Film Review: Wrath of the Titans

Two years ago Clash of the Titans was doled out, one year ago Battle: Los Angeles was foisted upon an uninterested public. Take the latter’s director and the former’s franchise and the result makes Clash look like a camp masterpiece. For all that Clash of the Titan’s lacked; at least it was a colourful, silly monster picture. Wrath takes the standard ‘darker’ sequel route; in this case smearing ash and grot over the lens, draining out the daring do and taking itself far too seriously than it ought to.

Whatever passed for a story this time is ostensibly supposed to fool us into assuming that thematic and emotional depth has been introduced into the mix, the events unfolding here take place on the backdrop of the final days of Olympus and the end of the Gods. Temples are ruined and the Gods have lost their glimmering armour from the first movie, which would be interesting if the world of the mortals were doing any better. As it seems, mankind here is in the doldrums too, Rosamund Pike’s Andromeda commands armies in dustbowl battlefields and Perseus and son live in a village whose primary export appears to be gravel. The point here is that without any evidence of Civilisation, ‘un-civilisation’ is meaningless. We’re just shown two varieties of rubble.

The actors (most of whom are returning due to contractual obligations) once again strive to wring some juice out of the drama, but building upon such a vacuous predecessor denies their efforts the gravitas they are so dearly clutching at. Danny Houston’s two lines from Clash have now been increased to a staggering seven for Wrath and Bill Nighy’s scenery chewing as the now-insane Hephaestus is just a chance for him to dig out the Davy Jones voice, whilst shoehorning in a Bubo the Owl cameo (reminding us that this is indeed a sequel to a remake to a film that really wasn’t very good to begin with). The non-‘thesps’ oddly enough are the ones to deliver more credibility, with Rosamund Pike leaving Toby Kebbell’s mugging comic relief in the dust. However Sam Worthington seems to struggle here, the problem being that Perseus has no real motivation following the adventure in Clash. He’s simply a cipher enduring countless monsters. All of this is made worse by his daddy issues with Zeus. Zeus himself being subject to a truly poorly conceived character arc in the previous film; flip-flopping from vengeful destroyer of worlds to noble sage for no discernible reason.

As for those creature effects that we’re all so eager to see? Well, Wrath follows the footsteps of its predecessor in delivering the same monster in every scene. Perseus is once again rammed, shoved and tossed around by hyperactive beasties, most of whom look and act like rejects from Van Helsing. The common problem here is not CGI, as a tool it is indeed limitless but without a director with any restraint the result is the Makhai: a battalion of every flailing CG warrior horde you’ve seen since The Mummy Returns. Chimera, Cyclops, whatever, there isn’t a single memorable creature here as they all do the same thing; they do so because they aren’t locked to the ground. Seventeen poor schmucks aren’t yanking cables to make them blink and as a result nothing can stand still. Even Avatar struggled with the concept of a suspenseful monster attack, the beasts can climb walls and ram through solid rock without breaking a sweat. The lesson here is not ‘less is more’, it’s ‘anticipation mingled with uncertainty’. The original Clash at least gave us the Medusa sequence, a slow, tense sequence in which the Gorgon hag dispatched unlucky Argonauts as they tried not to look her in the eye (for fear of being turned to stone). Here Medusa’s stone eyes aren’t the threat anymore, she’s a hyperactive flailing monster that lunges around, throwing fools into lava pits and screaming her head off. If CG can do everything, is it too much to ask for something suspenseful for a change?

Here is sequel that develops nothing as there was nothing to expand upon, as a result every attempt to make any reparation for its predecessor is worthless as it reaches overkill. The primary colours here are khaki and charcoal grey, with nothing to contrast these drab and miserable tones there is nothing to emphasise and as a result, no reason to care. The coup de grace here is that with the darkness forced upon the story there is no sense of adventure. At least Clash had that in its favour.

4/10.