Wrath of the Titans 2D

'Wrath of the Titans' is the follow up to 2010's 'Clash of the Titans', which are reincarnations of Ray Harryhausen's 1981 Greek mythology based 'Clash of the Titans'. I will admit I am no fan of the 2010 'Clash of the Titans'. While the movie had wondrous visuals and special effects, the acting was mediocre to say the least and the story line was haphazard and chaotic. But this is supposed to be a review of ‘Wrath of the Titans’, not ‘Clash of the Titans’ right?

After experiencing ‘Clash of the Titans’ I was rather apprehensive of sitting through the sequel. ‘Wrath of the Titans’ begins ten years after where ‘Clash of the Titans’ left off. Living a much simpler life of a fisherman, Perseus does his best as a sole parent to raise his son Helius. Zeus visits and requests Perseus’ assistance to help hold the Titans prison Tartarus which lies deep within the cavernous underworld. It seems that since mortals are leaving their faith in the Gods, the Gods powers are dwindling which in turn is weakening the walls of the prison Tartarus. After Perseus declines, Zeus and Poseidon travel to the underworld to join with Hades. The alliance between Zeus, Poseidon, Ares and Hades is just a ruse. Ares and Hades defeat Poseidon and chain Zeus so Cronus can drain him of his power.

All sort of demons and creatures from the underworld are unleashed on Earth and after learning that Ares and Hades have betrayed Zeus, Perseus begins enlisting allies on his way to the underworld to aid his father Zeus in an attempt to stop the Titan Cronus from escaping his prison in Tartarus.

VIDEO PRESENTATION
'Wrath of the Titans' has a 99 minute runtime. The video is a 1080p MPEG-4 AVC encoded presentation running 23.976 fps with a 1.78:1 ratio. The 16:9 aspect ratio is rather unusual in my mind since Clash of the Titans had a 2.40:1 letterboxed presentation. The image is very sharp and detailed revealing all sorts of dirt, smoke and grunge without significant digital errors. Director Jonathan Liebesman seems to have taken the up-close, shaky-cam filming from ‘Battle Los Angeles’ and applied it to the fight scenes in Wrath of the Titans. A lot of reviewers had issues with this type of presentation in ‘Battle Los Angeles’, but I thought it fit the film style very well. In ‘Wrath of the Titans’ it works at times and not at others. There are some fight scenes that have more of a static position without running and this up-close shaky style seems more of a distraction than an aid to pull you into the film. A somewhat yellowish tint is cast onto some of the outdoor scenes. Details are wondrous with a pleasing amount of grain. The underworld and Tartarus have some of the best lighting and color that you will see in this blu-ray, full of detail and unbelievable scenery props. The black levels are perfect; I could not detect any crushing at all.

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AUDIO
The DTS-HD Master 5.1 Surround, (also in French, Portuguese and Spanish), delivers an immersive event to the presentation. All sorts of effects from the creatures such as pounding the ground, a chase scene through the trees, sowers of lava, hurtling fireballs and the expected thunder and lightning, are filling all channels and sound wondrous! Even the slightest of sounds are incorporated to complete the experience. All dialogue is clear and understandable without needing to strain or concentrate. There’s only one way it could have been better and would be by expanding the audio to 7.1 Master Audio.

EXTRAS
Maximum Movie Mode offers a choice of Path of the Gods or Path of Men to follow. If Path of the Gods is chosen you will be presented with lots of information on the mythology behind the film. And if you choose the Path of Men, this delivers behind the scene information on the movie.
Focus Points allows you to access the info from the Maximum Movie Mode without needing to watch the complete movie.
Deleted Scenes Three deleted scenes are available in an unfinished presentation. Personally, I believe they would have not added anything to the story and deserved to be deleted.

Overall, I was rather impressed with the film. While the acting ability of the cast is not significant, Academy Award deserving roles are not exactly needed for this type of movie. Sam Worthington’s acting is either improving or growing on me. Liam Neeson delivers the same role as before, although there’s no huge tag line here as “Release the kraken” from ‘Clash of the Titans’. I’ve enjoyed Rosamund Pike’s acting ever since seeing ‘Die Another Day’ and ‘Doom’. A couple of beers will improve the experience, but it’s not required by any means. This movie survives all of the mistakes of its predecessor, and surpasses it in every way.

FINAL RATING