Movie Review: In Wrath of the Titans' Battle Between Gods and Men ...

Wrath of the Titans, the sequel to the loud, joyless 2010 remake of Clash of the Titans, is a nonstop action-adventure story that only very occasionally pauses to see if there?s anything it might do to entertain the audience.

The movie is a piece of junk mythology, a crude amalgamation of characters from the legends of the Greek gods of Olympus, in a story that Edith Hamilton probably wouldn?t recognize as fitting the classical tradition.

That in itself is OK: the original Clash of the Titans was junk too, and I have fond memories?of watching it far too many times on TBS as a child. Special effects guru Ray Harryhausen?s wonderful (and, yes, cheesy) stop-motion monsters were so much fun to watch.?The problem with?Wrath?is that it captures no similar sense of wonder.

We?re quickly re-introduced to demigod Perseus (Sam Worthington), who is now a single dad living the hardscrabble life of a fisherman after having rejected the offer by his father (the god Zeus) to make him an immortal at the end of the last film. Then Zeus (Liam Neeson) and his brother Poseidon (Danny Huston) get double-crossed and imprisoned by his son Ares (Edgar Ramirez) and other brother Hades (Ralph Fiennes). Perseus is the world?s only hope of stopping Hades? harebrained scheme to release Kronos (the leader of the Titans and father of the Olympian Gods) from the underworld.

Director Jonathan Liebesman films the action sequences in a shaky, handheld-camera style that never allowed me to feel oriented within what was happening. The first major fight is a blur of dirt, blood, flames, and fur as the hero Perseus saves his small fishing village from a pack of two-headed, flying, fire-breathing, lion-shaped monsters. To employ a camera technique better suited for visceral, realistic action films (like the Bourne trilogy) is to deny us one of the greatest appeals of a fantasy film: we never get a good look at the beasts.

Here Greece is a wasteland of brown and gray dirt, vast stretches of which seem to be emitting smoke or on fire. Except for the beautiful Queen Andromeda (Rosamund Pike), every member of the cast (gods included) is perpetually coated in sweat, blood, and grime. Andromeda finds time for a few wardrobe changes from scene to scene, but Perseus can?t seem to spare a few seconds to splash a little water on his face.

One improvement that Wrath makes over its franchise-rebooting predecessor is the injection of a bit more humor. Miraculously, the movie becomes almost enjoyable after Perseus enlists the help of Andromeda and Agenor (Toby Kebbell) to find the god Hephaestus (Bill Nighy), who can show them how to reach the underworld to rescue Zeus and stop Kronos. Nighy brings his usual brand of slyness to the role of a somewhat schizophrenic deity, and the result is fun. A movie like this is supposed to be nothing but fun, isn?t it?

But it doesn?t last. Ares shows up to glower some more and ruins the whole thing. Stupid, boring god of war.

Source: http://frontrow.dmagazine.com/2012/03/movie-review-in-wrath-of-the-titans-battle-between-gods-and-men-its-the-audiences-prayers-that-go-unanswered/

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