Wrath of the Titans (12a)
Dir. Jonathan Liebesman
Reviewed by Matt Adcock
“You're sweating like a human... next it will be tears.”
Prepare yourself for a bombastic sequel to the Greek god bothering action flick Clash of the Titans… In the first film Perseus (Sam Worthington), mortal son of Zeus (Liam Neeson), battled various minions of the underworld including the monstrous Kraken to stop them from conquering the Earth and the heavens. Well, a demigod’s work is never done it seems and now Perseus must venture into the underworld to save his dear old dad before Kronos – Perseus’ evil grandfather along with Hades (Ralph Fiennes) and Ares (Edgar Ramírez) can unleash hell on earth.
Zeus and his godly pals have been dangerously weakened by humanity's lack of devotion, and due to our failure to pray to the gods, they are losing control of the imprisoned Titans. The Titans – as the title of the film indicates - aren’t happy!? Their ‘wrath’ though isn’t really manifest very effectively but I guess ‘The slight miffed-ness of the Titans’ doesn’t have quite the same ring to it…
Also caught up in this vaguely underwhelming mythical creature smack down is warrior Queen Andromeda (Rosamund Pike), Poseidon's own demigod son, Argenor (Toby Kebbell), and b-list god Hephaestus (Bill Nighy). Oh and several even more minor characters who are the most obvious candidates not to make it through to the end credits.
"eat my shiny spear of light..."
Will Perseus bravely make it through his treacherous quest into the underworld to rescue Zeus, overthrow the Titans and save mankind whilst also overcoming devilish traps devised just to show off the CGI heavy 3D? Take a wild guess – but that isn’t to say that Wrath of the Titans doesn’t deliver some moments of entertainment (and the 3D is much improved from the first film).
Wrath of the Titans really isn’t a classic and it suffers massively from a limp plot which no amount of special effects can make up for. I saw this with my 11 year old son James who told me that it was “fun if you know your Greek gods” which isn’t exactly high praise. Alas these gods suffer from having been out muscled by other interpretations of them such as the awesome God of War games on the PS3.
So anyone who has read the Percy Jackson books or who really enjoyed the original ‘Clash of the Titans’ might be advised to take a look, for others there isn’t really any reason to check this.
Out of a potential 5 you have to go with a Darkmatters:
öö1/2
2.5 – The gods have lost much of their power...
Awesomeness öö – a few battles verge on the awesome
Laughs öö – stilted funnies from Argenor
Horror öö – hell's minions aren't so scary it seems
Babes öö – Pike makes a striking queen
Spiritual Enlightenment öö – these probably aren't the gods you're looking for...
"Pike is a dirty queen..."
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