The new “Clash of the Titans” is a mythological tale that also happens to play out just like a “Dungeons and Dragons” campaign. From what I can tell, this remake was written as a “D&D” adventure to make up for the horrible attempts at such movies made in the past.

I will come right out and say the new “Titans” was visually entertaining to watch and is an OK way to spend a couple hours.

The legend of Perseus has a few different versions told throughout history. The 1981 “Clash of the Titans” varied the tale to provide for a marvelous sci-fi/fantasy film that was ahead of its time in the effects department, i.e. claymation was cool. Any mythology buff will point out the 1981 “Titans” inconsistencies, but the new “Titans” has departed enough it bares only the names and a few situations from the original material. All of this doesn’t make the movie bad. Like any quality legend, the tale can change over time due to retellings across cultures, so this modification is one time I won’t scold Hollywood.

Some of the additions, however, were too much.

First up, a problem with the gods: The gods on Olympus wear armor to make them look resplendent and to make Zeus, Liam Neeson, more impressive. Or something. Ralph Fiennes plays Hades, who wears armor that has been scorched black so that the audience is certain to understand that he is the bad guy.

The rest of the gods don’t get enough screen time. Yes, the new “Titans” is supposed to focus more on the lack of the need for the gods, but if you’re telling a Greek tale involving gods, the audience at least deserves to see how cool they are. Instead, audiences see Apollo deliver a line of crappy dialogue, and then some hazy shots of the rest of the ensemble in the background. Oh well. This is just a personal desire, not really a great flaw to the movie.

The second problem: Perseus’s super-fighting skills. The lead soldier tells Perseus his demi-god origins are the reason he has extreme skills of swordplay, despite never having held a sword before in his life. After we see that Perseus has these skills, he is soundly defeated by the swordsmanship of others, save for a single super-move he seems to be able to pull off once per battle — just like characters in a “D&D” game.

This could be explained as Perseus’s decision to not invoke the godly gifts that have been pushed on him, a disdain he expresses way too often: “I will do this as a man.” The problem being that the reveal of his prowess was a knee-jerk reaction of survival, so stopping your instinctive reactions when you are fighting for your life and relying only on instinct to survive — because he has never encountered any such situations before — seems pretty silly. Again, not a big flaw, so we’ll move on.

Third on the hit list: random characters. There are soldiers that leave with Perseus to assist him in his quest and are told they’re basically doomed to die. Why they’re sent doesn’t make much sense since only a couple of the soldiers have any talent for battle. I guess that creators just wanted to kill random guys along the way to make sure the audience understands the peril of facing down giant scorpions, god-imbued warriors, a gorgon and the unknown brought on by a land where men fear to tread — seriously, if the audience didn’t already get the danger factor, killing random guys isn’t going to do the job.

There are two professional hunter/adventurers added to the story that were completely irrelevant to plot, taking up screen time that could have been reallotted to others. They were supposed to be some sort of comic relief, but weren’t even very funny — probably just Hollywood spin-off material. In a world full of gods and monsters, why didn’t the king just command these two obvious heroes to lead the adventure instead of inept guards? Is the king a “James Bond” villain?

Fourth on the hit parade: the battle with Medusa. The remaining soldiers and a leader of the Djinn venture into Medusa’s lair so that Perseus can stumble around until he can use a super-move to remove her head. Medusa gets into a chase scene with Perseus, a pointless run through her lair.

Perseus has to win somehow, but why did there have to be an inept chase scene that doesn’t do much for the plot?

Finally, the annoying part: the love interest. Another demi-god, Io, has been helping Perseus along the way. She’s had the hots for him since she watched him grow up from a child — uhm, creepy? But she ends up being irrelevant and has just been thrown in because the creators seemingly wanted a female hero to run around with “the men,” probably to attract more of a female audience.

One last annoyance: the ending. The close is so Disney-like, I expected the characters to break into song. The best part of the movie was probably a brief prop cameo that is only slightly funny if you’ve seen the original.

Sam Worthington — who must have the greatest agent ever — continues to be a hero to movie-goers without being very interesting and will probably make audiences love the new “Clash of the Titans,” that much more. Me? I’m just going to keep watching the original.

Gabriel Stoffa is senior in communication studies and political science from Ottumwa.