(CNN) -- There's never a bad time for a toga party, right? The story of Perseus -- the bastard son of Zeus who takes on the mighty Kraken -- will endure long after Louis Leterrier's enjoyably cheesy movie has been forgotten (or, inevitably, remade in 4D). But for now, and for young men especially, Leterrier's version is the one that counts, and it will just have to do. It's a mixed bag: Three credited screenwriters have labored in the footsteps laid down by the 1981 Ray Harryhausen "classic" (hardly his finest hour) -- that is, they've taken the myth as an excuse to showcase as many special effects sequences as they can muster. That's not a bad strategy when it's clear from the laughably clumsy opening that they haven't a clue how the ancient Greeks spoke to one another.
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Sam Worthington plays the role of Perseus in "Clash of the Titans."
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The story of Perseus, the bastard son of Zeus who takes on the mighty Kraken
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There's no excuse for the film's abominable retro-fitted 3D
In @placeholder's day, effects meant stop-motion photography of artfully modeled monsters, including a three-headed dog (excised here) and a golden mechanical owl (who makes a cameo appearance for old time's sake).