The 2010 remake of “Clash of the Titans” was a less than stellar movie. Though it managed to gross nearly $500 million at the box office, the movie received mostly negative reviews due to its thin plot, average action scenes, and one of the most infamous 3D conversions. Of course due to the financial success of “Clash of the Titans,” Hollywood has gone ahead and made the sequel “Wrath of the Titans,” which promises to be bigger and more epic than its predecessor. While its special effects and 3D certainly improved this time around, the unengaging plot and disappointing action scenes make this an underwhelming sequel to an underwhelming movie.
It isn’t necessary to see the first movie before going into “Wrath of the Titans,” but even doing so won’t make much of a difference. Compared to the first movie, which at least put some effort into its story, this movie hardly feels like it’s trying at all. The entire premise of the movie is explained in the first ten minutes, and everything after that is straightforward and surprisingly unengaging. The acting is flat for the most part, with the exception of Liam Neeson, Ralph Fiennes, and Bill Nighy. The worst of the bunch is Sam Worthington, who is painfully dull and lacks the emotional depth to carry his role.
The character development was significantly lacking in the first Clash of the Titans movie, but to its credit there was at least something. Here, there’s almost nothing. All of the human characters lack even the remotest bit of development. As a result, there is no sense of danger for these characters. The gods are the most interesting characters of the movie, but even they hardly have anything impressive to work with until the end of the movie. It’s painfully obvious from the get-go that the movie’s focus is solely on expensive and technically-impressive action sequences.
Without a doubt, the special effects look great, especially some of the creatures in the movie. Unfortunately, the action is in some ways less impressive than the first movie. There’s destruction and massive creatures, sure, but that’s about it. Even the final fight against Kronos, who is literally bigger than a volcano in size, is very underwhelming and anti-climatic.
As for the 3D, it has practically no comparison with “Clash of the Titans” in terms of quality. Though the brown color palette and sometimes shaky camera work doesn’t make for a perfect 3D experience, the overall depth is decent and works especially well during the massive special effects shots.
There are many problems that “Wrath of the Titans” stumbles on, but it makes one fatal mistake: it’s boring. Even at a running time of 100 minutes, this movie is a chore to sit through. Wrath of the Titans lacks both edge-of-your-seat action and a reason to invest in the story, and the impressive special effects can only do so much to hide that. The characters are all dull, the plot is thin, the dialogue is weak, and the movie is largely forgettable. Without any reason to care for the characters or any reason to care in general about the story, this Titan just falls flat.
Rating: 4/10 (Below Average)
