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Inspired by a 1981 fantasy epic whose stop-motion effects have since become the stuff of moviemaking legend, 2010’s Clash of the Titans promised something special. At last, with CGI tech that had finally caught up to the original film’s ambitious premise, here was the definitive opportunity to fully and truly realize the first movie’s live-action dream of showing mythic gods at war.
On that count, director Louis Leterrier (Fast X) and his killer cast of bearded A-list actors largely delivered… even if the 2010 version somehow managed to test viewers’ limits for keeping up with its chaotically-assembled contest among a curated slice of the familiar Greek pantheon. At the box office, audiences definitely welcomed a Titans revival: The movie earned back nearly three times its sizable $125 million production budget, giving the studio a clear runway to fast-track a sequel.
Wrath of the Titans: A divine mix of fantasy & CGI magic
That sequel, 2012’s Wrath of the Titans (streaming now on SYFY), went even bigger than its predecessor, stepping up its budget to $150 million while returning the core of its A-list cast: Liam Neeson as Zeus, Sam Worthington as Zeus’ reluctant half-god offspring Perseus, and Ralph Fiennes as Hades. Picking up a decade after the ending of Clash of the Titans, the second installment tapped even deeper into the sandbox of notable Greek legends with the arrival of the princess Andromeda (Rosamund Pike), Poseidon (Danny Huston), Hephaestus (Bill Nighy), and the treacherous Ares (Édgar Ramírez).
Alongside a CGI menagerie of mega-sized mythic monsters, all those new names and faces gave Wrath of the Titans a heft that challenged viewers to keep pace with its heavy but fast-moving plot. In hindsight, though, it’s a pretty forgivable sin — because the movie’s stellar special effects, not to mention its endearingly earnest tone, feel today like a nostalgic throwback to a time just before green-screen effects became truly ubiquitous, while movie hero ensembles (we’re looking at you, MCU) began cultivating a snarkier, sillier attitude as they banded together to save the world.
Yep, Wrath of the Titans has a plot that’s ponderous and, like its 2010 ancestor, a stubborn insistence on making every word out its heroes’ mouths feel weighted by dead-serious gravity. Directed by Jonathan Liebesman (Darkness Falls, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles), it’s definitely one of the most somber fantasy epics involving a rampaging two-headed chimera you’ll ever see… but good grief, does that chimera look like fire-breathing fun.
Online detractors love to meme about digital effects’ good old days, often sampling Wrath of the Titans’ stunning CGI finale fight against towering main baddie Kronos as a shining example of computer-based VFX at their peak. But more than a decade after its release, it’s admittedly tough to watch the movie today and conclude that they’re wrong: In pretty much every effects-laden frame, the real and the imaginary merge with astonishing on-screen seamlessness. If you dial up Wrath of the Titans right after binging the latest direct-to-streaming fantasy or sci-fi series (accounting for a handful of well-made exceptions, of course), the contrast in CGI craftsmanship is striking.
Wrath of the Titans didn’t perform as well as its 2010 movie predecessor, scuttling talk of a potential second sequel. Nevertheless, special effects grandeur continues to define the Titans franchise DNA. In a strange and probably unforeseen way, the pair of 2010s movie epics we did receive now feel like worthy spiritual successors — at least in terms of artistry — to the painstaking stop-motion visual effects that the late, great Ray Harryhausen lavished on bringing 1981’s original Clash of the Titans to super-sized big-screen life.
Stream Wrath of the Titans on the SYFY app, and catch the movie this month on SYFY — check the full TV schedule here!
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