Once again, Hades (Ralph Fiennes) is up to know good. Ten years has past since Perseus (Sam Worthington) slayed the Kraken and foiled the God of the Underworld's plans and he wants revenge. This revenge involves the imprisonment of Hades's brother Zeus (Liam Neeson) so that he can drain the God of Thunder's power to free the titan Kronos from the walls of Tartarus. Perseus must once again use his powers as a demi-god to save his father (Zeus) and send the Titans back to Hell. Oh, and did I mention that Kronos is a mountain sized behemoth of rock and lava? Oh yeah.
Sounds like I pretty cool concept right? Well, as cool as it sounds, the film went a little over-the-top in a couple areas. This happened primarily with the CGI/action scenes. At one point in the film, the heroes find themselves running and falling through a gigantic labyrinth to reach the Underworld. The sheer size of the labyrinth, how the heroes maneuver through it, and the fact that they all survive is just unbelievable even for a fantasy film (I can let the giant sized Kronos at the end of the film slide because he looked so incredibly cool).
In addition to this, the script is full of cheesy dialogue and one liners. Scenes that have the potential to be the definition of epic are ruined by a laughable line that ruins it. And for Greek mythology lovers, some may be upset by the butchering of certain points of classic Greek lore (SPOILER...the gods can die?!).
But on the positive side of things, "Wrath of the Titans" boasts some pretty insane action. The showdowns between Perseus and Ares (god of war), Hades and Zeus finally demonstrating their godly powers (Hades can use the Force?), and every other action sequence is what really carries this film. Since this is what I was expecting, the trailers were overloaded with action, I had no problem watching a nearly two hour action fest. Yes I know, sometimes a film fails by having too much action and too little plot and character development, but I was already expecting this to be the case. Therefore, my expectations were met, and I came out pleased.
Make no mistake, "Wrath of the Titans" is not a great film, but it is an entertaining film. I am happy that I payed the admission price to see high octane craziness and I'm even happy that I saw it in 3D (which was actually really impressive). Sure it was at times over-the-top and cheesy, but I can look past that and appreciate the film for what it is...fun, a guilty pleasure if you will. If you are an action lover, this film is a must see. If not, this film is worth missing. Since I am in the first group, I give this film two and a half stars out of four.
"Wrath of the Titans" has a running time of 99 minutes and is rated PG-13 for intense sequences of fantasy violence and action.
