Wrath of the Titans on Blu-ray 3D Released June 26th, 2012
Posted in Blu-ray, Blu-ray 3D, Commentary on July 6th, 2012 by Dave
Greek mythology hit the small screen again in late June with Wrath of the Titans on Blu-ray 3D from Warner Home Video on June 26th 2012.
This was the sequel to the remake of Clash of the Titans, and takes place a decade after the events of the first film.
Wrath of the Titans hit cinemas back in March this year and, like its predecessor, was converted to 3D in post-production.
Most of the cast have returned for the sequel.
Wrath of the Titans 3D the Movie
It is now ten years since Perseus, the demigod son of Zeus, defeated the Kraken.
He now lives the quiet life as a fisherman with his 10-year-old son Helius, in a time where men and women largely ignore the Gods.
Soon Perseus is visited by Zeus, who tells him that the powers of the gods are fading due to the lack of worship.
Worse still, the walls of the underworld prison of Tartarus are breaking and the Gods will need help to combat the threat.
However Perseus is not interested and refuses to help his father.
When Zeus travels to Tartarus to meet with his son Ares and his brothers Hades and Poseidon, he tells Hades they must forget the past and unite to rebuild Tartarus’ walls.
But Hades has other plans, and he and Aries attack the other Gods, severely injuring Poseidon taking Zeus prisoner.
They then proceed to drain Zeus of his power in order to revive their imprisoned father Kronos, and the walls of Tartarus break, unleashing monsters into the world.
After slaying a Chimera that attacks the village, Perseus takes his young son Helius to the Mount of Idols so they can speak to Zeus.
However the dying Poseidon arrives instead, and informs Perseus that Hades and Ares are holding Zeus in Tartarus.
He tells Perseus that he must now find his demigod son Agenor, who can lead him to the fallen god Hephaestus, who in turn knows the way into Tartarus.
Perseus then travels to the campsite of Queen Andromeda’s army, where Andromeda has imprisoned Agenor for stealing crown jewels.
It turns out that Agenor is a trouble maker and thief, and Perseus needs to convince him to help with the quest, which is aided by a pardon for his crimes.
Can Perseus, Agenor and Andromeda find the fallen God of Fire and rescue Zeus from certain doom in the Underworld?
Wrath of the Titans certainly falls into the epic action movie genre.
Painstaking care has been taken by the film makers here to create a realistic vision of ancient Greece from the costumes to the special effects.
Sadly nobody seemed to have paid all that much attention to the story or the characters.
What we have here is group of characters that are being driven by fate and are facing largely random challenges that befall them.
The characters have strengths and weaknesses, but the conflicts in the movie don’t seem to really play to help us appreciate either.
It doesn’t help that even the best of them seem to make some of the most stupid decisions you could imagine.
All that aside, for a popcorn chomping action flick, Wrath of the Titans certainly delivers many of the key ingredients.
The set pieces are huge and at times the action unrelenting.
The monsters and creatures are created well and the actors work with the computer generated dangers seamlessly.
It is certainly fun to see so many aspects of Greek mythology brought to life.
All in all the movie is technically strong – I only wish that they had put as much effort into making it a worthwhile story as they did making it look right.
The performances are serviceable, from a cast including Sam Worthington, Ralph Fiennes, Liam Neeson, Rosamund Pike, Bill Nighy, Toby Kebbell and Danny Huston.
Wrath of the Titans was directed by Jonathan Liebesman, whose previous credits include The Killing Room, Battle: Los Angeles and Darkness Falls.
The movie was met with largely negative reviews with a Rotten Tomatoes score of 25%, while the public response was more middle of the road with an IMDb score of 6.1/10.
Wrath of the Titans had a pretty good run in the cinema, taking $163.2M at the US box office and considerably more internationally.
Wrath of the Titans 3D on Blu-ray Disc
The video on the disc is an AVC 1080p encode at 24 Mbps, and is presented at 1.78:1 aspect ratio, filling the HDTV screen.
The overall image quality here is pretty strong, though it does vary throughout.
Some of the shots are obviously intentionally gritty and the use of smoke and such throughout can serve to lower the perceived contrast etc. in a shot.
For the 3D side we are looking at a post production conversion here, and while it is perhaps better than the Clash of the Titans film, I still occasionally noticed unnatural depth and curvature to objects.
No doubt there is still work to be done in the 3D conversion process to make it perfect.
For full resolution PNG screen captures taken directly from the disc, check out the details page for Wrath of the Titans 3D.
The main audio is lossless DTS-HD Master Audio with 5.1 channels – 24 bits resolution at 48 kHz.
The disc is a dual layer BD50, with 33.6 GB used and is coded for All Regions.
Wrath of the Titans 3D on Blu-ray Disc – The Bonus Features
As we have come to expect, there is only the movie on the Blu-ray 3D disc, though the regular Blu-ray is pretty fully featured.
Again this release features Maximum Movie Mode, and again Warner has gone the extra mile on this release to mix it up a bit.
This release in fact features two versions of the Maximum Movie Mode – the Path of Men content and the Path of Gods content.
The Path of Men gives you background information on how the film was made, and the Path of Gods version offers information on the mythology behind the story.
Every now and then the same segment will be displayed for both paths, reserved for especially interesting or challenging scenes.
Both paths feature extensive behind the scenes content, including interviews with cast and crew, behind the scenes footage and concept art.
The Path of Gods Maximum Movie Mode also includes a lot of interview footage with experts in Greek mythology.
Extensive use of picture in picture is also used here, with extra content often playing in a smaller overlay window, though on occasion the movie and supplements swap in the movie is shown in the reduced window.
It is really impressive just how much content is presented here in Maximum Movie Mode – the film seldom gets to play without some kind of supplement being added.
If you really can only watch one of the two paths, I would recommend the Path of Gods, since you get a wider variety of content and there is still plenty of behind the scenes production information presented in this path.
On the other hand, if you prefer to skip these high tech supplements, more traditional behind the scenes supplements are presented in the Focus Points section.
The Focus Points are again split into the Path of Men and Path of Gods sections.
Battling the Chimera looks at the challenges of shooting the Chimera attack, both from the perspective of computer generated and practical effects.
Toby Kebbell and his character Agenr are the focus of Agenor: The Other Demi-God.
The Cyclops Fight again covers the challenges involved in shooting a battle scene where the enemy is largely computer generated.
The set and challenges for the underworld scene are covered in Prison of the Titans.
Minotaur: The Human Nightmare focuses on the prosthetics used to transform the stunt actor into the Minotaur for labyrinth scenes.
Lastly for the Path of Men Focus Features, many aspects of the final battle scene are presented in The Heavens Raise Hell on Earth segment.
The Focus Features for the Path of Gods talks about the legends and myths that the movies is loosely based on.
Who are the Titans gives a quick summary of the birth of the Gods and struggle to be their ruler.
The myths behind one of the more memorable characters in the film are covered in Hephaestus: God of Fire.
Lost in Tartarus’ Labyrinth discusses how the film makers rolled the Minotaur into the story.
The various other mythical creatures and monsters from Greek mythology are the focus of the Creatures of the Titans segment.
There is also a small selection of deleted scenes thrown in for good measure.
All in all a huge collection of supplements here, which occasionally hold more interest than the story line of the movie!
This release includes a DVD Copy for legacy players and an UltraViolet Digital Copy code.
Wrath of the Titans 3D on Blu-ray – Final Thoughts
Wrath of the Titans 3D is an epic action movie heavily based in Greek mythology that is pretty fun if you don’t take it too seriously.
Warner Home Video has another strong Blu-ray release here, with an accurate presentation and a huge collection of supplements.
The retail price is $44.95, though you can get it right now at Amazon for $29.96, saving 33%!
If Blu-ray 3D isn’t your thing, you can get the regular Blu-ray version at Amazon for $22.96.
Extras:
- Deleted Scenes
- Maximum Movie Mode – Path of Men
- Maximum Movie Mode – Path of Gods
- Focus Points
- Battling the Chimera
- Agenor: The Other Demi-God
- The Cyclops Fight
- Prison of the Titans
- Minotaur: The Human Nightmare
- The Heavens Raise Hell on Earth
- Who are the Titans
- Hephaestus: God of Fire
- Lost in Tartarus’ Labyrinth
- Creatures of the Titans
Synopsis:
Sam Worthington, Ralph Fiennes and Liam Neeson star once again as gods at war in Wrath of the Titans, under the direction of Johnathan Liebesman. A decade after his heroic defeat of the monstrous Kaken, Perseus (Worthington) the demigod son of Zeus (Neeson) is attempting to live a quieter life as a village fisherman and the sole parent to his 10-year old son, Helius. Meanwhile, a struggle for supremacy rages between the gods and the Titans. Dangerously weakened by humanity’s lack of devotion, the gods are losing control of the imprisoned Titans and their ferocious leader, Kronos, father of the long-ruling brothers Zeus, Hades (Fiennes) and Poseidon (Danny Huston). The triumvirate had overthrown their powerful father long ago, leaving him to rot in the gloomy abyss of Tartarus, a dungeon that lies deep within the cavernous underworld. Perseus cannot ignore his true calling when Hades, along with Zeus’ godly son, Ares (Edgar Ramrez), switch loyalties and make a deal, with kronos to capture Zeus. The Titans’ strength grows stronger as Zeus’ remaining godly powers are siphoned, and hell is unleashed on earth. Enlisting the help of the warrior Queen Andromeda (Rosamund Pike), Poseidon’s demigod son, Argenor (Toby Kebbell), and fallen gob Hephaestus (Bill Nighy), Perseus bravely embarks on a treacherous quest into the underworld to rescue Zeus, overthrow the Titans and save mankind.
Subscribe to Twitter
Subscribe to Email Feed