Review of Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters (2013) by Kai82 — 13 Sep 2021

The first movie was entertaining despite being a poor adaptation of the books. The sequel however is a weaker movie and awful adaptation. It is basically a weaker re-imagination of the book that has not the creativity, great characters, emotions, story and impact.

I freely admit that they capture the humor well and have some great jokes. However they make some horrible choices story wise specifically at the climax which would have killed all tension in the sequels (that never came).

I give a synopsis at the end with a spoiler warning if you are interested. For reference: The Percy Jackson novels by author Rick Riordan are a series of really successful fantasy adventure novels. The first series contains 5 books and this movie is the adaptation of the second book “The Sea of Monsters”.

It transfers the Greek mythology to our modern world and the USA while being original, creative and enjoyable. I read all books and liked them very well. The story starts with a competition at camp Half Blood that reminded me more of American Gladiators.

After this the camp is mysteriously attacked which should not be possible as they are protected by a magical barrier. This is the beginning of the adventure and I wont spoil more than the set up. To be fair it follows the events of the book but changes a lot.

The statement the books are better is a no brainer here. They fail to capture what made the story and characters great in the books. To be fair this movie has its moments but not enough to convince me.

The characters are a mixed bag. I feel bad to criticize them if they do their roles as intended by the director aka script. Logan Lerman as Percy Jackson is a good actor but not made for this role or weakened by the script.

Alexandra Daddario is excellent in this movie but wasted as she does not much here. Leven Rambin as Clarisse works excellent and is for me a hidden gem of the movie. Douglas Smith as Tyson and Brando T Jackson as Grover are good and deliver their roles.

Jake Abel as Luke Castellan is mixed too. Great actor but caught in a poor script for his role. I like Stanly Tucci as Dionysus. He is the best representation of the book characters. I am a fan of Anthony Stewart Head since Buffy and wished they used his character Chiron more like in the books.

Here he is basically an extra. I end the actors evaluation with a good performance in a weak script summary. The visuals and special effects however are excellent. Especially the mythological monsters look great.

Overall this is watchable even if it butchers the source material. It is not Avatar the last Airbender bad in this regard but also no faithful adaption. I recommend the books instead. Now to the mistakes and harmful changes with a “Spoiler warning”: Firstly they kill or defeat the final boss in part 2 of a (potential) 5 film series and Percy does it alone.

Kronos in the books was a thread to all Greek gods and a menace they feared. It was not sure that all the gods together could defeat him and his army of followers. Now just Percy alone manged this with ease.

How could you see Kronos even as a thread after this. Then the main characters are morons. They did not destroy the sarcophagus which is the source to bring him back. There was no pressure, time limit or obstacle preventing it.

A main point of the book was that Chiron was removed as the gods saw him as potential traitor to them (Kronos is his father). Annabeth is demoted and does barley anything in the movie (Try to name something big she accomplished).

She is the brains of the team and a skilled fighter even the best of them would not underestimate. Percy is actually far more skilled and it is Clarisse that is envious of him in the books (He has a beginners talent level at fighting others have to train hard for).

Tyson was already Percys friend and like a brother for him from the beginning of the book. They left out an encounter with Circe, the Sirens and a voyage on Queen Annes Revenge (Blackbeard's ship). Also Luke had not a small yacht as base.

It was a huge cruise ship full to the brim with Kronos followers and mythological monsters. Also protected by the older sea gods that ruled the oceans before Poseidon (He could easily sink it otherwise).

Grover was by the way already captured at the beginning of the book and one reason for the team to go on the adventure was to rescue him. Luke is a far more deep character in the books and his journey is as remarkable as Percy’s.

I think that covers a lot of the mistakes.