WRATH OF THE TITANS Review- She Said

Directed by Jonathan Liebesman

Written by Greg Berlanti, David Leslie Johnson, and Dan Mazeau

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

Synopsis: Zeus asks help from his son, Perseus, to stop the titans from escaping from the underworld and destroying the universe. 

When I walked out of CLASH OF THE TITANS about two years ago, my first thought was, "I missed Lost for this?!" But it ended up making more than it should have overseas, so we got a sequel. And my first thought when I walked out of WRATH was, "Wow, how bad did Liam Neeson and Ralph Fiennes need a paycheck?" Albeit that WRATH is somewhat better than CLASH, but that's only because they gave Neeson and Fiennes more to do and say, which, let's face it, most of us would listen to them read a phone book.

WRATH is a dusty mess. It's a few fun action scenes squashed between bad dialogue, lame 3D, and static characters. It's been ten years since Perseus (Worthington sporting a horrible hair cut) took down the Kraken, and has vowed to raise his son living the life of a simple fisherman. But his dad, Zeus (Neeson), needs his help. A bunch of titans and Cronos, Zeus and Hades' father, are about to escape from the underworld and destroy the universe (I always wondered... if the bad guys destroy everything, wouldn't they destroy themselves too? Doesn't that defeat the purpose? Anyways...). Zeus goes to help Hades take back control of the underworld, but alas! Hades made a super secret pact with Ares, Zeus's other son, and they joined together to take out Zeus, drain his powers, and free Cronos and the titans. Oh no! What will Perseus and company do now? I bet you can figure out the rest in this textbook plot.

What's sad about WRATH and CLASH is you have two amazing, epic actors playing the classic Gods you studied about in high school. You can see Neeson and Fiennes trying to add some gravitas to their dialogue and create an ounce of tension in their scenes, but even Schindler and Voldemort can't save this film. Worthington gives another pretty static action performance. It feels like there's a 'real' actor trying to break free from his muscly demeanor, but he just hasn't been given strong material yet. One brief glimmer of light within the film is Perseus's cousin, Agenor (Toby Kebbell). Surprisingly funny, Kebbell portrays Agenor, not as a jaded, angsty demigod (who also daddy issues), but as an almost hippie-esque free spirit. He provides some much needed comedic relief in this trudge of a film.

The action scenes are entertaining and even in with 3D, pretty coherent. The best sequence in the film happens when our demigod brigade weave through an ever changing labyrinth trying to get to the heart of the underworld. The scene shows how cool this movie could have been. The Greek God mythology is actually really interesting and dramatic. It was the precursor to a lot of drama we know today. How many movies nowadays tell a story of a son not knowing his place in life, or kids having daddy issues that effect their relationships as adults? They all stem from these classic tales. It's so disappointing that we can't create an even remotely interesting modern story with such rich material.

If you liked CLASH, then WRATH is right up your alley. However, it's not even worth it even if you're a tad curious. Just wait for it to appear on TNT in a year, and you can watch while it's on the background and you won't miss a thing.

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