Wrath of the Titans

I have several pet hates. Actually, make that many. Poor quality cutlery. Bottle tops not screwed on properly. People jigging their leg up and down in the corner of my eye. The Liverpudlian accent. And totally inaccurate historical films. Now I don't mind films taking a bit of artistic licence in their representations of 14^th century Mongolian carpet-weaving communities, but I think films should at least have some basis in reliable historical fact. Wrath of the Titans, the sequel to Clash of the Titans is one of these films. I appreciate that a film about Greek gods is hardly going to be the most realistic of films but it seemed as though the script writers of Wrath of the Titans had simply used the names of Greek mythical characters and dispensed with every other historical detail. The film's events may as well have taken place in a Scunthorpe nightclub.

Starring Sam Worthington (Avatar, Man on a Ledge) as Perseus, the demi-god and son of Zeus, and with a supporting cast of Ralph Fiennes and Liam Neeson, the film sees Perseus fight Ares and Hades who have captured Zeus and threaten to unleash the Titans (whoever on earth they are) on humankind. Essentially, the film's story is all over the place and I found myself on several occasions zoning out in an effort to be entertained by the battles as titans and gods got angry with one another. However, even the epic battle scenes and exploding mountains were underwhelming and, I'm afraid, boring. Ralph Fiennes as the baddie seemed to be playing Voldermort, only with more hair and an appearance from Bill Nighy barely raised even the faintest of smiles. Pairing this with astronomically un-engaging acting from Worthington and flat dialogue, I was left totally bored.

From a technical point of view, the CGI effects were competently executed but without the solid characterisation and convincing performances, they were totally wasted. The costumes were, as well, predictable and the inspiration for their design seemed to have come from Disney's Hercules. Add to this the array of godly facial hair sported by Zeus and Hades, who looked as though they had walked right out of a Gandalf convention, and the effect was almost laughable. Queen Andromeda's (Rosamund Pike) hair, however, seemed indestructible in battle as she flicked her golden locks in the manner of a hair colouring advert as she killed fire monsters which leaped erratically around like demented monkeys. I realise this film is a fantasy but, really. The key problem with this film is it totally misjudges the balance between action and narrative. It was never going to be a carefully crafted plot and it seems as though the director (Jonathan Liebesman) tried to cover this up by throwing action sequence after action sequence at the audience. The effect, however is overwhelmingly tedious and the little sense of plot is totally confused and lost in a stagnating mire of head banging, mismanaged action.

Wrath of the Titans' flaw is not its historical inaccuracy. I realise that a film such as this shouldn't, perhaps, be rooted in strict historical fact. But to be honest, a history lesson would have been a welcome alternative to this mind-numbing drivel. There is some discussion as to how to pronounce 'wrath' – is it wrath as in path or wrath as in moth? Wrath of the Titans, I'm afraid, doesn't even deserve this kind of debate. 

Clapperboard Rating: *