Wrath of the Titans
Review by Anthony Morris
After the utterly forgettable events of Clash of
the Titans – basically, our hero Perseus (Sam Worthington) defeated The
Kraken – he settled down with his son and dead wife to lead the life of
a simple fisherman.
Unfortunately, despite publicly defeating a giant
sea-monster sent by the Gods, no-one believes in the Gods any more, so
the power of Perseus' dad Zeus (Liam Neeson), ruler of the Underworld
Hades (Ralph Fiennes), and the rest is fading fast.
Which is bad news because that means Kronos,
father of the gods and so technically a titan thus justifying the title
of this film, is all set to break free of his underground prison and
destroy everything.
First a bunch of monsters bust out and trash the
countryside just to give Perseus something to do – and a reason to
leave his village, considering he's retired from all that monster
fighting and being the son of a God stuff.
Thus freshly motivated to kick arse, he goes off
on his flying horse to team up with the Queen of Greece (Rosamund Pike)
to save everyone, as in the meantime Zeus has been taken captive and is
being used to literally fuel Kronos' escape.
Saving everyone requires finding another half God
– fortunately Agenor (Toby Kebbell), son of Poseidon, is locked up in
the Queen’s dungeon – and putting together Zeus’ thunderbolt, Hades
pitchfork and Poseidon's trident to make one super-weapon, then go into
the Underworld to free Zeus, defeat Kronos and a bunch of other stuff
that quickly turns into one big blurry mess.
This complete lack of coherent storytelling
wouldn't be a problem in a movie that’s basically a life support system
for a bunch of big monster fights except that the fights themselves
aren't all that exciting either, which puts the emphasis back on the
story and it’s not up to the job.
Worthington's all-Aussie accent is good for a few
laughs and there’s the occasional moment of cheesball fun but it’s
nowhere near enough to salvage what is a ploddingly dull film ninety
percent of the time.
Which, considering it has a flying horse, a
Cyclops family, a giant volcano-God raining molten lava down on
everyone, a labyrinth that works like a Rubik's Cube, is quite an
achievement.
2 out
of 5
Wrath of
the Titans
Australian release: 29th March,
2012
Official
Site: Wrath of the Titans
Cast: Sam Worthington, Ralph
Fiennes, Liam Neeson, Danny Huston, Edgar Ramiez, Bill Nighy, Toby
Kebbell, Rosamund Pike
Director: Jonathan Liebesman
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