Cinema review: Wrath of the titans

Perseus in more mythological action.

This is the sequel to 2010 “Clash of the titans” which is the remake of the 1981 movie by the same name. The first movie was really terrible, in the filmmakers’ intention a darker, edgier version of the 1981. Symptomatic of their attitude a shoot out to the first movie with a cameo of Bubo the mechanical owl ended with “just leave it” and Bubo being thrown in the trash. Everybody loathed it but a hasty and atrocious 3D conversion job let them catch the first wind of the new 3D trend and so they made a lot of money.

Cue obligatory sequel.

The slightly different team, they changed director and screenwriters, has clearly been listening so here we get a little bit more respect for the original. The now obligatory cameo of Bubo is not an object of ridicule, even if it still not doing a lot, maybe next time. Perseus now got long hairs instead of the marine style buzz cut and he is a less annoying character.

I’m not saying that he is some kind of Hamlet, just that he is not insufferable and that he is now a good vehicle through which we can follow the action.

The overall plot is, I don’t know how it’s possible, even less coherent than the first one. I’m not being nerdy here; if you look at it for more than two seconds you’ll realize that it just makes no sense at all.

There are some vaguely defined character arcs but they are nothing more than hatchet jobs with the next step clearly signaled at least 20 minutes in advance.

But a movie like this doesn’t really need a plot right? It lives and dies on the set pieces and the special effects.

Here we kinda realize why the plot is so bonker. The movie has been clearly developed around the set pieces with the plot just as an excuse to move the characters from point A to point B.

Those set pieces, I have to admit, are better than the first one. Well constructed and fairly original, they clearly spent a lot of money on them. Still nothing groundbreaking, the action doesn’t flow nicely, they are all somewhat gimmick related, which is not a bad way to construct a set piece because they all look and feel different but you need to go over the gimmick if you want to create something great.

The CGI is certainly not aided by yet another 3D post conversion job, did they learn something the first time? Maybe we shouldn’t be surprised, the director is Jonathan Lieberman, infamous for the terrible “Battle Los Angeles” the first movie in years that was so boring that I didn’t manage to finish it.

Sam Worthington is still good at being his gruff muscular on screen persona but he is certainly not aided when he is sharing screen time, and kick ass moments, with the oldies squad of Liam Neeson and Ralph Fiennes who bring more charisma in one of their big toe than Worthington and all the others in the whole movie.

Conclusion: Better than the first one but it wasn’t really that hard. An easily skippable movie.