It's 10 years since Perseus (Sam Worthington), the demigod son of Zeus, slayed the Krakken and he's been frittering away his life catching fish and taking the kid to school. One evening his father (Zeus, played by Liam Nesson) pays him a call with a dire tale to tell. The gods - who depend on human prayers to sustain them - are losing their grip. People have lost faith and are abandoning the temples in droves. This by itself is not such a bad thing but, as Zeus tells Perseus, the withering of the gods means they no longer have sufficient power to contain the titans, long imprisoned in Mount Tartarus. Said titans, now with a substantial bitch to pitch are beginning to escape and soon Kronos himself may find a way out. That would not be good. Kronos is the father of the gods and not someone to be trifled with. This isn't the place to go into his whole backstory but if you're not familiar with him, well, let's just say that he and his spawn (including Poseidon, Hades and Zeus) don't have a loving history. Zeus needs all the help he can get to try and stop the titans from taking over and destroying the world.
Zeus' pleas to Perseus fall on deaf ears and so he goes to the underworld to try and recruit his wayward brother Hades (Ralph Fiennes) to the cause. Hades, with the help of Aries (Edgar Ramirez) captures Zeus and offers his power to Kronos in exchange for Kronos' word that, once free, he won't attempt to strip them of their immortality. In the meantime all hell is breaking lose (literally) on the surface and the reluctant Perseus finds he has no choice but to dust off his Krakken-slaying self and join the fray. He needs to find his way into Tartarus itself to free Zeus if he's to have any chance of stopping Kronos and Co. The second hour of the movie plays out this scenario and culminates in Perseus' big showdown with a rampaging Kronos.
Wrath of the Titans is pretty much what I expect (and want) to see in a special effects blockbuster. It's strong in all the right places (mind-bending creatures, spectacular environments, lively pace) and weak where I pretty much expect a movie like this to be weak; namely dialogue. As I said earlier the story doesn't get needlessly bogged down in minutia and useless dead end plot lines ala the second and third "Transformers" films and, unlike Michael Bay, "Wrath" director Jonathan Liebsman doesn't hate women. There are no obvious reasons to tune the movie out and lots of reasons to tune in. It's fun, well executed, spectacular to behold in parts, easy to understand and doesn't take itself too seriously. Also, Kronos is one baaaad dude and watching him emerge from Tartarus and run roughshod o'er the landscape was worth the price of admission all by itself. The only thing that left a bad taste in my mouth was Perseus' battle with the Minotaur which skipped by in a frustrating blur of jump cuts.
The last couple of films I'd seen in 3D were so much better when I finally got around to seeing them in 2D that I decided to cut right to the chase with Wrath of the Titans and see the 2D version first. I'm glad I did.
No comments:
Post a Comment