir, Bushra Juhi and Mazin Yahya contributed to this report

Associated Press