Wrath of the Titans

Wrath of the Titans - Dir. Jonathan Liebesman (2012)

The original Clash of the Titans wasn't that great of a film. It's mostly remembered for the stop-motion effects by Ray Harryhausen. At least, it is remembered. The 2010 remake is remembered more as a cautionary example against hasty 3D conversion and a catchphrase ("Release the Kraken!") that tired quickly. Still, Clash made a ton of money, which is enough justification to greenlight a sequel, Wrath of the Titans.

Ten years after the events of the previous movie, Perseus (Sam Worthington) lives the quiet life of a fisherman with his son, Helius (John Bell). He is once again dragged into the world of myths and legends when his father, Zeus (Liam Neeson), asks for his aid against HIS father, Kronos the Titan. Yes, there are actual Titans this time around.

Mankind's faith in the gods have further eroded their powers leaving Zeus vulnerable against the combined forces of Hades (Ralph Fiennes) and Ares (Edgar Ramirez), the god of war. The treacherous twosome mean to steal Zeus's remaining strength to free Kronos. To stop them, Perseus must gather the weapons of the gods; Zeus's lightning bolt, Poseidon's trident, and Hades' pitchfork. Perseus is joined by Agenor (Toby Kebbell), the son of Poseidon (Danny Huston), Hephaestus (Bill Nighy), the forger of the gods, and the warrior princess Andromeda (Rosamund Pike, replacing Alexa Davalos).

While Clash followed the formula of the traditional hero's journey, Wrath is more of a standard hero's quest. The screenplay is mapped out just like a video game with Perseus searching for various items and defeating mid-level boss characters before facing the primary villain. Jonathan Liebesman, who previously directed Battle: Los Angeles, handles the CGI intensive action sequences well with Perseus pitted against mythological beasts such as the Chimera, Cyclopes, and the Minotaur deep within a shifting labyrinth. In contrast to Immortals, the Titans here are formidable foes with Kronos portrayed as a colossus of smoldering rock and molten lava.

There isn't much of a difference between Sam Worthington in Clash and Sam Worthington in Wrath, aside from a fuller head of curly hair. Kebbell and Nighy provide levity while Pike is striking in her Xena garb though their characters are never fully formed. As for the gods, it's hard not to enjoy any scenes featuring Neeson and Fiennes, no matter how corny the dialogue. Poor Danny Huston gets the short end of the stick. The god of the seas only had one line in the last movie and he gets maybe a handful of scenes in the sequel.

Just as Athena sprung from the brow of Zeus upon birth, Wrath of the Titans seems to have sprung from the mind of an avid God of War gamer. Wrath is a streamlined action pic that runs at a brisk pace. Released at the end of March, it was a nice appetizer for the summer blockbuster season that was to come.

Rating: ** (*****)

War Horse

War Horse - Dir. Steven Spielberg (2011)

It's been three years since Steven Spielberg's last directorial effort in Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. He returned with a vengeance at the end of 2011 with his two latest pictures hitting theaters within days of each other. They couldn't be any more different. The first was The Adventures of Tintin, a kinetic boys' adventure utilizing the latest in motion capture animation and released in 3D. The other, War Horse, is an old-fashioned epic shot in 35mm that references numerous Hollywood classics.

War Horse is based on a 1982 children's novel by Michael Morpurge, which was adapted into an award-winning stage play in 2007. Spielberg attended a show and was inspired to turn it into a movie with help from screenwriters Richard Curtis (Bridget Jones' Diary, Love Actually) and Lee Hall (Billy Elliot). Each permutation chronicles the events of World War I as seen through the eyes of a courageous horse.

The film opens in Dover, England with Albert Narracott (Jeremy Irvine) enraptured by a newly born colt. Albert lives in a farmhouse with his mother Rose (Emily Watson) and father Ted (Peter Mullan), a Boer War veteran trying to wash away his traumatic memories with alcohol. Ted rashly purchases the colt for triple his worth mainly to spite his overbearing landlord (David Thewlis), who rightly points out that the horse is too small to plow fields. It was born for show, not work. However, a determined Albert bonds with the newly named Joey and gets him to plow their rocky land. When a rainstorm washes away their crops, Ted has no choice but to sell Joey to the British army in order to pay their overdue rent.

Joey is put into the care of Captain Nicholls (Tom Hiddleston) and marches into battle alongside Maj. Stewart (Benedict Cumberbatch) and his black stallion Topthorn. After a failed charge against a German regiment, the horses are put into the care of two underage boys, Gunther (David Kross from The Reader) and Michael (Leonard Carow) serving in that same unit. From there, Joey and Topthorn wind up in the possession of an ailing French farm girl (Celine Buckens) and her doting grandfather (Niels Arestrup). Meanwhile, Albert enlists in the military as soon as he comes of age hoping to be reunited with his beloved friend.

War Horse represents Steven Spielberg at his best and his worst. It is an extremely well-crafted film gorgeously shot by Janusz Kaminski. The visuals are impeccable with numerous striking shots that capture the horrors of war and the beauty of the era. War Horse begins in an idyllic countryside that Spielberg has accentuated and romanticized in the way John Ford did with the countries of Wales in How Green Was My Valley and Ireland in The Quiet Man. The film culminates with a beautiful shot of silhouetted figures against a blazing orange sunset ala Gone with the Wind. Another shot features a battlefield strewn with the corpses of soldiers and horses which also recalls that same picture.

Spielberg can't help but go for the jugular when it comes to the film's most emotional moments. No heartstring is safe as Spielberg puts children and animals in peril in an attempt to wring every tear from every eye in the audience. If you didn't know how to feel about a certain scene, John Williams' overwhelming and hammy score will make sure to tell you. One of the best sequences in War Horse is an episode where Joey runs over and through the British trenches and gets tangled up by barbed wire in no man's land. One soldier from both sides declares a temporary truce to cut him loose. It's a touching moment, but Spielberg can't end the scene without the German calling Joey a "remarkable horse." This is a point Spielberg feels needs to be hammered home every fifteen minutes.

The acting is solid with Spielberg putting together an excellent cast of English and European thespians. Jeremy Irvine doesn't make much of an impression as Albert and he tends to overplay it during the more emotional moments. Tom Hiddleston and Benedict Cumberbatch turn in solid performances as the stiff upper lip British officers. The best performance in the film belongs to Peter Mullen as Albert's defeated father. Mullen probably isn't familiar to most American audiences, but he's appeared in darker, powerhouse roles in The Red Riding Trilogy and Paddy Considine's directorial debut Tyrannosaur.

War Horse attempts to be a treatise on the brutality of war as well as an uplifting family friendly drama and Spielberg has a difficult time blending the two. The episodic nature means the tone changes from All Quiet on the Western Front to National Velvet without notice. Maybe I'm cynical, but Spielberg's saccharine sentimentality didn't play well with me.

Rating: ** ½ (*****)

The Sorcerer's Apprentice

The Sorcerer's Apprentice - Dir. Jon Turteltaub (2010)


Two Bruckheimer productions in one summer? Thank the cinematic gods that the world has not ended underneath a torrent of special effects-laden schlock. Earlier, we saw the release of Prince of Persia, a loud and brainless movie based on a video game. Now, we have The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, a loud and brainless movie loosely based on a Mickey Mouse cartoon which, in turn, was based on a poem by Goethe. Aside from a scene involving enchanted mops run amok, this Sorcerer’s Apprentice has very little to do with any of the previous versions.

The film opens in Arthurian times as Merlin (James A. Stephens) falls in a battle against the evil sorceress, Morgana le Fay (Alice Krige), after being betrayed by one of his apprentices, Maxim Horvath (Alfred Molina). Merlin’s other apprentices, Balthazar Blake (Nicolas Cage) and Veronica (Monica Bellucci), manage to stop the evildoers. Veronica traps Morgana’s soul inside her body and Balthazar in turn traps them both inside a nesting doll. Over the centuries, Balthazar has captured over evil sorcerers (including Horvath) within layers of the doll as he searches for the Prime Merlinian, a magician with the power to destroy Morgana once and for all.

Flash forward to New York City in the year 2000 where a young boy named Dave Stutler (Jake Cherry) stumbles upon a magic shop run by Balthazar. Just as he realizes Dave is the chosen one, Horvath is accidentally freed from his prison. The wizards battle and entrap each other in an enchanted vase for ten years.

Flash forward again to the present day and both are finally released. Meanwhile, a grown-up Dave (Jay Baruchel) is now a physics student at NYU. Since that fateful day, he’s had countless hours of therapy and was forced to transfer to a new school. Dave still has a crush on fellow student, Becky Barnes (Teresa Palmer), who he knew back in grade school. Dave is thrust into the strange world of magic when he’s placed under the tutelage of the eccentric Balthazar. Together, they must stop Horvath from freeing Morgana and resurrecting an army of the dead to conquer the world.

The Sorcerer’s Apprentice takes us on a Cliff Notes edition of the hero’s journey. Much as he did in his last film, She’s Out of My League, Baruchel is the gawky nerd who overcomes his doubts to win the day and get the pretty girl. Director Jon Turteltaub, who previously helmed the National Treasure films, makes sure to throw in plenty of whiz-bang special effects, a car chase, a giant steel eagle, a dragon, and even a few Hadokens for the Street Fighter II fans. Apprentice bounces from lengthy exposition to action sequence in breakneck manner.

Cage sports one of his least bizarre hairstyles for one of his least bizarre roles. It’s refreshing to see Cage restrain himself from his usual mugging of the camera. On the other hand, Molina realizes what a Z-grade film he’s starring in and acts accordingly with mustache twirling glee. The same goes for Toby Kebbell as a Criss Angel-esque illusionist.

The Sorcerer’s Apprentice is the perfect movie for those of you who think Harry Potter could use more explosions and less of those pesky things like plot and character development.

Rating: * ½

Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time

Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time - Dir. Mike Newell (2010)


A cinematic rule of thumb: video game movies suck. You know you’re in trouble when Mortal Kombat is essentially the Citizen Kane of video game adaptations. It is with great trepidation that I approached the Prince of Persia, based off the video game series created by Jordan Mechner. It is also one of two Jerry Bruckheimer produced spectacles this summer along with The Sorcerer’s Apprentice. Prince of Persia is set in a fantasy version of Persia where no one is actually Persian and everyone speaks with a British accent.

The film opens with an Aladdin-esque prologue featuring a young boy named Dastan defending another child in the open marketplace. Impressed by his courage, King Sharaman (Ronald Pickup) adopts him. The now adult Prince Dastan (Jake Gyllenhaal) is leads an army to attack the city of Alamut. The King’s brother, Nizam (Ben Kingsley), has evidence that Alamut is building weapons for Persia’s enemies. However, Nizam is secretly after a mystical dagger which can turn back time for just a few seconds. Beneath the city lies an hourglass full of the Sands of Time, plunging the dagger into it will allow Nizam to rewrite history as he sees fit. Framed for the murder of his father, Dastan and the beautiful Princess Tamina (Gemma Arterton) must uncover Nizam’s plot while being hunted by his own brothers and a cadre of assassins.

As you’d expect from a Bruckheimer production, Prince of Persia is packed with overblown action sequences and expensive special effects. The climax feels like a genuine sandstorm that threatens to blind your eyes and engulf your body in a torrent of CGI. The movie is surprisingly light on Parkour stunts considering acrobatics were a big part of the games. Most of the acting is bland with the leads engaging in forced dialogue that passes for witty banter. Only Alfred Molina gives a sly and amusing performance as the earliest member of the Tea Party. He’s a promoter of ostrich races who bemoans the plight of the small businessman and adamantly refuses to pay taxes.

Prince of Persia is lightweight and forgettable popcorn entertainment. It fails to be a 21st century version of Indiana Jones, coming off more as a knockoff of Stephen Sommers’ Mummy pictures. As a video game movie, it’s still better than Super Mario Bros. and, at least, it wasn’t directed by Uwe Boll.

Rating: **

RocknRolla

RocknRolla - Dir. Guy Ritchie (2008)


The well may have run dry, but that hasn’t stopped Ritchie from dipping into it once more. Thrust yet again into the London underworld, we are introduced to an ensemble of ruthless gangsters and incompetent crooks. There’s an overly complicated real estate scam, stolen cash, a stolen painting, and the search for a drugged out rock star.

Ritchie has been reluctant to grow as a filmmaker ever since making his big splash on the Post-Tarantino cinematic landscape with Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels. He’s essentially remade the same film three times. Then again, when he did try to stretch his directing muscles, he made the universally reviled Swept Away.

With RocknRolla, the former Mr. Madonna’s flaws show more and more. MTV style editing and fancy camera tricks act as feints for otherwise bland sequences. Ritchie stuffs his script with far too many subplots and characters in a vain attempt to bolster his page count. The only way to distinguish any of those characters is by arbitrarily goofy nicknames like One Two, Mumbles, and Johnny Quid. It won’t be by their well-rounded personalities since they have none.

To Ritchie’s credit, he still manages to collect a wealth of talented actors to play his cartoonish characters. Not all of them are properly utilized, the usually entertaining Jeremy Piven turns in a bland performance, for example. As one of the hottest accountants in the world, Thandie Newton displays a sexy cool that might be the closest we’ll ever get to a gangland Audrey Hepburn. I also enjoyed Mark Strong’s (also great in Body of Lies and Stardust) excellent turn as our narrator and the right-hand man of Lenny Cole played to perfection by Tom Wilkinson (”There’s no school like the old school.”).

Rating: **