Arrow Video: When Titans Ruled the Earth: Clash of the Titans & Wrath of the Titans (2010 - 2012) - Reviewed

Images courtesy of Arrow Video

Back in 1981, Desmond Davis’ 1981 medieval fantasy adventure epic film Clash of the Titans presented the final onscreen work of legendary stop-motion visual effects artist Ray Harryhausen which Arrow Video has released a documentary film about back in 2016 with Ray Harryhausen: Special Effects Titan.  A major box office success for its day, the effects-laden foray into Greek mythology harkened back to such Harryhausen fantasy adventure epics as Jason and the Argonauts and Mysterious Island with a classical ‘Old-School’ approach to realizing the impossibility of imagination in cinematic fiction.  Loosely based on the Greek myth of Perseus
 
Circa 2010s, following a merger between Warner Brothers and Clash of the Titans’ original production company Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and at the height of the remake trend, Harryhausen’s distinctive final work found itself being reworked through the Hollywood CGI heavy machine to commercially successful but critically mixed results.  Directed by The Transporter filmmaker Louis Leterrier, this new 3D-converted Clash of the Titans amassed a staggering near $500 million at the global box office against a sizable budget of $125 million.  A star-studded vehicle featuring Liam Neeson as Zeus, Ralph Fiennes as Hades and Sam Worthington post-Avatar in the lead role as Perseus, its a Legendary Pictures effects dump made in the wake of their very own swords-and-sandals actioner 300.
 
A couple of years later after a frankly flat and visually dull direct remake of the Harryhausen film, Darkness Falls and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning prequel filmmaker Jonathan Liebesman got into the director’s chair for a more expensive and also significantly more entertaining sequel film Wrath of the Titans.  Deviating from the original subset of characters created for the 1981 film by Beverley Cross, the film while successful was panned by critics and underperformed at the box office, nixing any further notions of a possible third film with the working title Revenge of the Titans.  Despite these setbacks and general critical drubbing both pictures received, that didn’t stop the folks at Arrow Video from mounting a limited 4K UHD boxed set of both pictures entitled When Titans Ruled the Earth.

 
In the first film which follows the trajectory of the 1981 picture more or less with some deviations including making Hades (Ralph Fiennes) the aggressor rather than Thetis played by Maggie Smith in the original, Sam Worthington plays the titular Perseus, sone of the god Zeus (Liam Neeson) who watches in horror as angry gods unleash fiery destructive Hell on Earth.  Determined to defeat Hades and reclaim power from Zeus to take on gorgon Medusa and the Kraken, aided by Captain Draco (Mads Mikkelsen) the group of soldiers banded together take on armies of the occult and undead with mystical supernatural beings existing within the universe of the story.  For those who grew up with the charming personality of the Harryhausen film, what you get here is kind of tedious with frankly shoddy looking effects of creatures from the underworld flying through the camera.  Also for some reason, Pegasus’ bright white color had to undergo the grimdark change to a darker shade of grey for the post-Nolan Batman viewership.

 
Scored by Game of Thrones composer Ramin Djawadi and shot in scope by Die Hard with a Vengeance cinematographer Peter Menzies Jr., the film looks fine though many of the film’s then-revolutionary CG rendered visual effects stick out like a sore thumb now.  The sound mixing includes the original 5.1 audio for both films while the picture remastering features Dolby Vision with HDR10 compatibility.  Despite the pedigree of the cast, Sam Worthington isn’t all that different here from his crippled hero in Avatar.  While stoic, he never quite achieves the brawniness of his costar Mads Mikkelsen who nearly steals the show whenever he is onscreen.  Ralph Fiennes and Liam Neeson are alright though they’re phoning it in before a green screen.
 
Picking up ten years after the events of the first film, the startlingly vastly superior sequel film by eventual Michael Bay stalwart Jonathan Liebesman sees Hades regaining power in Tartarus which Zeus warns Perseus against though Perseus initially declines involvement.  Meeting with Hades, Poseidon (Danny Huston lurking under a wizardly beard) and son Ares (Edgar Ramirez of Gold), Zeus is betrayed with Poseidon killed off while Ares and Hades imprison Zeus with the intention of draining his power to make way for the revival of Kronos.  With news of his father’s imprisonment and potentially undoing all the work done to keep monsters from Hell at bay, Perseus reluctantly agrees to saddle up with Pegasus one more time to do battle with the gods.

 
While coexisting within the same videogame arcade universe established by the first remake of Clash of the Titans, this sequel nevertheless somehow finds its own footing and features a solid supporting ensemble cast including Bill Nighy and Rosamund Pike.  Switching cinematographers this time around with eventual Guardians of the Galaxy cameraman Ben Davis at the helm and recurring Guillermo Del Toro composer Javier Navarrete doing the score, the look, sound and feel of Wrath of the Titans sidesteps the trappings of the first film which was top-to-bottom molded after the structure of the 1981 film.  Moreover, this film contains more sneaky callbacks to the 1981 picture with the presence of the golden metallic electronic Bubo making a cameo.

 
Sadly underperforming at the box office, getting an even more severe if not undeserved critical drubbing and canceling any plans for a possible third feature, it is pretty evident Wrath of the Titans is the real reason for this non-Harryhausen When Titans Ruled the Earth UHD box to exist.  One would hope perhaps down the line standalone releases of each film comes as the first picture in hindsight is more of a coaster than a disc you’d be inclined to stick in your 4K player anytime soon.  With both discs stacked with extras alongside a separate blu-ray only release over UHD, When Titans Ruled the Earth while both pictures are not in the same league as the Harryhausen film still manage to create an entertaining distraction of fantasy epic cinema lore.  If nothing else, see the second film which somehow managed to get out from under the weight of Harryhausen’s name. 

--Andrew Kotwicki