WRATH OF THE TITANS (PG13)
Release Date: 29 March 2012
Running Time: 99 minutes
Distributor: Warner Bros.
Director: Jonathan Liebesman
Screenplay: Greg Berlanti, David Leslie Johnson, Dan Mazeau
Starring: Sam Worthington, Rosamund Pike, Bill Nighy, Édgar RamÃrez, Toby Kebbell, Danny Huston, Ralph Fiennes, Liam Neeson
Plot: A decade after his heroic defeat of the monstrous Kraken, Perseus-the demigod son of Zeus-is attempting to live a quieter life as a village fisherman and the sole parent to his 10-year old son, Helius. Meanwhile, a struggle for supremacy rages between the gods and the Titans. Dangerously weakened by humanity's lack of devotion, the gods are losing control of the imprisoned Titans and their ferocious leader, Kronos, father of the long-ruling brothers Zeus, Hades and Poseidon. Perseus cannot ignore his true calling when Hades, along with Zeus' godly son, Ares (Edgar RamÃrez), switch loyalty and make a deal with Kronos to capture Zeus. The Titans' strength grows stronger as Zeus' remaining godly powers are siphoned.
REVIEW AFTER THE JUMP
Review: Two years after the mediocre first movie, Perseus (Sam Worthington) returns for another Greek-God war and adventure as the sequel, entitled ‘Wrath of the Titans.’ This time; Perseus has longer hair, has a son with Io who died unexplained, his immortal father is getting weaker and the list of changes just go on and on. ‘Wrath’ comes with a new package of writers, director and fresh castings (most of it) to help this to shake away the bad-taste left out since ‘Clash’. With slight lesser stack on the table this time, will Warner Bros finally able to make this franchise correctly and giving the story a little respect? Or could it tumbles the same way that ‘Clash‘ did two years ago?
The answer is still a soft no which is a shame since I am a big fan of Greek mythology. There is none of this Greek adaptations do well over the years, not since that movie called ‘300’. It is a shame indeed! However, there is no doubt that ‘Wrath’ marks with some huge improvement over ‘Clash’ but the same cannot be said about its plot. Let’s examine in a while.
It’s been a decade after Perseus’ heroic ‘giant-killing’ of the Kraken. Despite all the glory and fame he could have in the world, Perseus-the demigod son of the mighty Zeus decided to live a normal life as a fisherman with his son, Helius. While attempting to settle down quietly, he was approached by Zeus who told him that he is the key in resolving a fresh struggle for supremacy between the gods and the Titans. With the humanity no longer turn their prayer of devotion to them; the gods are losing the power and the all-important control over the Titans and Kronos, the father of the three main gods – Zeus, Hades and Poseidon. Zeus has nowhere to go but to Perseus, who must saved the humanity from the forthcoming destruction unleashed by Kronos.
Like I said, if there are some improvements been made for this movie, the plot is unfortunately not one of them. Yet, despite the change of the writers, ‘Wrath’ still inherits the same lack of plot complexity and dramatic story. Again, it is a shame! Greek mythology is a rich literature reference but the inability to cover the subject matters as interesting as possible hurts the movie. From the skirmish surface, it is easily a repetitive of what you have seen with the same old Perseus riding the poor Pegasus trying to kill giant monster. Oh then again, much of the movie experience is also ruined by the chaotic story-flow. Therefore, it is correct to judge how messy and lazy the screenplay is. To expand it into a 99-minute feature, the writers decided to bloat it with story dragging and do not keep itself on a sufficient pace. Ultimately, the movie is quite boring and far from rewarding the satisfaction to its audience.
Thankfully, Sam Worthington is no longer as woody and emotionless as he was in ‘Clash’; but somebody else does in this sequel. Since his role in ‘The Debt’, Worthington has indeed improved greatly by showing more variance of facial expression. If Perseus is more ‘alive’; the role of Ares played by Edgar Ramirez is an epic failure on an inverse proportion. It seems that stilted-acting is highly contagious, now passing to the young Venezuelan actor who gave much impact on mini-series ‘Carlos’. With slight improvement on acting department, the offset is how much the amount of stupid dialogue been transferred throughout the movie. It’s mentally assaulting to see glorious men and women in sword and sandal hauling stiff jokes and word exchange to one another.
The overall production may not have been a leap off to a higher note but one drastic improvement would have been the CGI and 3D effects. ‘Clash’ was dubbed “the worst 3D presentation ever” but ‘Wrath’ came out strongly. ‘Clash’ has pretty cool CGI built for Medusa, Kraken and the gang. Then ‘Wrath’ has a stronger and detailed CGI built up for Kronos and the Titans. It is worth to be watched on 3D in some part of the movie, or probably on IMAX, as most of the shots are done well. Perhaps, what truly missing from ‘Wrath’ is the genuine excitement of fighting scenes. Director Liebesmann does well in some close-up “urban-like” battle (read Battle Los Angeles) but for the greater finale battle, the movie is hit with a scale-down of epic proportion. The finale, to be honest, is quite disappointing.
In the end, ‘Wrath of the Titans’ edges its predecessor in terms of having stronger range of characters, CGI and 3D effects which makes the movie watchable. However, messy storyline and the lack of complexity as well as the bold Greek-richness dampened the movie into a boring affair at times. Look out for a mixed of awesomeness in CGI but a poor fighting choreography.
MY RATING:
Story: 1.5
Casts: 3.0
Cinematography: 3.5
Effects: 4.0
GREEN-TEA-O-METER: 9.0/20.0
"WRATH OF THE TITANS" opens this week in cinemas nationwide. For ticketing at GSC, please go to this link. This review reflects the personal opinion of the author only.