daniel cohen gets himself to the greek…
Plot: When Zeus (Liam Neeson) is taken prisoner to the underworld by Hades (Ralph Fiennes) in order to unleash the mighty Kronos, Perseus is called to duty once again to free his father, and prevent Kronos’ looming destruction.
I think because I’m such a lover of Greek Mythology, I got into this film more than I did Clash of the Titans, which doesn’t focus as heavily on the Gods and other well known Greek mythological shenanigans. By no means does that make Wrath of the Titans a stellar movie, but I did enjoy it more then not.
First of all, when you put Liam Neeson and Ralph Fiennes in a room together, they could be in a film adaptation of Happy Days and still find a way to make it compelling. What can I really say about these guys? They are phenomenal actors, and they are playing Greek Gods…sign me up. Danny Huston also shows up as the third brother, Poseidon. He’s not in it as much, but he makes his presence known in a short amount of time. Even though the writing is weak, these guys more then elevate the material. Every scene with them is thoroughly engaging, but at the end of the day, it’s like putting Roy Halladay and Justin Verlander on the Washington Nationals: they can only do so much.
The film’s central focus isn’t on the Gods, but on the demigod, Perseus, played by Sam Worthington. I don’t think Worthington is a bad actor, but he is highly overrated. He’s fine in supporting roles, but he can’t carry a movie. He’s a slightly better Channing Tatum in terms of charisma, but I don’t think I can even say that anymore after 21 Jump Street. Perseus just isn’t the type of protagonist I care much about. The writing is sub-par, and Worthington doesn’t have the chops that Neeson and Fiennes do to elevate it.
Perseus is also joined by Queen Andromeda (Rosamund Pike) and Poseidon’s son, Agenor (Toby Kebbell), who is also a demigod. They are both throw away characters with very little personality. In fact, I found Kebbell’s performance as the burnt out Agenor to be annoying, and even Russell Brand light at times (shudder). The bottom-line: whenever the movie was about these guys, I desperately wanted to see more scenes with the veteran actors.
The pacing for the most part was pretty good. It moves at a good speed, coming in at under two hours. In a perfect world, I’d love a longer movie with character development, but this film knows what it is, and doesn’t try to drag out a lack luster story. It definitely slows up a lot though, and I had plenty of yawns that usually came during the Sam Worthington scenes.
But let’s get serious: if you are going to see Wrath of the Titans, there’s a pretty good chance you are seeing it for the action, and nothing more. Does the action deliver? For the most part it does, but it didn’t start out that way.
First of all, let’s talk about the director: Jonathan Liebesman. For those who don’t know, Liebesman directed my least favorite movie of last year: Battle Los Angeles. The reason why Battle Los Angeles is such a disgraceful film is because of the amount of shaky cam. In the first action sequence of Wrath of the Titans, the same shaky cam method was applied. I started having flashbacks of Battle Los Angeles, and was ready to scream in the middle of the theater. But as the film went on, Liebesman calms down, and thankfully steadies the camera for some pretty awesome action scenes. There are still some ho-hum moments where the action feels lacking, and sometimes they just throw in a random mythological creature to spice it up, but it doesn’t really work. But it does have some truly suspenseful moments, like when Perseus and crew have to get through a collapsing door before it closes. The end is also pretty bad ass.
While it’s dry here and there, and the protagonist has little to offer, the action delivers, and it’s worth seeing because of the clash between Zeus and Hades, which does actually have some emotional meat to it. I think I’m being kind to this film because I do have such an affinity for Greek mythology, and if there was a better script, with better actors, and a better director, something like this could be pretty amazing, but this is fine for what it is. Liebesman redeems himself a little bit post Battle Los Angeles. And it’s a good thing too, because this is the guy helming the Ninja Turtles movie. Liebesman — if you’re reading this, for the love of God, please don’t shake the camera when filming Ninja Turtles. Please…I beg you.
Rating: 6.5 out of 10 (Slightly better than ‘meh’)
