Sweet dreams are made of this. Who are we to disagree? Not quite two years ago, the Clash Of The Titans remake opened to colossal box office, and immediately became a notorious watchword in how to cock up a 3D post-conversion and thoroughly annoy an audience. But now here's a spanking new trailer for sequel Wrath Of The Titans, and it looks as if all might potentially be forgiven.
brightcove.createExperiences();Same territory as before, of course. Major battles with a host of CGI beasts in the offing, but, on first inspection, the design work this time doesn't look quite so much as if it's come about by having someone crane over Guillermo Del Toro's shoulder to look at his sketchbook. Jonathan Liebesman (Battle: LA) is the director, taking over from Louis Leterrier, and it does look as if he's delivered the grittier take on the material he promised a few months ago.
Oh, and there are actually titans in this one. The plot takes place ten years after Clash, and sees a mullet-haired Perseus, retired on his Kraken-killer pension, trying to stay anonymous as a fisherman, until Kronos busts his wrathful troops out of Tartatarus to remonstrate with Zeus, Hades and Poseidon (Liam Neeson, Ralph Fiennes and Danny Huston). They're his sons and they imprisoned him. Families eh?
Cue a Perseus-led quest to the underworld to rescue Zeus and stop the world becoming a blasted cinder, whereupon we will encouter cyclops, minotaur, shifting architecture and big explosions. It's all cut to Marilyn Manson's Eurythmics cover in the trailer, but we couldn't help wishing it was The Fight Song.
Wrath Of The Titans also stars Edgar Ramirez as war god Ares, and Rosamund Pike as Andromeda, along with Toby Kebbell as Argenor and Bill Nighy as Hephaestus. In many ways it's had its thunder stolen by Tarsem's Immortals.** **We'll be able to see how Wrath measures up when it's released on March 30.