Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters - quick review (1 Viewer)

[Patrick Sun]

Percy Jackson is back for a followup adventure, and while most of the cast (Percy, Annabeth, and Grover) is back, plus a few new characters (Clarisse, offspring of Mars, and a half-brother for Percy, Tyson, who's also a cyclops), it feels like an inert progression of the story for the Half-bloods (or demigods, the offspring of gods and mortals). As their Camp Half-Blood's magical barrier has been shattered, bits of clues lead to a quest for something that will restore the barrier and keep the camp safe.

The story structure is pretty much paint-by-numbers for this genre, but it does allow Percy to shine when needed, and also do some political maneuvering to keep from raising Clarisse's ire and competitive nature, while keeping the focus on their main objective.

The antagonists for the story is the weak point, but for fans of the book series, it's a decent installment to the Percy Jackson film franchise.

I give it 2.5 stars, or a grade of C+.

 

[schan1269]

I was surprised there was a sequel. This might be a purchase used...eventually.

 

[Patrick Sun]

And why did they blonde up Alexandra Daddario? She looks so much better as a brunette.

 

[Jacinto]

And why did they blonde up Alexandra Daddario? She looks so much better as a brunette.

I'm guessing due to all of the fans' backlash over her character, Annabeth, being blonde in the books. This, like the first film, was a harmless, fun, preteen adventure, but the changes made from the book in both The Lightning Thief and Sea of Monsters are stupefying. I read all of the books to my kids, so we've gone to see the movies together. I and my kids can't understand why the filmmakers felt the need to unnecessarily change soooo many plot points from the book. It's like they take the main characters (almost), two or three main sequences from the book, and them assemble them, sometimes out of order, with a mishmash of other scenes. Our feeling is that these movies would be much more enjoyable to people who haven't read the books. Those who know the books well will find themselves scratching and shaking their heads over not just minor, but MAJOR inconsistencies with the books. I sure hope Rick Riordan was very well compensated since he has to watch his stories get butchered onscreen.

 

[Malcolm R]

It's been a couple years since I read the books, so I didn't really notice the specifics of the alterations beyond a certain "uneasy" feeling in certain scenes that something was not quite right. I did enjoy this film and, changes from the book notwithstanding, think this was better than the first film (which I also liked). Probably because all of the origin stuff is out of the way and we could just jump into the action.

Glad we finally brought Mr. D into the story, portrayed by Stanley Tucci. I also thought Anthony Stewart Head was a good replacement for Chiron (played previously by Pierce Brosnan), though both he and Tucci had limited screen time (perhaps why Brosnan didn't return...though that may have been more for budgetary reasons; this film's budget was lower than the first film). Loved Nathan Fillion's cameo as Hermes ("As you may have noticed, I am rockin' these shorts!" ). His reference to "the great TV show that was cancelled too soon," (i.e. his own Firefly) got a pretty big laugh in my theater. Overall this film seemed to have more comedic moments, which I thought lightened things up a bit.

Too bad this film isn't getting more success. It's a solid family film (that most polls claim there are too few of) that hits some good themes about friendship, family, accepting people for who they are, and cooperation/compromise. But many non-animated family films seem to have a tough time at the box office. Hopefully the international gross will be high enough to get The Titan's Curse greenlit. This is one of several recent sequels that was made with an eye more toward the international market, than depending solely on domestic performance. Hope it works out.

Though Logan Lerman isn't getting any younger and at 3 years between each film he won't be a convincing teen much longer (he's already 21). The films are conservatively budgeted (both have been around $90 million, pretty reasonable for a fantasy FX film), so it shouldn't have to be a mega-blockbuster to be profitable.