Wrath of the Titans (12A)

The squeal to the 2010 remake of Clash of the Titans, Wrath of the Titans appears out of this first film’s success. The Director, Jonathan Liebesman, the relatively inexperienced director of Battle Los Angeles, has an extra 25 million dollars to play with, making a massive budget of 150 million. Like a Titan rising from a mighty fire it lurches into life but is consumed by the over use of visual effects and poor make up. It strings together a mish-mash of scenes based upon sections of the first film, using the same characters and similar ideas. 
 
Sam Worthington as Perseus and Liam Neeson as Zeus seem to be on auto pilot and largely stone like as if Medusa had been on set. The interesting Danny Huston, Poseidon, is quickly expelled, and the excellent Ralph Fiennes fails to impress partly because he appears in his theatrical Harry Potter mode. Rosamund Pike appears as Andromeda and here we feel she may be a foil for Worthington’s often shocked expression but she is not allowed to share out her class and we lose track of her.

The main problem with Wrath of the Titans is the plot; find the very powerful weapon and kill the angry mega god. There are no twists or surprises and it really lacks the mythical magic of the original 1980s film. We do not come to know Perseus’s son, played by John Bell, who had an acting break by winning a Blue Peter competition, or really feel that we understand much at all about the characters. 

Having said that if you love special effects then there are some great examples here, especially the two headed hell hound which Perseus single-handedly dispatches. This aspect of the film must have been the reason why it grossed over 300 million dollars.

42/100

The Cabin in the Woods (15)

There has been a lot of press coverage regarded this supposedly typical horror, with suitable name and twisted poster showing a grim cabin, where horror might commence. But this unexpected film is co-written by Joss Whedon,  sci-fi and fantasy master scribe, and so there was always going to be an added science fiction element. But where could this come from when dealing with your standard slasher in the woods horror?

From the beginning it is apparent that perhaps there is something quirky about Cabin in the Woods. Rather than the stereo typical 'teenagers preparing for a road trip' opening sequence we are confronted with some kind of science laboratory or technical institute. Then a hard hitting title sequence which smacks of a Carry on film rather than a gruesomely atmospheric frontispiece to a spooky horror. Not all as it would seem.

The group of young adults are in trouble. The little know Kristen Connolly steps up as the lead female, Dana Polk , and yet somehow steps back into the shadows her presence weak. Chris Hemsworth (Thor) as Curt does well, doesn't need a surname and can't help but dominate a group of lack lustre victims, yet is soon dispatched. Anna Hutchison and Jesse Williams appear and disappear, where as the geeky Fran Kranz is more memorable as the one who has enough brains recognise the trap the group have found themselves in.

There is plenty of gore and psychological terror in this action packed horror come thriller come sci-fi. Experienced TV Director Drew Goddard churns ups a cauldron of dark filmic references but surprisingly the strength of this story, other than its unpredictable nature, comes from the two control room operators Richard Jenkins and Bradley Whitford. They're dead pan, unmoving behaviour followed up by high fives and slap stick moralistic judgements is hard to fathom until you realise they may well have the fate of the world in their hands.

68/100

Looking back at a few reviews on different websites....

Having a look back at some other reviews which have appeared on a number of websites through the Archant Group:

DVD Review: Hugo

Thursday, May 3, 2012 9:50 AM 

IN THE CAMBRIDGE TIME

DVD Review: The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn

Thursday, May 3, 2012 9:53 AM

IN THE HUNTS POST

DVD Review: Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol

Tuesday, May 15, 2012 9:58 AM 

IN THE ELY STANDARD 

DVD Review: Immortals

Thursday, April 5, 2012 9:48 AM 

IN THE HERTS AD

DVD Review: A Thousand Words

Thursday, August 2, 2012 10:22 AM 

IN THE ROYSTON CROW

Gone (15)

Amanda Seyfried plays the desperate Jill in this tense thriller which revolves around a simple but much travelled storyline of abduction. Jill believes that the man who kidnapped her years before has returned and taken her sister. Seyfield is convincingly paranoid and struggles to make the police believe her as her original abductor was never found and it is surmised that it is all going on in her head. Detective Powers, Daniel Sunjata (Dark Knight Rises), the man who takes Jill’s ear bashings, is tired of this apparent irate girl and fobs her off. Jill will not give up and takes on her own law busting investigation.  

This film is all about the beautiful Amanda Seyfield. She is on the screen for much of the time and the clues which make up her journey are carefully followed. We see through her eyes, experience her paranoia and pain as the dark secrets and the horrid ordeal, she went through, are revealed. She takes it all in her stride, at times battling with an unoriginal, drab script.

Gone could work on many levels though. We have a history which could introduce doubt over the state of the main character’s perceptions. Was she really kidnapped? Who is this mysterious and overly helpful Detective Peter Hood played by a creepy Wes Bentley (The Hunger Games)? Who is the villain? But ultimately the big build up has a disappointing ending, despite Seyfried trying to do her best to make something of it. By the time we arrive at this conclusion though we realise we have been gripped and that the relevantly inexperienced director, Heitor Dhalia, works well with Seyfried and delivers a marketable product.

65/10

Battleship (12A)

This all out, full steam ahead, family film directed by actor turned director Peter Berg suffers from an identity crisis. The reference to the board game Battleships is misleading as it could imply a ship vs. ship situation when in fact it heavily focuses on something completely alien to the board game...aliens. There is no modern wartime epic, country against country, and instead you will find an intergalactic conflict set sometime in the near future when the human race has developed a technology which allows them to beam a message light years into space. This has a knock on effect of calling forth an aggressive humanoid species who hope to take control of our beautiful green globe.

Standing in their way, other than thousands of tonnes of battleship, are the brothers Hopper. We meet the older responsible Commander Stone, Alexander Skarsgård (True Blood) and younger irresponsible Lieutenant Alex, played by the roguish, rising star Taylor Kitsch (John Carter). Kitsch spends much of his time wrestling with his love for Sam, Brooklyn Decker, the Admiral’s (Liam Neeson) daughter and the need to take responsibly and kick some alien but. Sometimes he carries it off at other times you let him get away with it. Then the action takes over and with an edge of humour it really works.

This film has been designed to be family entertainment, in an explosive way, as well as throwing in some subtle references to a popular board game when they have to use beacon readouts to pin point the enemy when their radar is knocked out. But let us not get away from the fact that it is a big and bold Science Fiction movie and that for some shameful reason this has tried to be covered up. This trend has come from the recent renaming of ‘John Carter from Mars’ to just ‘John Carter’. This film is a celebration of big screen action and yes it won’t win any Oscars but it is a lot of fun and one that children all over the world will be allowed to watch again and again because, let’s face it, the parents won’t mind.

79/100

The Three Musketeers (12A)

In this busy remake of the repeatedly remade The Three Musketeers we have a strong cast of recognisable genre actors. We have the trio of Matthew Macfadyen (Robin Hood, 2010) as Athos, Luke Evans (The Raven) as Arimus and Ray Stevenson (Thor) as Porthos and as a group they are excellent, each seizing upon the clichéd aspects of their fictional characters and not over doing it. Then comes the fourth musketeer Logan Lerman as the arrogant D’Artagnan and even after his experiences as Percey Jackson, in Percy Jackson & the Lightning Thief, he fails to convince for much of the time, the fine gloss of this youthful American somehow out of sync with the rough to extravagant French setting.

The English Director, Paul W.S. Anderson, brings along a number of external influences to this film. His obvious casting of his wife Milla Jovovich (Resident Evil) as villainess Milady de Winter, who excels at the action sequences but falls short on the acting, and his casting of English actors and notably the comedian James Corden as Planchet, who’s style of comedy sits awkwardly in the flow of the story. But this trusty and put upon side-kick follows the four Musketeers as they seek to recover a diamond necklace to save the Honour of Queen Anne and prevent war in Europe.

There are two problems with this updated version though, aside from the sudden invention of incredibly manoeuvrable airships. Orlando Bloom as the Duke of Buckingham fails at being a baddy and only achieves a poor imitation of Johnny Depp as Jack Sparrow and Christoph Waltz (The Green Hornet) as Richelieu is weak. Aside from this when the Musketeers are on screen they are entertaining and this just about holds the story together.

56/100

A Thousand Words (12A)

A toned, young looking, Eddie Murphy is the main feature of this one concept comedy directed by TV producer and relatively experienced Film Director Brian Robbins. Robbins has a connection with Murphy and understands his visual and vocal dexterity, which is evident in A Thousand Words, and he has also worked with him on Norbit and the slightly funnier Meet Dave.

In this straight forward film the character Jack McCall relies on his ‘gift of the gab’ to sign up authors for a publishing company but he has his priorities all mixed up and it takes a magic tree and a spiritual leader played by a strangely hippy like Cliff Curtis (Sunshine) to trap him in what appears to be a magic curse where upon if he should utter more than a thousand words he will die. He has to then think very carefully about what he says to his wife Kerry Washington (Fantastic 4: Rise of the Silver Surfer) and his colleagues.

As concepts go this one seems like an interesting premise but the problem is, and it is a big one with a film about words, is the script. Time and time again we understand that Murphy cannot say anything because the utterance of any words would shorten his life but when face with the need for just a couple of important words he fails to deliver. Surely a few well placed words is not too difficult to work out and it just frustrates the viewer rather than making them laugh.

The tragic nature of his curse is demonstrated, and Murphy show his talent, but this intimacy is short lived and we are again treated to the character’s, poorly directed, surprisingly volatile anger and the unfunny drama, after all this is a comedy. The one character who comes out of the film with much credit is Clark Duke (Kick-Ass), as Murphy’s PA, who is forging a bumbling sidekick type persona which is paying his acting career dividends.

42/100