[Freya-dæg] The Wrath of the Titans More Effective Than Their Clashing

{The Wrath of the Titans's movie poster, found on Wikipedia.}

Plot Summary
The Good
The Bad
Judgment
Closing

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Plot Summary

The age of gods is fading and the age of men is dawning. But on the cusp of this change, a threat lingers. Hades (Ralph Fiennes) and Ares (Édgar Ramírez) have cut a deal with the leader of the Titans (and Zeus (Liam Neeson), Poseidon (Danny Huston), and Hades' father), Kronos, and are working to revive him so that he may plunge the world of man into chaos.

Fearing the worst, Zeus appeals to his son, Persues the Kraken slayer (Sam Worthington). Since his heroic deeds of a decade past, Perseus has lost his beloved wife Io (not featured in this film), and been raising his son Helius in a simple fishing village. Hoping to keep his oath to his departed wife that he will never let his son Helius (John Bell) wield a sword, Perseus reluctantly joins Zeus in the fight against Hades and Ares - but will it be enough to soothe the Wrath of the Titans?

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The Good

The best thing about this movie is that it is definitely an improvement over the first - Clash of the Titans (read my review here).

The story is told in a better fashion, character conflicts are better handled, and the graphics are improved to the point where there are only a few flawed frames and textures.

The story is told in a way that's similar to Clash of the Titans. Where that movie had an unbalanced pair of parallel plots, Wrath of the Titans presents a much more balanced pair. Not only do we see what's happening with Perseus and his quest for the Spear of Triam, but we also see enough of what's happening with Ares and Hades and Zeus to care about it.

And within that divine trio, there is some definite drama in the conflict between Zeus and Hades. This drama comes mostly from Hades' having a decent motive to fight Zeus - he holds a grudge for being banished to the underworld when the gods were still young and sorting the universe out. This explanation doesn't gel with the original myth, wherein Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades simply draw lots for the realms of air, sea, and underworld, but it's at least something.

The conflict between Perseus as an unbeliever and reluctant demi-god and his father Zeus is also fairly well-done, considering the sort of movie this is and its obviously teenaged male key demographic. *spoilers*Especially poignant is the scene in which Zeus dies, as it packs an unexpected amount of dramatic punch for a movie that is otherwise entirely action-driven.*/spoilers*

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The Bad

However, Wrath of the Titans is not a complete and entire improvement over Clash of the Titans.

While there's definitely a more balanced approach to storytelling in the more recent film, it still suffers from something rather noisome. It plays out far too much like a video game.

On the one hand this isn't necessarily a bad thing, there's nothing wrong with storytelling methods associated with one form of entertainment being used by another. But, at the same time, it isn't carried out in a fashion that's well-suited to the screen. The end result is heavy implication that this movie was produced with high hopes of (or maybe even because of) a movie tie-in game.

The plot follows the general "pyramid" or "arc" convention of exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, denouement. But, instead of having one climax, the movie tries to pull off two. This can be made to work through clever writing and plot twists, but this movie has neither.

The first climax is the reveal of Kronos at approximately the one hour mark, after an entire hour of buildup. Then, after this reveal of a slow-talking, slow-moving, lava-monster like thing (think the Nome King from Return to Oz, but on fire and less clever). And the second is a three-minute let-down of a fight involving Perseus, Pegasus, Kronos, and the unimpressive Spear of Triam (essentially a glowing stick).

{Kronos above, the Nome King below. Which is more terrifying? Image of Kronos from F*ck You: Idiosyncratic Wit and image of the Nome King from The Fourth Wall: A Television and Film Blog.}

Thus, just like so many action/adventure games and RPGs, the movie's 'exposition -> quest -> last minute complication -> more quest -> quest completed' plot arc is more suited to video gaming. Simply put, the false climax device is better suited to a medium where a good twist isn't needed to pull it off. Video games can make a much better use of this sort of device since good gameplay can pull in players to the point where storytelling becomes truly secondary. Experimentation is good, but this one is definitely a failure.

Characters don't suffer quite so much, at least in their portrayal, but there's a glaring absence in this movie. There are only three named women, and one of them has only a smile for a line.

Those other named women are Andromeda (Rosamund Pike) and Io, who doesn't even appear in the movie. The one who does, Andromeda, is essentially present to balance Perseus' party. She is underdeveloped (it's not clear who she's fighting, how she knows where Kronos is going to come from after he's freed, nor is the romantic tension between her and Perseus properly established).

In fact, it's fair to say that she's just in the movie because all action films need a femme fatale, and all the more if she can wear a completely impractical leather sleeveless top and skirt (skirt!) - which she does throughout the entire hour and a half running time of the movie.

However, the sense that there was a "No Girls Allowed" sign hung over this movie during its production and editing is solidified when Hephaestus mentions Aphrodite, but makes no mention whatsoever about catching her and Ares in an adulterous embrace. This would have made Hephaestus' motives for helping Perseus and his party so much stronger, since it wouldn't just be a matter of saving the world, but some revenge could also be involved.

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Judgment

Wrath of the Titans is a fine action film that is squarely aimed at teenaged boys who likely spend most of their time playing the standard sort of FPSs and western RPGs that are full of male/male conflict and warrior women clad in armor that would only protect them from torso-aimed dodgeballs.

But, if you can set that aside, it's a decent enough movie that actually does get inches deeper than most others in the genre, and that is a definite improvement on its predecessor.

But is it improved enough?

Not quite. Some real effort has been put into improving this movie, but without a well-portrayed female lead, or a fully engaging plot, this film falls flat.

Freya, fly low and take a look, but smile or frown, leave this one down in the field of fallen films.

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Closing

Check back here next week for another piece of creative writing, an editorial on the newest news, and part one of Nic Cage month - a month of looking for the good in some of the lowest rated efforts of the action star. And of course, Tuesday and Thursday will host more annotated links.

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