Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters ~ review

 

Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters is the sequel to the movie Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief. Starring Logan Lerman as Percy Jackson alongside Brandon T. Jackson, Alexandra Daddario, Leven Rambin, Douglas Smith and Jake Abel, the movie follows Percy and his friends as they try to save the poisoned Thalia tree that has been protecting the Half-Blood Camp from their enemies. To do so, they must travel to the Sea of Monsters, or better known as the Bermuda Triangle, to find the Golden Fleece in order to cure the ailing tree. The movie is based on the second book of the Percy Jackson & the Olympians book series by Rick Riordan.

 

I'm not a reader of the novel which this movie was based from but I had a great time watching the first movie in the cinema when it came out, so I was looking forward to this movie when the studio announced that they were producing the film. But after watching it, to be honest, I think I like The Lightning Thief more than Sea of Monsters. Although the plot was overall good, it felt rushed at times and the story feel like it was not been carefully developed. This lead to inconsistency in which some scenes were felt really great while others felt like it was half-complete. But I really love the intro scene as well as the ending scene very much, the one involving Thalia, it's just the middle part of the movie which was a bit of a letdown.

The characters, in short, are likeable but with some minor flaws. Logan Lerman as Percy Jackson gave his all for his character but I felt like he was forced to take a back seat at times to give other characters a chance to shine. Don't get me wrong, I think other characters are good as well but I don't think Percy Jackson's personalities should be toned down just for the sake of other characters, especially since he is the hero of the franchise. But there are some characters that I adored like Tyson (played by Douglas Smith), Annabeth Chase (played by Alexandra Daddario) as well as Hermes played by Nathan Fillion. Although he was on screen for only about 10 minutes, I think Nathan Fillion's scene was one of the best in the movie. Another character that I found interesting is Thalia, who only appeared several minutes in the beginning of the film, and a few more minutes at the end. Regardless of her screentime, I think she's one of the best character introduced in this movie.

The visuals in the film are overall good. The special effects for the creatures are nicely done but others like the water special effects were a bit poor. Honestly, I don't really care about special effects as long as it looks decent enough for movie standard, and the special effects in this movie is definitely up to the movie standard. Now if only the story of the movie is polished enough so that all the money poured for the special effects didn't feel so wasted.

To sum it up, Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters is a decent movie for those who seek light entertainment at the cinema. It is not a solid movie, but it should be good enough to keep kids and teenagers entertained, as well as some adults who don't mind seeing such movie. Although it is not as good a sequel as I would have hoped for, I'm certainly would not mind if the studio would want to do a third movie. I'd definitely watch that.

I give Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters three stars out of five.

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