Back in action as strapping demigod Perseus in Wrath of the Titans, the inevitable sequel to 2010’s inane Clash of the Titans remake, Sam Worthington again struggles to convince us that he’s a bona fide star. He wields his hero’s sword with a will, certainly, but when it comes to projecting charisma he just doesn’t cut the mustard.
Nor does the film. The story, revolving around Perseus’s efforts to rescue his captured father Zeus from the Underworld, is messy and confusing. And so is the furious, CGI-augmented action (retrofitted with 3D for the cinema). When Perseus jumps astride winged steed Pegasus to fly into the roiling mass of volcanic lava that is the gods’ titanic nemesis Kronos, the sequence goes on so long that even though the survival of everyone on screen is at stake the poor viewer loses the will to live.
There are some classy actors in the cast, including Liam Neeson as Zeus, Ralph Fiennes as Hades and Bill Nighy (sporting a puzzling Yorkshire brogue) as Hephaestus, but none of them can do anything to redeem the film’s execrable dialogue.
Rosamund Pike, replacing the forgettable Alexa Davalos as warrior queen Andromeda, is very game but hilariously miscast. Her plummy voice ringing out amid the film’s mish-mash of accents, she rallies her troops looking and sounding less like a mythological heroine than a well-bred lacrosse captain rousing her team on the school playing field.
On general release from Friday 30th March.
