You may be very wary of seeing ‘Wrath’ considering the destruction of morale that Clash of the Titans left in its wake. Well, you can leave your apprehension to one side: Wrath of the Titans trumps its forebear without even trying very hard.
You may also consider that ‘trying too hard’ was the cause of all the aggravation in ‘Clash’ but it wouldn’t do to linger too much on the weak spots of the first one. There were far too many weaknesses to mention but the lame fights with CGI monsters and the meandering and definitely boring execution of a good story were the worst offences. We bet Harry Hamlin would have been turning over in his grave, were he actually dead.
Wrath begins with a little visit to local celeb fisherman Perseus from his daddy, Zeus (Liam Neeson). Perseus was a bit taken aback because he hadn’t had enough notice to hide his dirty loincloths but soon forgets that when Zeus informs him that the underworld is breaking up and Kronos, whom he had imprisoned there, might actually escape and end the world. Perseus insists that he doesn’t want anything to do with all that ‘god’ business, he likes being a fisherman and spending time with his boy, Helius. Zeus leaves, his warning delivered, and goes down to the underworld to see his brother Hades (Ralph Fiennes), where things start to go a little bit wrong. Perseus has to get involved after all and naturally is relied upon to save the day.
Overall, there are some very entertaining roles in this film: Ares (Edgar Ramirez) makes a much better baddie than the CGI Kraken and Medusa, even if he is a bit whiny, and there is plenty of comedy from Hephaestus (Bill Nighy) and Perseus’ cousin, fellow demigod Agenor (Toby Kebbell). There is minimal gratuitous CGI – everything here seems to have a purpose. Of course, we couldn’t do without Pegasus, even his character is expanded upon by this sequel. Ahh Pegasus, now THAT is a War Horse. The stately and sometimes wrath-filled gods of this film, Liam Neeson and Ralph Fiennes, play it very solemnly in roles which they could have performed standing on their heads but that doesn’t really matter; they are entertaining enough for our purposes.
The things I learned from watching Wrath of the Titans are threefold: Gods aren’t very nice to their dads, even demigods need a slap if they start whinging and, finally, it is film law that the ‘comic’ actor has a cockney or northern accent, even in greek mythology.
The story is well-rounded and fun with some good, if throwaway, performances, especially from Sam Worthington’s Hamlin-style blow dried ‘do. Worthington himself is much more believable now as the ‘older’ Perseus and is suited to this probably intentionally cheesy role. The temptation to feature a flimsy and probably detrimental romantic relationship between Perseus and Queen Andromeda (Rosamund Pike) was avoided and for that I thank the Gods. The 3D was a slightly cool addition (much closer access to the phlegm of the titans and some moving maze bits) but that may have been down to the massive IMAX screen. 3D quibbles aside, it’s a fun film for a Saturday night.
Maryann has awarded Wrath of the Titans three torches of truth
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Ares was always supposed to be a dick. The Greeks even more than the Romans had Gods you respected but didn’t like and Ares was one of them as his aspect was war in all its forms, for all reasons while others like Apollo and Athena represented more worthwhile war. Equally, Apollo was not only God of Healing (Yay, nice guy! and until he subcontracted to Aescelpius) but also of disease and plague (boo! nasty!). Ares was a Dick and you hated him.