Richard Crouse

Before one big battle scene in “Wrath of the Titans,” the visually epic sequel to the 2010 cheesefest “Clash of the Titans,” Zeus (Liam Neeson), says, “Let’s go have some fun.” I’m still waiting for the fun.

Set in a world where the Gods have lost their power because people stopped believing in them, the only thing standing between oblivion and the survival of the human race is demi-god Perseus (Sam Worthington). Battling his half brother Ares (Édgar Ramírez), his uncle Hades (Ralph Fiennes) he must rescue his father Zeus from the underworld and prevent the ancient Titans from literally unleashing hell on earth.

Judging by the young woman sitting next to me “Wrath of the Titans” is a twelve text movie. With her eyes glued to her small hand held screen, she pretty much ignored the action in front of her on the big screen. As much as I HATE texting in movies–and I really do–I can’t say I blame her.

The movie follows the usual blockbuster movie template of an action scene every ten minutes or so, loosely connected by little bits of story, it’s Greek Mythology for Dummies’ some clichéd dialogue and a flying horse. There’s a lot of action, but because all those scenes look pretty much the same–they’re dark and it’s often hard to tell what’s going on–they don’t have much punch.

Couple that with an over reliance on computer generated images and you have a movie that tries to entertain the eye and little else.

In a movie where anything is possible–visually, anyway–Images fill the screen, but fail to ignite the imagination. The over reliance on the green screen and binary code combo that dominates the movie’s look has none of the charm of legendary Ray Harryhausen creatures that had the advantage of looking and feeling hand made.

On the plus side, “Wrath” has a sense of humor about itself. Most of the jokes are intentional, but it’s hard to take Neeson and Fiennes seriously as they bond together like some kind of immortal Bobbsey Twins. The rest of the cast fades into the background. Worthington must be a master of green screen acting by now; he has the art of reacting at nothing down to a science and Rosamund Pike looks good in 3D, but is little more than eye candy in a movie dominated by men and weird looking creatures.

“Wrath of the Titans” is about primal story elements–good and evil, mortality, betrayal and daddy issues–but is more concerned with the pictures than the script.