Wrath of the Titans

Wrath of the Titans is Spectacularly Epic!
by Reymundo Salao

WRATH OF THE TITANS is the sequel to the 2010 movie Clash of the Titans. In this movie, the gods and goddesses of Olympus are dying and losing their power, while Titans that have long been imprisoned are about to rise and have their revenge against the gods and goddesses, and unleash their chaos against mankind. Perseus must travel deep into Tartarus to save his father, and stop the wrath of the titans.

The 2010 movie Clash of the Titans was battered by critics so much that there was really a conscious effort to make the sequel far more impressive than just better. And this movie did indeed meet those expectations. Great story, impressive action, and jaw-dropping visuals; WRATH OF THE TITANS is enjoyably epic.

Clash of the Titans (2010)

A Big Wild Clash... Just Not Immortal Enough
by Reymundo Salao

First off, I apologize for being late in my reviews; I have been on vacation last week. And I also have been too busy with other things as well. This week, there are two post-apocalyptic movies being shown which are definitely worth watching. One is THE ROAD, which I have not watched yet, but I definitely trust is a good movie. And the other is BOOK OF ELI, which I have seen and I loved it. I hope ELI would be extended this week because I have yet to release my review for it. But for now, let me present you with my review of the 2010 remake of Clash of the Titans.

The film is a straight-up action movie; basically its the typical hero going through an identity crisis, trying to find out his purpose in life, that sort of storyline. After a while, you realize that the storyline is not really something the movie makes you conscious for; it seems obvious that it is only concerned with getting to the next evil monster to kill, almost in a purely video game style. The storyline presents you with a story of Perseus, trying to deny and renounce his place among the gods, yet aside from the few seconds of grief over the death of some important characters, we are not given enough time to comprehend how he really feels about why he continues to renounce his own privileges as a demigod (hopefully a longer cut with all the dramatic aspects present would be released on some kind of director's cut DVD someday). Obviously, the film's length is just enough to fill in all the action and eye candy required to make this a spectacular action-adventure movie that will satisfy its fantasy-craving audience. I am just glad that in its compactness and preference to focus on eye candy factors, it was still able to become a film that does NOT come off as totally idiotic.

It does not try to force itself to mix genres so as to widen its demographic; this means no annoying comic relief characters, and no needless romance. The bits of romance you get are mere seconds that pass oftentimes unnoticeably. And the slightest bit of comic relief never overdoes their little jokey moments. In fact, there really were no jokey moments that I can recall, just the natural amusing little moments with amusing side characters.

If you have watched the original 1981 Clash of the Titans movie, there are drastic changes in how it went by with its storyline and its characters. In the movie, the main opposing villain is Hades instead of Thetis, the identity of Calibos is altered, and the Io character was change also. But then again, both the new movie and the old movie are not very faithful to how Greek Mythology had written these characters. Everybody knows that Greek Mythology is far more dramatic than the simmered-down, audience friendly stories that Hollywood produces.

I really could not identify with all the hate towards this movie. Probably because I was aware that this was nothing more than just an eye candy movie. Leterrier is a visual director, action is his genre, and he excels well at it. He's not as impressive as Luc Besson or as avante garde as John Woo. But he gets the job done and oftentimes, his movies are good enough to impress and abundantly entertain me. He has now reached that Michael Bay popularity status, but the difference between him and Michael Bay is that Leterrier is not as dumb and lame as Bay (Bay tends to inject the dumbest humor and immaturely idiotic characters in his movies; Leterrier does not). I walked into Clash of the Titans, fully aware that I should not expect this to have some sort of dramatic or intellectual depth. What do you expect from a director who was chosen for the Hulk remake so that it could counter/replace Ang Lee's more dramatic version?

The only reason why I could not give it a great big praise is that it was not good enough to give justice to the original movie it is based on. The 1981 Clash of the Titans became a big fantasy movie of the 80's. It was iconic and is considered by many as a beloved classic. This new one, this remake, may have had been flashy and visually fantastic, but mere visuals would not make for a movie good enough to consider itself a remake of what already is a cinematic classic. To sum up, how would you enjoy this movie? Just enjoy the visuals and leave your brains at home.

In addition, I discourage you to watch this movie in 3-D, because this is the kind of movie that will make people hate 3-D cinema. Movies like Avatar or How to Train your Dragon are the kind of movies that will make you want to watch MORE of 3-D movies because these are movies that really shot in 3-D. "Clash.." was not shot in 3-D and just merely underwent 3-D conversion when AVATAR became a humongous hit, and made Clash's producers jump on the bandwagon. The 3-D conversion of Clash is lousy, dizzying, and makes its visual effects look lousy. You will be wasting your money on the 3-D version of this. Plus, many of you will be discouraged and will hate 3-D technology if you watch this. Watch it on 2-D instead.

Movies to Watch Out this 2010

2010 is finally here and here are some movies that you may want to watch out for this year...

Daybreakers - is a vampire film written and directed by Peter and Michael Spierig. The film stars Ethan Hawke, Willem Dafoe and Sam Neill. Filming took place in Australia from July to September 2007. Ethan Hawke plays Edward Dalton, a researcher in the year 2019, in which an unknown plague has transformed the world's population into vampires. As the human population nears extinction, vampires must capture and farm every remaining human, or find a blood substitute before time runs out. However, a covert group of vampires makes a remarkable discovery, one which has the power to save the human race. The movie is scheduled for a January release in the US & UK. No date yet was set for the Philippines

Clash of the Titans - fantasy film which is a remake of the 1981 film of the same name, itself loosely based on the Greek myth of Perseus. Directed by Louis Leterrier and starring Sam Worthington, the film is set for release on March 26, 2010

Kick-Ass - is an upcoming superhero film based on the comic book of the same name by Mark Millar and John Romita, Jr. The film is directed by Matthew Vaughn. The plot of Kick-Ass concerns a teenage boy, Dave Lizewski (Aaron Johnson), who decides to become a real-life superhero after being inspired by the heroes of comic books. He soon encounters a mysterious vigilante called Big-Daddy (Nicolas Cage), and his daughter Hit Girl (Chloë Moretz), who are working to bring down the drug baron Frank D'Amico. This is set for an April 2010 release.

Iron Man 2 - it's the sequel to 2008's Iron Man, and the second film in a planned trilogy. Directed by Jon Favreau, the film stars Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark, a billionaire industrialist and master engineer, also known as the superhero, Iron Man. The film is scheduled to be released on May 7, 2010.

Alice in Wonderland - the upcoming fantasy-adventure film directed by Tim Burton. It is an extension to the Lewis Carroll novels Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass. The film will use a technique combining live action and animation. Mia Wasikowska plays the role of Alice, alongside Johnny Depp as The Mad Hatter, Helena Bonham Carter as The Red Queen, Anne Hathaway as The White Queen, and Crispin Glover as The Knave of Hearts. The film is due for release on March 5, 2010 and the film will be released through Walt Disney Pictures in Disney Digital 3-D and IMAX 3-D, as well as in regular theatres.

The A-team - Everybody loves the A-team TV series back in the 1980's. This time, it is being made as a full feature movie with all the action and adventure. The film stars Liam Neeson, Bradley Cooper, Sharlto Copley, Jessica Biel, Quinton Jackson, Yul Vazquez, and will be directed by Joe Carnahan. It is set for a June 11, 2010 release.

Predators - a sequel to the 1987 classic horror film Predator. Robert Rodriguez stated that he named the film "Predators" in relation to how the second film in the Alien franchise was called Aliens. This new movie is actually the third of the Predator movie franchise. The first starred Arnold Schwarzenegger and the second starred Danny Glover. This movie is directed by Nimród Antal, but is produced by Robert Rodriguez, visionary director of From Dusk Till Dawn, Spy Kids, and the El Mariachi series (its most popular of the series is Desperado). It will be starring Adrien Brody, Topher Grace, and Danny Trejo. It's scheduled for a July 9, 2010 release.

The Expendables - This ensemble action film written and directed by Sylvester Stallone, which stars himself along with Jason Statham and Jet Li. The film pays tribute to the blockbuster action films of the 1980s and early '90s, as the film includes action veterans from those decades (such as Stallone himself, Dolph Lundgren, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jet Li, and Bruce Willis). The movie is expected to be released on August 20, 2010.

Harry Potter & the Deathly Hallows (part 1) - Part 1 of the adaptation of Rowling's final Harry Potter book, which is expected to have its grand finale of a successful and highly respected film franchise based on the phenomenal book series. The final chapter of the Harry Potter film series begins as Harry, Ron, and Hermione leave Hogwarts behind and set out to find and destroy the Horcruxes, the secret to Voldemort's power and immortality. In as much as I actually hated the earlier Potter movies, I do think that this series clearly is the Star Wars of this generation. Deathly Hallows part 1 is set on November 19, 2010.

The Chronicles of Narnia: Voyage of the Dawn Treader - Just after Disney severed its ties from the Narnia franchise, 20th Century Fox came right in to take charge of distributing this Narnia sequel. fantasy film based on The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, the third published novel in C.S. Lewis's fantasy series, The Chronicles of Narnia. It is the third in The Chronicles of Narnia film series from Walden Media, following The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian. This time around – Edmund and Lucy Pevensie, along with their pesky cousin Eustace Scrubb – find themselves swallowed into a painting and on to a fantastic Narnian ship headed for the very edges of the world. Obviously this new movie will feature stuff closer to something like Pirates of the Carribean because this will have sea voyage adventures. The Dawn Treader will set sail on December 10, 2010.

Wanted: Border - shot in Iloilo, and made generally by Ilonggos, this movie written and directed by Rey Gibraltar, and stars Rosanna Roces, won seven trophies in the fifth Cinema One Originals Awards, including Best Film, Best Screenplay and Best Director, held last November 15, at the Dolphy Theater in ABS-CBN. It also won Best Production Design (Al Alacapa, Winston Lazaro and Allan Hilado); Best Music (Malik Lopez and Eric Romulo), and Best Cinematography (Ogi Sugatan). After (the movie) Yanggaw sparked consciousness in the local masses on how good indie films and Visayan talent and creativity are, there has been a demand to see this new indie movie made by Ilonggo creativity. Cinema One's Festival season is long been over, no release date has been set, yet Ilonggos are still eagerly awaiting its release in Iloilo shores...