Thursday, November 08, 2012
Wrath of the Titans (2012)
Ladies and gentlemen! Gods and weird six-armed demon dudes! I present to you the fight of the year! And it's not what you think. You know after the first interaction between Perseus (Sam Worthington) and Zeus (Liam Neeson) how this movie is going to play out, and being that it's rather starved for attention, it doesn't want to let you down. The real fight is between the storyline and Greek myth. And I don't mean to ruin this for you, but Greek myth does not win.
On one end of the Greek myth-as-movie spectrum you have Troy, which has all the names right and no godly stuff at all. On the second end of the spectrum you have Clash of the Titans (the new one) getting some of the names right and some of the deeds right and lots of godly super power stuff and on the the third end of the spectrum, you have the Percy Jackson books and movie which don't try to get it right because they are interpreting for a new generation and it has lots of godly stuff and demi-godly stuff. This movie, Wrath of the Titans falls equidistant between Clash and Jackson and three-quarters of the way away from Troy.
What the movie got right: Perseus is the son of Zeus. Zeus, Hades and Poseiden are brothers. Ares is the son of Zeus. Kronos is the father of Zeus, Hades and Poseiden.
What the movie got half-way right: Perseus and Andromeda - Perseus doesn't hook up with some chick to be his baby mama and then hook up with Andi years later, he's supposed to be with her from the start. Perseus and Pegasus - Pegasus assisted Perseus in his adventure with Medusa, but not any other adventures.
What the movie got wrong: Everything else. How can Perseus be the grandfather of Heracles if Zeus dies before Perseus has any kids with Andromeda? How is it that the Titans have power and the demi-gods have power, but the gods lose their power? How can Perseus have killed Ares before Ares makes his appearance in Troy? How is it that I'm even concerned about how this movie compares to Greek myth? The answer is sequels, baby! I am officially casting my vote for the movie to be called "Remember the Titans" so that people are always thinking they are about to watch a movie about football. Or, they can call it, 'Episode 6: The Return of the Demi'
It's time for me to get over my geeky worries and realize that no one is watching this film to see and accurate portrayal of the Greek myths involving Perseus. And they're not watching it to see Sam Worthington, because if they are it's just too sad for me to bear. If they're smart, they're watching this movie to see Liam Neeson, Ralph Feinnes, Rosamund Pike or Bill Nighy. If they had cast Clive Owen as Perseus, this could have been a brilliantly well-acted movie, and if they had different writers who were actually interested in Greek myth instead of making money, this movie could have been brilliant across the board.
Wrath of the Titans at IMDb
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