Based on the publishing phenomenon, we last saw Percy Jackson saved Olympus in the disappointing Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief.
Now in Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters, Thalia’s tree has been poisoned and the protection of Camp Half-Blood weakens! To save their world, Percy and his friends must find the fabled and magical Golden Fleece embarking the viewers on a treacherous odyssey into the uncharted waters of the Sea of Monsters (known to humans as the Bermuda Triangle), they battle terrifying creatures, an army of zombies, and the ultimate Evil! Equipped only with the Thermos of Winds and a duct tape, how was my trip with the demigods?
Three years after the first film with more acting experience, Logan Lerman improved a bit as the film’s main hero but this performance pose quite lower to his convincing acting in last year’s The Perks of Being a Wallflower. For the new characters, Percy’s one-eyed half-brother Tyson gets to be the comic relief and former The Hunger Games star Levin Ramblin plays the right angst as Ares’ demigod daughter Clarisse. Paving way to the new characters, the usual comedic Grover played by Brandon Jackson disappeared in most of the film’s runtime. I don’t usually like cast changes especially in a movie series unless the replacement is better. In this case, Pierce Brosnan was replaced by a less interesting Anthony Head in the role of Chiron. I find both Nathan Fillion and Stanley Tucci funny as they tried to have fun with his roles as Hermes and camp director Dionysus. Sadly, the first film’s great supporting cast like Sean Bean and Catherine Keener are missing as Zeus and Sally Jackson.
Narrated by Percy Jackson, the opening titles reminded us about demigods to set our tracks back to the story. The sequence after was a great tone-changer as it showed off death of a teen demigod. I have only read the first book and I haven’t read this one so I did a research on how was it as an adaptation. Like the first film, there was a lot omitted and modified like Chiron getting fired from the camp for being the suspect of poisoning Thalia’s tree and the big reveal at Luke’s Princess Andromeda ship. I can sense that this will be quite a disappointment for book fans. Well, we can’t expect a word by word translation from the book. Kronos’ appearance in the movie is more than a Sarcophagus. We get to see his physical appearance. The build up for him was that he was a very powerful and menacing being that can end the world but I didn’t feel that. I think they should have stick with him as a foreboding threat rather than give him a full form that was easily defeated. Another disappointment for me was there wasn’t even a Sea of Monsters unless you count one big-mouthed sea monster and a Cyclops. It didn’t justify the title. I was expecting more creatures actually.
Technically, I like the glass animation used to portray the prophecy. As for the film’s CGI effects, they are not that impressive but the mouth of the sea creature looks good with its shark-like teeth. There were some shots that are inspired by Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban like the taxi drove by the Gray Sisters zooming in super speed like the Knight Bus and the hippocampi ride that reminded me of Buckbeak’s flight. They even got the water reflection shot. This made me realize that similar to Harry Potter, Percy Jackson has some fantastic elements created for its world but it lacks the so called “magic” as it tries to be the next Harry Potter. Yes, it has some magical creatures and stuff but I’m not referring to that. I’m saying that it’s less on spark yet. I’m not yet that invested in the film version’s characters and world. Percy movie fans, sorry for this comparison and please don’t strike me with Zeus’ lightning bolt. Overall, my feeling after watching the film was that it’s just ok. I can see that there’s still a potential for our demigod to improve in its upcoming sequels if it does get a third. The ending cliffhanger manages to get some interest for a future conflict.
Verdict:
Being an avid fantasy series fanatic, I was underwhelmed with the first film and I was hoping this one would convert me in being a Percy film fan but sadly it falls short. My voyage to the Sea of Monsters was neither awful nor spectacular experience. It just came off to me as an okay trip.
About the movie reviewer:
Orange Magazine TV‘s newest film critic is a self-confessed movie geek. John Albert Villanueva love movies so much, he watch every movies from the big screen and collects DVDs of classic movies. Read his other review here.
