2010’s “Clash of the Titans” (the remake of the 1981 cult favorite) was one of the worst films of that, or any year: lame story, awful dialogue and cheap special effects, including an incredibly bad 3D post-conversion. Not much differs between that film and this totally unnecessary sequel, except for Sam Worthington’s hairdo.
“Wrath of the Titans” begins about 10-years from where “Clash” left off. Worthington, once again, is Perseus, the half-human/half-god son of Zeus. Perseus is a widower and he has a son of his own. Perseus has chosen to live his life as a human, until Zeus (Liam Neeson) tells him that the fate of the god’s immortality is in danger. Soon after Zeus is taken captive by his brother Hades (Ralph Fiennes) and Perseus’ brother Ares is also in on the plot. Ares is jealous of what Purseus has accomplished (including the whole “Release the Kraken” thing from the first film).
Perseus learns he has a cousin who’s also half-human/half-god, and he needs to find him so together they can try to save Zeus and defeat Ares.
If all of this sounds utterly ridiculous and a waste of thousands of hours of work by the filmmakers, cast and crew that’s because it is. If ever a movie deserved the tag-line: “Who Cares” – it’s this one (unless you’re really into Greek Mythology, and if that’s the case you’ll probably rip this movie apart for other reasons, such as ‘Zeus was a lot taller than Liam Neeson’).
However, there are a few things that make “Wrath” an improvement over “Clash”:
1) It’s 7-minutes shorter
2) Neeson and Fiennes do have a few scenes together in which you actually see some good acting
But the biggest difference to those who say this in theaters was the 3D, which actually looked professional this time, and is quite effective
But that’s it. The rest of “Wrath” is a mess: There’s nothing compelling about the story, the editing is clumsy, the dialogue is laughable (“Brother”? “Yes…Brother”) and Worthington is the dullest half-god/half-human in movie history.
“Wrath” is packed with way too many action scenes, in an effort to try to make-up for not having much of a story. It doesn’t work. It’s rated PG-13 for the fantasy action/violence. Even though we get plenty of close-ups of several weird creatures all trying to kill Perseus there’s nothing here that kids 12 and up can’t handle.
On The Official LCJ Report Card, “Wrath of the Titans” gets a D, which, considering “Clash” got an “F” two years ago, is a notable improvement.
The good news is that this should mark “The End of the Titans”. And, even better, this movie is so bland that an hour after watching it you won’t be able to “Remember the Titans”.