Wrath of the Titans (2012) Review
Lets put this up front… to even take this film seriously you have to leave all notions of historical relevance aside, and simply just accept the fact the main characters of the film are gods with powers. Or at least I’ll accept it for the purposes of this review.
Wrath of the Titans is Jonathan Leibesman’s follow on from Louis Leterrier’s Clash of the Titans and if we’re being frank, the original wasn’t great, so the announcement of the sequel didn’t fill me with anticipation. But someone at Warner Bros must have green lit the project, so here we are.

“More of the same” is a phrase that will tell you everything about this sequel, with a strong returning cast (Sam Worthington, Liam Neeson and Ralph Fiennes) and a strong returning feel of regret for watching this movie, that is, at least to begin with. Opting for a new director and writing team didn’t seem to change much in terms of improved character development or plot complexity. Certainly the extra 25 million in the budget didn’t help any of this either, but it most certainly did help the CGI.

The whole picture is set up at the start for you when Neeson (Zeus) arrives to tell Worthington (Perseus) that he is the only hope for the world and must save it. Absolutely no development or revealing of the plot was shown, it seemed to serve only as a platform or device for the viewer to get ready for the action. Almost as if they’re so lazy that they can no longer even be bothered to pretend this film is nothing but a big budget action film any longer.

Although an adventure ensues, at no point does it actually seem like an adventure. The flying horse that Perseus conveniently acquires allows for no travel time, and thus more time at destinations fighting, which inevitably is the film’s downfall. With no real travel time, there is no reason for the film to ever slow down and for serious dialogue to take place to progress the story, it therefore becomes a tale of events that take place in chronological order that happen to involve the same people, not a story. With little on screen development, all the character relations seem rigid with no feeling, especially a romance that springs up out of nowhere. With no audience investment in the characters and their relationships, it offers no reason for the audience to be invested in WHY Perseus is going through the motions.

So don’t fool yourselves into thinking you’re going to see an engaging film with Wrath of the Titans, but even after saying all this I would still recommend watching it. The box office numbers over the past few years have proved people turn up in droves to see great effects, if you’re one of these people then I highly suggest renting it just to witness the final battle against Kronos. Overall I’d give this film 5/10, with the ground-breaking CGI being the only reason to ever watch it I cannot fathom gracing it with any higher a number than that.