Percy Jackson Sea of Monsters (2013)

You know, I'm all up for seeing a film adaptation of a book. Sometimes it can be good. Sometimes it can be bad. Or sometimes it can just be meh. Now, as for the Percy Jackson series, I haven't read the books. My sister has though and I ended up seeing '...Sea of Monsters' with her, despite our initial feelings that the first film, Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief, was quite dull and unmemorable. I personally only remember Steve Coogan playing Hades. And that's it. Well, that and the fact that it's very similar to the Harry Potter origin; boy learns that he has a magical heritage and that he has powers, and he is sent to a place of learning and sanctuary to better understand his powers.

So in our second installment of the Percy Jackson series, we find that Percy (Logan Lerman) is feeling slightly depressed with the fact that he hasn't really accomplished anything since he solved the riddle of the Lightning Thief. However Camp Halfblood (Seriously? It's called that? *Sigh*) comes under attack, they find that the magic tree barrier, created out of Zeus' dying daughter Thalia (Paloma Kwiatkowski) is dying again...sort of. So Percy, along with his friends Annabeth (Alexandra Daddario, who is wearing more clothes than she did in 'Texas Chainsaw') and Grover (Brendon T. Jackson), as well as his new half-cyclops brother Tyson (Douglas Smith), heads off to find the legendary Golden Fleece to try and heal the tree and bring back the barrier that's protecting the camp, before Hermes' estranged son Luke (Jake Abel) can get it in order to bring the Titan Kronos back to life.

You know, for a film called 'Sea of Monsters', I kind of wanted to see a Sea of Monsters. We only see ONE sea based monster in the so called Sea of Monsters. And the benefit of going to see the film with someone who has read the book, is being told what the film has changed from the book. Like the book starts off in the human world where we get told a lot more about Tyson since Percy meets him there and not Camp Halfblood, and while Grover starts off with Percy and Annabeth in the film, in the book he doesn't turn up until much later in the story. And Luke used a cruise liner instead of a private yacht. Hey, anything to save money I guess.

The story seems rushed, with some major plot points are glanced over and others not really cared about. Characters don't really seem that emotionally involved and not really interested in what's going on. In fact they seem more involved in petty things than the greater good. So much so that it does actually screw them over at one point in the film which proceeds to put them in danger. Bizarrely the only interesting character is Luke, and that's more because I like the way Jake Abel portrays him, though in hindsight Luke isn't that great a villain.

Actually, I lied, there's another character I like, and that is Hermes, played by Nathan Fillion, and that's simply because Nathan Fillion is a God among men, he really does steal the show. The others are either pretty bland or majorly underused. I suppose if I had to pick someone, Alexandra Doddario was the better of the main cast. Hell the teachers aren't that great. You know how in the Harry Potter franchise whenever a cave troll or a dangerous fugitive comes to Hogwarts the teachers tell the students to get somewhere safe? Yeah, whenever something bad happens to the camp, the teachers (Or guardians I suppose is a better word to use) are nowhere to be seen.

The majority of the effects are really good, in particular the Charybdis, but it is let down by some poor CGI as well, such as the mechanical bull, the Manticore, and Tyson's one eye. Though in fairness you do get used to the one eye. The bad effects outweigh the good effects, that's really all I'm saying.

This is so much like 'Monsters University', it could have been so much better. I assume, I haven't read the books. But this is a meh film. Everything is so mediocre, the acting, the effects, the story. I won't say it's a bad film, but it's not exactly good. I don't know what the books are like, I've heard good things, but it's weird that this doesn't seem to follow the same success that the Harry Potter or the Lord of the Rings franchises have accomplished. It's better than the first one, I can say that, but I wouldn't expect that much from it.