Wrath of the Titans

Wrath of the Titans was a big question mark. Its predecessor, the critically bashed, big money grossing remake, Clash of the Titans was much of the same. But in this second chapter, the film stays consistent with the positives and negatives of its predecessor. Sam Worthington returns as Perseus, the half human son of Zeus (Liam Neeson), who attempts to save his father from Hades (Ralph Fiennes) and his brother Ares (Edgar Ramirez). Zeus was captured in order to drain his power to free the evil titan, Kronos. Kronos will of course destroy the world if he escapes.

The necessity for a full back story isn’t there because of Wrath’s status as a sequel. However, there should be a bit of a buildup in order to develop the story. In fact, that can sum up the main issue with the entire film, lack of development on the part of Perseus as well as the overall plot. But before you go and cause a big uproar about how “bad” of a movie it is, there are some bright spots. Extended screen time for Zeus and Hades means more of the Oscar nominated actors playing them. These obviously aren’t their best performances, but they still make the segments with the gods interesting.

Wrath of the Titans duplicates the moments that prove most successful in its predecessor by slightly changing situations and what mythical creature is getting beat up. The action is strong with very involved visual effects. But with the intention of increasing the scale of the movie, some scenes come off as cartoony. Kronos is too large, the armies too massive and an underdog story turns into something more fitting for a video game. So with all these problems, is it strange that I actually really liked the movie? No, it’s meant to be entertaining after all.

Each film earns either zero, a half or a full arrow in five categories. The categories are Acting, Writing/Directing, Emotion, Innovation and Overall Impression. The arrows are added up to equal the full score.

American Reunion

It was kind of implied that American Wedding was the conclusion to the American Pie series, but American Reunion brings the group back together to attend their high school reunion. The plot doesn’t really go much deeper than that. They’re still perverted, ridiculous antics ensue and somehow Eugene Levy is in the middle of them. The cast is obviously so used to these characters and how to play them, they come across as better actors than they probably are.

Reunion maintains a theme of revisiting the 90s, since they were the class of ’99. Music from the 90s is used at their 90s themed reunion. But more subtly, the film maintains the feeling of that era’s comedy. The raunchy episodes resolved with touching moments have a very nostalgic feel to them. It is quite a feat that such awkward moments and stupid situations occur while maintaining the audience’s sympathy.

All the main characters develop enough to give the movie a purpose, but none of the arcs develop the characters very much. Maybe Sean William Scott’s, Stifler, who seems to finally figure out why people find him so annoying. The other stand out is Chris Klein, who does mope around a lot, but he shows that Oz belongs in the franchise after being left out of the previous film.

American Reunion runs a bit long and plays on some tired gags, but fans of the originals will enjoy the film. Smaller roles return with cameos throughout and loose ends more than ten years in the making are finally tied up. The trip down memory lane is fun, though it would be nice to see some new concepts thrown in there. The movie ends with the viewer hoping for another sequel, but I don’t really see that happening successfully.

Each film earns either zero, a half or a full arrow in five categories. The categories are Acting, Writing/Directing, Emotion, Innovation and Overall Impression. The arrows are added up to equal the full score.

Mirror Mirror

The Snow White wars have begun with the more family friendly of the two films starring the fairy tale heroine coming out this spring. Mirror Mirror has Snow White (Lilly Collins) growing tired of the Queen’s (Julia Roberts) oppressive rule. While venturing out of the castle for the first time (ever, apparently), she encounters a traveling prince (Armie Hammer) as well as a band of thieving dwarves. She becomes allies with all of them while attempting to remove the Queen from the throne.

The film attempts to be a new spin on the classic story, but there are times where it just feels tired. The dialogue is often witty, which helps move the film along. However, the lack of diversity with sets, that begin with computer generated establishing shots and move to one of only a handful of sets, weakens the scale of what is meant to be a large movie. The film is well cast though, with Nathan Lane fitting his role as the queen’s assistant perfectly and all of the dwarves shining as their characters are surprisingly each developed to a certain extent. Roberts and Hammer are as advertised and I can’t really complain about Collins either.

The problem is that this slightly different spin doesn’t add any depth to the fairytale. Aspects like the poison apple are thrown in for nostalgia’s sake and a song and dance number during the closing credits seems woefully out of place. Young audiences likely enjoy the fun story equipped with name-calling and an evil dragon like thing. The movie actually succeeds at what it is trying to do, be a fun family adventure. It just can’t objectively be called innovative in any way, shape or form. That wouldn’t be an issue if the advertising hadn’t focused on this being a fresh take. At the end of the day, kids will laugh, adults may chuckle…maybe.

Each film earns either zero, a half or a full arrow in five categories. The categories are Acting, Writing/Directing, Emotion, Innovation and Overall Impression. The arrows are added up to equal the full score.