By Zeus! Sequel is not destined for immortality
There was a time, not too long ago, when it would have been a diverting novelty to see two distinguished actors like Liam Neeson and Ralph Fiennes running around in long robes and untamed beards, pretending to shoot lightning bolts from their hands to kill two-bodied monsters that have been released from the underworld. That time is over. Today, Neeson and Fiennes seem to do little else. Like many talented performers, they have become staples of the comic books, unlikely thrillers, and low-grade fantasies that have come to comprise mainstream cinema. In Wrath of the Titans – a followup to the 2010 film Clash of the Titans, a film that practically begged to be the last of its line – they play Zeus and Hades respectively, two brothers who have gone in different directions, as brothers will, but who decide at the end that blood is thicker than special effects.
Wrath of the Titans is a jumble of Greek mythology that occasionally rises to the level of subversively cheesy enjoyment – there is, for example, an excellent trio of Cyclopes that clomp realistic- ally, waving gigantic cudgels – but never hits the campy heights of the first film, when Neeson yelled, “Release the Kraken!” This one shouts, “Release the sequel!” and hopes for the best.
It hardly seems worth the effort. Sam Worthington, an empty vessel in a toga, returns as Perseus, son of Zeus, who, having defeated the Kraken, has decided to live as a mortal. But his godly powers are needed when Zeus is captured in the underworld by his other son, Ares (Edgar Ramirez), who’s the movie’s real villain, and brother Hades. Ares is the black sheep of the family, which is quite a feat when your uncle is Hades and your grandfather is a pillar of smoke named Kronos. Ares hates everyone, which is a good thing if you’re a god of war, but makes for awkward family reunions.
Perseus must negotiate a path through a labyrinth of moving rocks – sort of an early Greek Rubik’s Cube – to rescue his father. He takes a long two assistant demigods: Agenor (Toby Kebbell), who is Poseidon’s son and therefore has access to a trident that represents one-third of the magical powers he will require to defeat everyone (phew!) and also Andromeda (Rosamund Pike), who is The Girl and also, despite her name, no strain at all.
Director Jonathan Liebesman ( battle los angeles ) can’t do much with a painfully complicated series of relation- ships – the movie is up to here in fathers and sons – but he’s surprisingly adept at finding just the right touch for the big battle sequences. They’re hokey, but hokey is what’s called for, a decision personified by Bill Nighy as Hephaestus, an addled weapons maker who seems to have arrived directly from something by Monty Python, if not Benny Hill. Wrath of the Titans isn’t exactly high tragedy, but the comic relief is welcome.
Otherwise, Wrath of the Titans joins the rank of forgettable 3-D epics, with their giant fireballs and computergenerated monsters. They’re the sort of movies that used to comprise Saturday matinees for children, now grown up into expensive franchises with big stars. Yes, Sir Laurence Olivier did star in the original Clash of the Titans. He must have seen it coming.