Review by Toby Lattimore

Wrath of the Titans (12A)

The squeal to the 2010 remake of Clash of the Titans, Wrath of the Titans appears out of this first film’s success. The Director, Jonathan Liebesman, the relatively inexperienced director of Battle Los Angeles, has an extra 25 million dollars to play with, making a massive budget of 150 million. Like a Titan rising from a mighty fire it lurches into life but is consumed by the over use of visual effects and poor make up. It strings together a mish-mash of scenes based upon sections of the first film, using the same characters and similar ideas.

Sam Worthington as Perseus and Liam Neeson as Zeus seem to be on auto pilot and largely stone like as if Medusa had been on set. The interesting Danny Huston, Poseidon, is quickly expelled, and the excellent Ralph Fiennes fails to impress partly because he appears in his theatrical Harry Potter mode. Rosamund Pike appears as Andromeda and here we feel she may be a foil for Worthington’s often shocked expression but she is not allowed to share out her class and we lose track of her.

The main problem with Wrath of the Titans is the plot; find the very powerful weapon and kill the angry mega god. There are no twists or surprises and it really lacks the mythical magic of the original 1980s film. We do not come to know Perseus’s son, played by John Bell, who had an acting break by winning a Blue Peter competition, or really feel that we understand much at all about the characters.

Having said that if you love special effects then there are some great examples here, especially the two headed hell hound which Perseus single-handedly dispatches. This aspect of the film must have been the reason why it grossed over 300 million dollars.

42/100