Sequels are difficult things to do correctly. To quote one of my favourite film franchises (Scream), "By definition alone, they're inferior films." The action needs to be bigger, relationships between existing characters needs to be deeper/more developed, the death count needs to be higher/a key character needs to die and the legend/story that set up the original film needs to be developed or completely changed to a left field idea.
Wrath of the Titans does all of this in almost like a checklist of how sequels should be made... except changing the legend behind the original story. The plot to Wrath of the Titans is so familiar to the original film, Clash of the Titans that it almost commits the same crime that The Hangover Part 2 did (except Hangover 2 literally was a carbon copy of the first film, at least this one wasn't an exact replica.)
The film follows our hero from the first film, Perseus (Sam Worthington) who is happily living a quiet life as a fisherman with his son, Helius (John Bell). Things don't go smoothly for too long though, as Zeus (Liam Neeson) is tricked by his own son Ares (Edgar Ramirez) who is jealous of Perseus being the favourite son. Hades (Ralph Finnes) and Ares soon create a pact to bring back the Kronos by draining the power of Zeus.
Perseus soon teams up with the son of Poseidon, Agenor (Toby Kebbell) to collect all the God's weapons (Poseidon's trident, Zeus's staff and Hade's fork) to combine them together and destroy Hades and Ares's plan and save the world.
Sounds simple enough right? That's what I liked about Wrath of the Titans, it really kept the plot simple enough for the character stuff to at least have a chance to shine through, unlike Clash of the Titans where I was having to constantly be reminded of why characters were doing certain things.
The Father/Son theme of the film was so prevalent throughout and added a real interesting spin on things. Perseus and Helius are the most obvious link to that plot device as Helius now becomes an extra element that Perseus has at risk when he is saving the world. The only problem with this is that during the second act of the film, Helius seems to mysteriously disappear and Perseus seems to forget all about him! He does come back for the finale though and provide a bit of tension during the final battle.
The complex relationship between Zeus, Ares and Perseus also adds some nice tension during the film and a wicked betrayal when Ares first strikes Zeus to the ground and takes him hostage with Hades. It's just a shame that Ares seems to come out of nowhere, considering he was nowhere to be seen in Clash.
By just adding this small theme to the film, Wrath is already better than Clash.
Another thing that the film does very well is the big action set pieces. One of my biggest complaints with Clash was that most of the battles (apart from the big scorpions) was an anti-climax as the monsters were just dispatched off way too easily. The underuse of Medusa and the Kraken in Clash was almost criminal, however Wrath seems to have learnt from its predecessors’ mistakes and provides us with some of the best special effects and fight sequences that I have seen in a while. Director Jonathan Liebesman adds a gritty and realistic feel with his filming style and the CGI across most of the film is really top notch. The only let down areas really was the Cyclops (for some reason, they just felt like they were half rendered compared to the rest of the slick CGI) and the use of the Minotaur (he was criminally underused – very similar to Medusa and the Kraken in Clash, but this was just one battle in a slew of fisty-cuffs battles that were thrown on screen at us.
However, much like Clash, the use of 3D in Wrath just seemed like an added on element that added absolutely nothing to the final film. Most of the action remained flat on screen and the one or two “jump out” moments were fairly lackluster and didn’t require an extra £1.50 from me! My advice to you, see it in 2D where possible, because you really won’t be missing much at all.
Another issue is that parts of the script feel really underdeveloped and awkward. A scene between Perseus and his nurse at the beginning where he was told that he promised never to let Helius hold a weapon in battle fell on deaf ears, as Helius never really actually did hold a weapon until the last two minutes of the film. What was the point in telling us this?! Also, the off-screen death of Io, just so Perseus could start to ‘get it on’ with Andromeda (Rosamund Pike) was completely underdeveloped and so awkward when the lovers kiss came right at the end of the film.
A final issue with Wrath is very similar to Clash; the final battle with the big epic monster just ended far too abruptly and without problems. In Clash, the Kraken was turned to stone with a couple of minutes of unleashing hell on Argos. Whereas, in Wrath the Kronos barely steps out of his volcano to wreak havoc on Argos when Perseus flies through his throat(?!) to deliver the death blow. It was all just too convenient.
Having just said all of that, Wrath really wasn’t a disappointment. It was one of my “ones to watch” at the start of the year and I’m really glad that I did actually watch it. While it wasn’t perfect, it was a definite step up from Clash – not very hard to do, but a step in the right direction nonetheless!
***½ / *****
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