While never achieving anything that approaches great, Wrath of the Titans deftly surpasses the previous film and delivers the film the first one should have been.

Taking place 1o years after the awful remake Clash of the Titans, Wrath of the Titans finds that demi-god hero Perseus (Sam Worthington) has returned to the fisherman life and is teaching his son Helius (John Bell) the trade as he promised his wife Io, who died in child birth, that he would never let their son take up the sword. Perseus is still trying to do that whole live as a man thing and as such turns his father Zeus (Liam Neeson) down when he comes asking for Perseus’s help to try to make sure the walls of Tartarus, the prison holding the titans in the Underworld, don’t fall and that Zeus’s baby eating father Cronus doesn’t escape. In typical Rambo: First Blood part 2 fashion, Zeus goes without Perseus and after some heinous backstabbing by Zeus’s full god son Ares (Edgar Ramirez), the god of war in case you were wondering, because Ares is jealous of the attention that Zeus pays Perseus, and Hades (Ralph Fiennes) the god of the Underworld who is still pissed that brothers Zeus and Poseidon (Danny Huston) got the good god gigs and stuck him down there with all the dead people and, apparently, hot molten magma. Hades and Ares have cut a deal with imprisoned Cronus in which they deliver Zeus and all his power to Cronus to feed off of and escape with and he in turn will give them back the mortality that they are losing because no one is praying to them anymore. A dying Poseidon seeks out Perseus and tells him what is going on and that he should seek out Poseidon’s own son Agenor (Toby Kebbel) who is hanging out with Andromeda (Rosamund Pike) and who should be able to find the location of ‘the Fallen God’ Hephaestus (Bill Nighy) who in turn should be able to help them sort out this whole thing. Quite a mouthful for a basic set up huh?

With so much ground to cover, a lot of the early development and plot flashes by with conversations that should have been held longer and exposition moments that are cut together like action scenes. This hurts the movie in a few ways. The first is that you just don’t get to really connect with anyone so when they are in peril later it is hard to care very much which hurts the action because you have to fundamentally give a shit in order for action to be exciting. Second, this takes away from the actors’ performances which are left feeling half-finished in a way.  Third, it makes for some odd pacing issues that leave the movie feeling both underdeveloped and over long at the same time. I have to give them credit for pulling that one off because it couldn’t have been very easy.

The above being said, it cannot be overstated that Wrath of the Titans improves on the previous film in every area possible. The action is better, the plot and overall story doesn’t contradict itself every 1o minutes, the effects are top notch and even the 3D look pretty good for a post conversion job. Camera work is much more steady and cuts back from the action enough to let the depth of field work for it and it adds to some already impressive set pieces.

The art design has been revamped a bit as well and the gods are no longer shimmering people in armor but more like older guys in robes. Even Ares, who is younger and more fit, is more subdued in costume than in the first movie. I am not sure if this is a function of the loss of power of the gods or just good sense on the part of the director but I like it. I am not sure why the look of the gods in Immortals impressed me so much while being more gaudy than in Clash of the Titans but I guess I feel like it fit with the overall art design of that film whereas the look in Clash sort of, um, clashed with the general look of that film. Either way, I liked their look here and it grounded them a bit.

The performances were all good enough. No one is going to win any awards here but they are a step above those found in the last film with more subdued and thoughtful performances by Neeson and Fiennes. Danny Huston gets slightly more screen time than last picture but I still imagine he had to be pissed to be involved with this at all given how little he has to do. Sam Worthington gives us a much more capable Perseus here who has accepted who and what he is and has given up one whining and falling down a lot for genuine action hero prowess. That is good to see and I realized we were in better hands when he took a chimera down all by himself in the beginning of the picture. Toby Kebbel was awesome in RocknRolla and shines here as well. He fills in the comic relief with just the right pitch and the movie is much better for it.

One thing I have to address though is that I think that the ‘gods losing their power for lack of prayer’ thing is a bit strange. It is an interesting concept that has been mined in books and media before but here it makes little sense. Perseus is around and it is accepted that he is half god and everyone knows he killed the Kraken. When Zeus shows up in person, everyone recognizes him and bows immediately. When they are on their quest, Perseus is adamant that no one prays to Ares because he will then know where they are and kill them all. So if everyone pretty much knows that there are gods around such that they are hanging around with the offspring of them, why wouldn’t they pray? The gods are actively courting people so it isn’t as if they won’t listen or do anything. They are a step away from holding a telethon so why wouldn’t people toss some prayers their way? And if the big bad is coming to kill everyone and has unleashed a bunch of awful shit from the underworld and the gods are too weak to stop it because of lack of prayer, why don’t they have the army assembled start praying? I am not sure how much prayer a god’s tank holds but if you are running on fumes a quarter of a tank is better than nothing. It is as if when they make a Titans movie they have to throw something in the plot that just doesn’t make sense, just in case you are really enjoying the movie otherwise. On the other hand, at least this one actually had a fucking Titan in it.

Conclusion [7.0 out of 10]

Wrath of the Titans has a lot of problems but it is fairly entertaining and is head and shoulders above the previous installment. There haven’t been a lot of good to passable movies yet this year so even with its warts I’ll take it. Wrath packs in enough action and cool looking special effects to justify an afternoon matinee and will probably look great on blu-ray. It isn’t quite up to the potential for the material but it is definitely a step in the right direction.