Review of Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters (2013) by Alexproductions — 06 Sep 2013

Percy Jackson and the Sea of Monsters is the sequel to the original movie "Lightning Thief," and just as lame. With a different director than the previous film, Sea of Monsters follows the series written by Rick Riordan. By comparison, I read the first book and the matching movie satisfied me, answering questions I had about the novel, on screen. As for this film, I felt that the combination of bad acting, and false drama, really just ruined my experience watching Sea of Monsters.

As Percy (Logan Lerman) learns he has a Cyclops brother (Douglas Smith), he is forced to put up with him as they travel to Florida to find his friend Grover (Brandon Jackson). Captured by the half-blood Luke (Jake Abel), who has plans to betray his father and bring back Kronos using the Golden Fleece. It is up to Percy and the gang to save their friend, and the whole Camp Half-Blood.

I went in to Sea of Monsters not really sure what to expect. The trailers couldn't seem to interest me and I did not hear much in the media about it. I wasn't sure whether I was more interested in the movie, or the guy smoking an e-cigarette in the row in front of me. Between the phoned-in, bad acting, and false sense of urgency in the film, I was definitely not a fan. I could tell the story line was meant to be scary and keeping you on the edge of your seat, but it really did not have that effect on the crowd.

The movie was overly predictable and overall I was just very unimpressed. Also, I could tell that Sea of Monsters was really trying to make an action fantasy (much like Harry Potter) for kids, and just flat out failed. I noticed that Percy never actually used his Riptide sword on humans in the movie. When he would fight, he would hit the person with the butt of the sword so they could keep the film “PG”. I never knew that slashing a human was way too inappropriate for a child! The false sense of danger never worked for me as no one was ever really in danger.

Overall I was just as bored with Sea of Monsters as the actors, and felt like it wasn't worth my 110 minutes. Wait for it to air on ABC or HBO and watch it then. As the first movie aired like every other week when it was released, you will have no problem catching it. Following the series, when the next movie is made, I really hope they again change directors, and produce a film worth seeing. Read the books and see the movie in your head as imagined by the writer, and you will have a much better experience.