Review of Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters (2013) by Belinda B — 08 May 2015

5/9/15.

Perry Johnson (Hogan Sherman?)? Peter Jason (Rogan Turman)? Wait, it's Percy Jackson (Logan Lerman), but whatever. After Fox bungled their chance with the first Percy Jackson book, they try again with the second book. The story moves slowly in a bad way, even for the plentiful action, it still drags on. In the books, the character of Percy Jackson was very relatable: He lived in New York City, went to school, had ADHD, Dyslexia, and other problems many children his age faced. He was also in middle school. This one is still in high school, without the musical, or the school. When they sent him to Camp Half-Blood full time in the last one, they threw that relatability away, making him pretty much unrelatable. The plot did make sense: After having saved Olympus and prevented World War III, Percy is feeling underappreciated at camp. He feels like his father Poseidon is ignoring him, and his friends Grover (Brandon T. Jackson) and Annabeth (Alexandra Daddario) are still his friends, but they moved on. After a cyclops named Tyson (Douglas Smith) wonders into the camp past the magic boundary, claims to be Poseidon's son (Which he is, only through nature spirit, not human, insert more mythical mumbo-jumbo here), Percy just feels ostracized (One of his more relatable traits), but things heat up when a mechanical bull shatters the barrier and attacks camp, leading to the revelation that Luke (Jake Abel) from the first movie is alive, and still a kicking traitor, only more book elements, like the "I feel rejected by my father and have chosen to side with Kronos to dethrone my parents as the Olympians did theirs." I really need to, and will, give kudos to Jake Abel for being a perfectly psychotic Luke, which reminded me of Kevin Bacon in X-Men: First Class as Sebastian Shaw, even down the structure of their faces. This was the only interesting performance, unlike Duke Myth, I mean Douglas Smith, or Brendan P. Johnson, er, Brandon T. Jackson, except for Stanley Tucci's Dionyses, who was as sober as he was annoyed at not being able to drink wine. He really brought the stupidity of Dionysis out, especially when he makes a Jesus reference, but not to call him the Messiah, but to actually think He was a god (The kind that the Greeks believed in that are the immortal parents of these kids, not like God). Religious misconceptions of characters aside, the picture here is acceptable, so I'll say it was clear, but not that photorealistic in the CGI, and some of it felt like in-your-face for the 3D this was released in. 3D is not about in your face anymore, what is this, the 20th century? Good gods, the camera went to close to some flying sparks. Thor seems pretty modest right now compared to this. Anyway, Andrew Lockington does his job with the soundtrack, blah, blah, blah, it's used appropriately, and the dialogue is acceptable for a child-oriented PG, mid-late summer release. Did Rick Riordan chase after an off-limits wood nymph, because I feel Zeus is punishing us with Percy Jackson movies that dishonor the books, from Peter, er, Percy's lost relatability, to the age change of the main trio of Harry if he were Greek, Ron if he were black, and Hermione if she were blonde.

8/10/13.

Percy Jackson finally gets his sequel after 3 and a half years of waiting by what fans were left after The Lightning Thief ruined good source material. Does this one take the source material and distort it beyond recognition: Yes. Does it deliver as a film, book out of account: Yes. It's got action, it's got humor, and it has the characters you grew attatched to in The Lightning Thief. It also give Percy a new half-brother, a cyclops named Tyson. The CGI works well for the $90 million budget, but was really brought to life with likable characters. It's fantasy that delivers. I'm still upset with how the plot came out: A shallow reflection of the book that was enjoyed by me. If you were to cut anything, don't merge it with something else. Well don't just sit there, go see this movie!