Now Showing: God of War III - Part One

 

God of War III - Part One

Genre: Action/Fantasy

Director: Andy Serkis

Writer: Wesley Campbell

Based on the video game series

Cast: Tom Hardy, Hugo Weaving, Charlotte Rampling, Ron Perlman, Katy O'Brian, Lizzy Caplan, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, Tatiana Maslany, Marton Csokas

Plot: Screams & the sounds of war fill the air. The strikes of steel weaponry. The screams of women in danger. Cries of children faced in terror. Fire burning loudly. “You’re always destined as a godless creature”...

As normal human Kratos (Tom Hardy), he opens his eyes to find himself guiding his Spartan army to battle. A small girl runs from her mother through the soldiers to look at Kratos on a hill. Kratos smiles at the girl as she runs into his arms. He spins her around in pure joy. Until she begins to turn into ash as the sky begins to burn behind her. Her smile is the only thing left till being surrounded by her ashes. He looks to see his army committing unspeakable sins and the girl’s mother lying down in a pool of her blood. He kneels to his wife as he watches her blame him for her & his daughter's deaths. As she ashes away, everything does as well as Ares (Marton Csokas) sits enjoying Kratos' torment. He mocks Kratos that peace will never be a privilege Kratos will endure. Even if Kratos blames Ares, Ares remarks how Kratos still is the one with the blood on his blades. Seeing his loved ones' blood caking his blades, Kratos screams as every dead body he's casued ashes turns his skin into pure white.

In The City of Rhodes, Kratos wakes up but only thirteen years after defeating Ares & becoming the new God of War. Unfortunately, Kratos is still haunted by memories of the deeds from his past while working under Ares. Kratos hasn't been accepted by the other Gods due to his ruthless treatment of the other Greek city-states. Kratos has almost become empty. He only finds peace/enjoyment the only way he can, by leading and aiding his Spartan Army in conquering Greece. As Kratos looks at his handiwork from his temple, Athena (Tatiana Maslany) appears to plead for Kratos to stop. She cannot protect him much longer from the wrath of Olympus. After Kratos ignores her, She threatens he shouldn't turn his back on her because she made him a God. With absolute disdain, Kratos replies that he owes her nothing. Falling from his temple, he descends to the battle of Rhodes to assist his Spartan Army. After gleefully slaughtering some enemies, Kratos turns into a God gaining into a giant statue.

After a short while, Kratos notices an Eagle that robs him of his godly height, whom Kratos accuses of being Athena in disguise. The bird infuses power into the Colossus of Rhodes and brings it to life to kill Kratos. Kratos fights enemies while avoiding the Colossus's attacks trying to run to the highest height for an ultimate attack. After a protracted conflict with a golden giant statue that rages across the city, Zeus (Hugo Weaving) offers Kratos the Blade of Olympus, used to win the Great War between the Gods and the Titans. But to use it, Kratos has to infuse his godhood into the blade. At Zeus' behest, Kratos infuses the Blade, rendering him mortal. Now equipped & some struggle, Kratos destroys the Colossus by stabbing its eyes. However, after falling from a great height, Kratos soon finds himself severely injured after being crushed by some of the statues.

Kratos realizes he must retrieve the Blade of Olympus to save himself. As he slowly gets up and limps his way to the sword, Zeus reveals himself as the Eagle that stole his powers. Zeus betrays Kratos, afraid his fate to be the same as Ares'. Zeus demands him to surrender but when Kratos refuses demanding his dreams be taken away. Zeus pleads again that no matter how powerful a being can be, Kratos can never be rid of his memories, no matter the situation they come from. After wallowing, Kratos forever refuses to serve the Gods for it's their fault for his wrapped design. Defeated, Zeus then stabs the Blade of Olympus into Kratos' stomach, killing Kratos and wiping out all the Spartans & Rhodes soldiers.

At death’s door, Kratos is being dragged towards an eternity of torment in the Underworld. The shadow hands pulled him to the ground. He's tormented by the actions of his past, mostly his wife & child. He tries to hug his family but they keep turning into smoke. Suddenly, he's saved by Gaia (Charlotte Rampling), the mother of the Titans, who has watched him for years and offers an alliance to kill Zeus. Kratos is bidden by Gaia to find the Sisters of Order to change his past, and regain back his godly powers. She then gives Kratos the aid of the magical horse Pegasus to traverse the distance to the Sisters With Gaia's guidance, Kratos, with his little remaining powers, escapes through a scene fighting demons off with his blades & flying the Pegasus out of Hades.

Kratos and Pegasus start flying towards the Island of Creation. Kratos dives to the Island of Creation below. As he explores the Island, Kratos questions Gaia why she offers to help him. In flashback, Gaia then tells the story of Zeus and how Cronos (Ron Perlman), Zeus' father, tried to prevent the prophecy of his downfall by entrapping each of his children in his stomach. It was said that one of his children would rise against him. By switching Zeus' place with a stone decoy, Rhea, Zeus' mother, sent him away to an island that was Gaia, the Titaness Mother of Earth and Zeus' grandmother. Gaia nurtured Zeus until he grew to be a man to free his siblings. But, Zeus grew to seek revenge against Cronos and all the Titans. All for the sins of one titan, his father, the gods began the reign of Olympus

After a while, Kratos lands upon the Titan Atlas (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje) below the Earth and tries to communicate with him. At first, Atlas resents the sight of the Spartan and refuses to help Kratos, bent on crushing Kratos with his fingers. However, Kratos manages to persuade Atlas to help him so that he may change his fate and kill Zeus. Atlas, intrigued by Kratos, tells him about the Blade of Olympus' creation.

Flashback: As the Great War between the Gods and the Titans emerged, Zeus soon created a powerful weapon called the Blade of Olympus to end the Great War, and with the Blade, he banished the Titans to the depths of Tartarus. When the Titans were defeated by the Gods, they were punished and humiliated.

Seeing how they almost want the same revenge, Kratos accepts the Titan's offer. Atlas grants Kratos a new power called the Atlas Quake and helps him.

Back at the surface, he's attacked from the shadows by one of his fellow soldiers. After Kratos stabs him, he gains a piece of knowledge gained from how Zeus destroyed Sparta as an act of anger. We see Zeus in giant form tearing apart the city while welcoming new diseases.

The soldier Kratos just killed is the 2nd to last Spartan left leaving Kratos as the last. As Kratos expresses his rage, Zeus summons the Kraken to take care of him. Through Kratos' fiery blades, the beast gets sliced up. Kratos reawakens the Phoenix to fly towards the Temple of Fates with his reborn desire for the demise of Zeus. Finally reaching the Throne Room, Kratos expresses his firm desire to change his fate, and that of Zeus, the King of the Gods of Olympus, after which the Sisters deny him passage through sensing Kratos' bad intentions. Kratos then confronts Lahkesis (Katy O'Brian), the middle Fate Sister, who's followed Kratos secretly.

After a gruesome battle, He soon defeats Atropos (Lizzy Caplan), youngest/snake-like Fate Sister, before traveling back to the present time while leaving Atropos trapped in a mirror at the Sister's temple. Now fighting both Lahkesis and Atropos at the same time, Kratos manages to stab the two Sisters with his blades and destroy the mirror they're trapped in. Thus, imprisoning both sisters for good in the void. Kratos stands witness as he's back in time, to the very moment of his battle with Ares. Planning on cutting his life short by destroying the Blade of the Gods, Kratos interferes by defending the Blade of the Gods, thus keeping the way things originally were.

Kratos then makes his way to the remaining sister, Clotho, a giant troll-like creature who operates and defends the Loom of Fate, which rules the lives of mortals and Gods alike. Pinning Clotho's hands to the ground, Kratos manages to impale her skull with a giant swinging blade-like pendulum, killing her. With the defeat of the three Sisters of Fates, Kratos granted himself control over the Loom and his destiny. Going back to his death at Zeus' hands in Rhodes, Kratos saves his past self, reclaiming the Blade of Olympus from a surprised Zeus.

After a long monologue, Zeus incites a lengthy battle with The God of War. At the end of the fight, Zeus stuns Kratos with a powerful lighting storm, Kratos then announces untruthfully that he surrenders. As Zeus is about to kill Kratos, who then deflects the blow using an energy blast and pins Zeus' hands to the rock with the Blades of Athena. Kratos then takes the Blade of Olympus and begins driving it into Zeus' chest exactly as Zeus stabbed him with.

Before he can finish, Athena arrives and defends Zeus, by attacking Kratos. However, Kratos, angered by her infernal betrayal, Athena announces her intentions to protect Olympus. The badly wounded Zeus attempts to escape while stating a war has begun, he can't possibly win as the Sisters of Fate already predicted his victory. However, Kratos breaks free of the defending Athena, charging Zeus with the Blade of Olympus. Out of nowhere, Athena sacrifices herself by impaling herself upon the Blade, granting Zeus escape. A stunned Kratos pleads why she did this as the dying. Athena reveals that Zeus' actions are meant to break the Cycle of Patricide as another new son starts killing his father, which goes back to Cronus killing Uranus, and Zeus killing Cronos. Before he can kill him, Anthena hopes to break the cycle - thus confirming that Kratos is, in fact, Zeus' son. This reveals that Kratos is a demigod right before he becomes fully a God after slaughtering Ares. With one last effort, she begs him to relent in his quest for vengeance.

After a moment of apparent shock and shame, but after everything painful thing in his life, Kratos darkens and snarls that he has no father. Athena dies in Kratos' arms, saying that all the Gods on Olympus will deny Kratos, defending Zeus so Olympus will prevail. She said that even though Kratos wishes to kill Zeus, Zeus is Olympus. Kratos then vows to exact retribution on Zeus and any God who will deny him his vengeance, saying that their time is at an end. The dead Athena's body soon explodes as Gaia speaks to Kratos and reminds him that he has the power to control time itself. Kratos goes back in time once more to the Great War of the Gods and Titans. He calls Gaia and she announces that the Titans are expecting him and then Kratos explains they can win the Great War in his time.

Defeated, Zeus encourages his fellow Gods to help him kill the now rogue Kratos with a rousing speech until he hears down the side of Mount Olympus, every single Titan to ever exist returns to Kratos' time in their prime forms, angry and vengeful they climb Mount Olympus to kill Zeus and the Gods. Leading them, Kratos announces to Zeus "Zeus! Your son has returned, I bring the destruction of Olympus!!!"