Quick Takes: "Wrath of the Titans", "Single Man", "Serenity"

"Wrath of the Titans"

Directed by Jonathan Liebesman

We didn't need a "Clash of the Titans" remake. We didn't want a "Clash of the Titans" remake sequel. We got both, but in the latter's case, things aren't so bad as they might have been. Go ahead and beseige it for all its idiotic dialogue and dishevelment of Greek mythology, but "Wrath of the Titans" was a damn bit of fun. Obviously we still don't care about Sam Worthington, or the subsequent son he bequeathed. What do we care about? Crazy creature battles, Edgar Ramirez as the unappreciated Ares, Rosamund Pike giving a great deal of spunk to proceedings, and Ralph Fiennes just being amazing as per usual. It's cool. Nothing special, or worth putting your neck out for. Hell, it's really stupid. But I wasn't out for blood this time.

"A Single Man"

Directed by Tom Ford

I'm taking a sociology class on consumption, and until I revisited this film, I didn't really know what I wanted to write my final paper on. Obviously this isn't the sperm of consumerist culture, but positional consumption and experiential consumption do play an at least dissectable role. But my viewing didn't come out of search for a proper film for class. It came out of deep heartache to be reunited with one of the sweetest, most gorgeous, and subtly heartbreaking films of the past couple years. Colin Firth had much deeper emotional waters to traverse in "A Single Man" than he did with the lackluster and irritating "The King's Speech".

Box Office Report: "Hunger" Leads to Starvation

Keep doing your thing "Hunger Games", because it's going to be a long month once your magic has drifted to a state of normality. Not to say this month has no promise whatsoever. On the contrary, there are enough decent releases throughout the month to make up for the drought that's existed below the top five at the box office. I'm sick of typing in digits below $1 million, and even sicker of talking about "Salmon Fishing in the Yemen"s kinda/sorta "success". In any case, it's tough to look at this weekend's stats and not see a bit of disappointment. After all, there's been strong enough success in the 3D market to assume that something like "Titanic" would be able to thrive. I guess it's just not THAT beloved.

And I guess people don't really care about the dumb revival of a dumb film series that went away for a good reason. Don't expect "American Reunion" to stick around for good measure. Their disappointment evokes a strong enough boost for last week's somewhat honest debuts. "Wrath of the Titans" fell a good deal as expected, but it's already tracking much better than "John Carter" did. "Mirror Mirror" didn't take much of a tumble at all, and it seems that there's been some kind of positive audience reaction on the part of that film. Hopefully it'll end with some solid enough wages. "21 Jump Street" seems to be reaching the point of winding down, but it'll make it's way to $125 million pretty well. Oh yeah, and "The Hunger Games" did stabilize to a degree, and should make its way past $350 million, but not much higher.

Box Office Update: "Hunger" Devours "Wrath" & "Mirror"

This weekend continued the trend of behemoths dominating senselessly due to unearned enthusiasm while the real gems are still acknowledged, though not nearly as much. I wasn't happy with "The Hunger Games", so the impact of its gargantuan debut had me shrugging with an extreme sense of banality. Though the film did take a massive tumble this weekend, but that's to be expected from such an outstanding opening figure. The film is working on its crawl towards $350-$400 million by the end of its run, though where it lands in that schema depends largely on how it fares next weekend. If nothing else, the film is giving an uncustomary boost to a usually banal box office frame.

And the rest of what's currently filling up the market isn't faring too terribly, if not particularly as excellent. "Wrath of the Titans" opened second to nearly half of what its predecessor opened to. Granted there has been a lot of well earned hatred surrounding that film that this one has been attempting to redeem, so it does have a fight ahead of it, especially if it wants to make back its $150 million budget. Admittedly, that's an easier target to achieve than "John Carter" had against it. "Mirror Mirror" too isn't quite raking in the children it expected to, and everyone else just isn't giving notice to it. It largely depends on buzz, and if the small faction of people who adored it are able to spark enough interest in it.

Films to See in 2012: March

After two consecutive months of having nothing worth anticipating, we finally get around to March, which is always the point where the year actually arrives to some degree. The Academy Awards have been put to bed, and we can now actively move on to films that we may even remember by the end of the year. Of course the month starts out rather unassumingly, with whatever "Project X" is (cause I still don't know), and the animated adaptation of "The Lorax". This was the frame that "Rango" landed in last year, but I do not at all think that Dr. Seuss is quite going to give off the same vibe of nicely dialed insanity. In limited release that weekend is "Being Flynn", starring Paul Dano and Robert Deniro. It's fantastic to see Dano taking on bigger roles, but that film just looks way too simple-minded. I will say that it's better than whatever else Deniro is doing.

The following week we get around to Eddie Murphy's latest film, "A Thousand Words", which I have no idea about one way or the other. The guy's biggest prospect for this year was hosting the Oscars, and that fell through. It's also worth noting that "Friends with Kids", starring Adam Scott, Kirsten Wiig, Jon Hamm, Maya Rudolph, and Chris O'Dowd, is coming into limited release. I know, it's like a huge "Bridesmaids" reunion, and as somebody who really enjoyed that film, this sounds like it could be an interesting mix. And there's also "Salmon Fishing in the Yemen", which has some interesting people attached to it, but there isn't much in the way of actual story to be told there, so I'm not that sure about it. Lest I forget, there is also Elizabeth Olsen's year-old thriller "Silent House" finally getting release, so that may well be worth checking out.