Wrath of the Titans

PG-13 | 99 mins | Epics, Adventure | March 30, 2012 (USA)

Director: Jonathan Liebesman

Starring: Sam Worthington, Liam Neeson, Ralph Fiennes, and Rosamund Pike

Now, who thought it was a good idea to make a sequel of 2010's re-make Clash of the Titans? 

I didn't. But the producers thought otherwise. Despite the fact that the bland first movie was not well received, it raked in profit anyway, although measly, and the rest of the world loves shitty 3D, so they made a post-converted 3D sequel, Wrath of the Titans. 

Set ten years after, the Kraken slayer Perseus (Sam Worthington) leaves his fisherman life and his 10 year old son Helius behind and travel to the heart of Tartarus to rescue his father Zeus (Liam Neeson) as Hades (Ralph Fiennes) and Ares (Edgar Ramirez) drain his godhood to revive the lethal Titan king Kronos. 

The good points. First that unsteady cam technique, usually disorienting, worked for this ancient Greek story. You'd get a genuine sense of delicious danger, urgency and pure grit throughout: Perseus getting dirt under his fingernails and all over his body, then those gaping wounds rendered by mystical creatures (i.e. the Chimera in the beginning of the flick) make the demigod son of Zeus appear fragile. Secondly, Worthington was allowed to keep his aussie accent which felt natural. Thirdly, with the gargantuan molten lava hands of the film's ultimate villain Kronos alone, the CGI is a success! Finally you have Liam Neeson and Ralph Fiennes reprising their roles as Zeus and Hades respectively with their outstanding talent fees, er, acting.

All said, Wrath of the Titans still is not a particularly good film. The love interest subplot is weak. Do these major franchise action films have a problem with relationships? Andromeda (Rosamund Pike) is never shown to be close to Perseus. Him falling for Andromeda is based on nothing more than the fact that she is the flick's only available female, then who knows she'd be killed off like Gemma Arterton's Io in the first film. And character development is almost non-existent, but it should be the director's fault. The movie is directed by Jonathan Liebesman who's responsible for the unoriginal and easily forgettable Battle: Los Angeles, a sci-fi thriller straight out of Black Hawk Down but with Aliens.

The movie is an impressive display of computer graphics and strong fight sequences. But Disney's animated Hercules is a better story. LOL.

RATING: 6/10