Wrath of the Titans Commentary

I have heard a lot of people say that Wrath of the Titans is worse than Clash of the Titans and Clash of the Titans wasn’t that good to begin with.  I agree about halfway on that statement.  Yes, Wrath is worse than Clash in story and acting.  But I actually quite enjoyed Clash.  I will admit it wasn’t anything ground breaking or fantastic.  But I thought it was enjoyable with some very good effects.

And that’s about the same way I can describe Wrath.  The story is not much more than a very thinly veiled endorsement for atheism.  There is a lot of talk about the humans being stronger without the gods in it.  Being a religious person, I did find that aspect a bit disappointing and insulting.  But it wasn’t enough to make me not enjoy the film.  One of the aspects that I thought was better than Clash was that this one was designed for 3D.  In Clash, the 3D was added later and it didn’t really utilize the technology well.  In Wrath, they made much better use of the destruction and motion to make you move in your seat.  They also used depth and wide, sweeping camera angles that really made the 3D pop.  The downside to some of that though was that a lot of the action is very fast and having it in 3D did make it a bit difficult for the eye to follow.  But I saw it as a net positive.

Outside the atheism angle, there is not much in the story of Wrath of the Titans.  It is very thin.  But this kind of movie relies on effects and other visuals.  The story is always secondary.  It would have been better, though, if the acting had been up to what you would expect from the cast.  Only one of them acted to their level.  Ralph Fiennes as Hades was about what I would expect which was very good.  The rest were below what they could have done.  But when you are not given really good dialogue to work with, a top performance is very difficult to deliver.  Another part of Wrath that was actually better than Clash is the fact that there are really no “release the Kraken” cheesy lines in this one save for one by John Bell as Helius.

As I’ve alluded to, what makes this movie is its use of visuals.  It is a very appealing movie that way.  There are a lot of things that had to be CGI and they were about as realistic as you can make them.  I was especially impressed with Cronus and the underworld.  So, if you’re looking for the effects and sound, you should like it.  But if you are looking for a balance with that and some more meat in a story, you may find it disappointing.

Overall, I think it’s worth it.  See it.  But be in the mood for action and effects.