"Wrath of The Titans" Review

 

"Wrath of The Titans"

Directed by Jonathan Liebesman

Starring Sam Worthington, Liam Neeson, Ralph Fiennes, Edgar Ramirez, Rosamund Pike

 

RATING

6/10

We finally have an unwarranted sequel to one of the shittiest movies of the past decade... and it's actually pretty fun. Hear me out, I had little to no expectations seeing this. "Clash of The Titans" was terrible, featured one of the worst 3D post-conversions of all time, and a predictably wooden performance from Sam Worthington... who can't seem to get mask his Australian accent at all. So I didn't have high hopes for "Wrath of The Titans". But what I saw was entertaining. A sequel that tops the original is pretty rare these days.

 

"Wrath of The Titans" tells the (sarcasm alert) ever-so gripping story of Perseus who has now settled down, grown out a mullet, and has a son, Helius. His wife is dead for no apparent reason other than to introduce a new love interest, so let's just buy that. He's living life in the slow lane until the Gods of Olympus visit Hades in the underworld, who plans on harnessing Zeus' power to ressurect the gigantic sleeping Titan, Cronos. Together with Andromeda and a dirty hippie who is apparently Poseidon's son, Perseus ventures to save his father and defeat a Titan.

 

The film was directed by Jonathan Liebesman, who gave us the (sarcasm alert) epic masterpiece that was "Battle: Los Angeles". And to be fair, I think he did a fairly modest job at directing this. It's not irritating or franetic, it's just neutral and pretty standard flare. Nothing great, but it serves its purpose. The acting is... eh. Sam Worthington is better than he was in "Clash of The Titans", but he's still a pretty stiff actor. His mullet does give him some personality, though. The only shining actors at work here are Liam Neeson and Ralph Fiennes, who are both incredibly believable as badass Gods of Olympus. The rest of the cast sort of withers in the background, especially the dirty hippie, but it doesn't really hurt that Rosamund Pike is very easy on the eyes. Anyway, aside from acting, there are a few good things about this film that really surprised me.

 

The CGI was very well done, and even better than its predecessor. It doesn't feel as hollow or empty, too. The action sequences and visuals are superb. There are plenty of breathtaking shots, which took me by surprise. I didn't think this would be the type of film to have that much beauty. The pacing this time around is also much more fluid, as it doesn't linger on one scene for too long and instead delivers some fast-paced, solid fun. The scenes involving the labyrinth are particularly exciting, and the climax makes for a better pay-off than  the disappointing Kraken from the previous installment. However, the film is still filled with gripes.

 

The acting is wooden and apart from Fiennes and Neeson, not that impressive. The plot hinges on typical video game implausibility as it involves collecting pieces of a weapon to form a huge one in order to take down the last boss. Yeah, it's a cut-and-paste plot straight out of a video game, and it suffers majorly because of unoriginality. These characters aren't too fleshed out either, so there's little to no development going on. Perseus hasn't changed a bit by the end of the film, and life seemingly goes on despite, you know, the world almost ending and everything. I figured seeing a living, breathing Titan would've spun a few heads but it's just so blandly written, it's like people came across gigantic, god-like monsters on a daily basis. This is Greek Mythology, I know, but c'mon... let's be honest about that.

 

In the end, "Wrath of The Titans" is far more superior than its predecessor, and offers much more excitement, better pacing, a bigger pay-off and visceral thrills. However, it still hasn't improved much in the writing and acting department, and is by no means a stellar achievement. It's worth it while it lasts, but it doesn't offer anything new or exciting to Greek Mythology that we haven't seen done before in video games. It's a good movie, just not one you'll be swooning over. Play "God of War" instead.