Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters (2013) Movie Review

PERCY JACKSON: SEA OF MONSTERS (2013) MOVIE REVIEW

Have you ever gone into a movie expecting to just hate it and rip it apart? Well surprisingly,  that was not the case with this film. 

After an event occurs that leaves the safe haven for all demigods unprotected  Percy Jackson, the son of Poseidon (Logan Lerman), friends Annabeth (Alexandria Daddario) and Grover (Brandon T. Jackson) and Percy's recently discovered brother Tyson (Douglas Smith) must now go on a perilous journey to the Sea of Monsters to collect the Golden Fleece, all while attempting to stop an ancient evil from rising. I'm just going to say it now, I haven't read the Percy Jackson books so I don't know if they are loyal to the source material or not, so I will just judge the movie as a movie. For the most part I had very few problems with the overall plot. While there were some plot holes sprinkled throughout the film, for the most part, the story of Sea of Monsters although a bit predictable, it got the job done and stuck with the classic good vs. evil storyline. And in my books, that is never a bad thing (most of the time). 

Still of Brandon T. Jackson, Logan Lerman
and Alexandria Daddario

One of the few aspects I enjoyed about the first Percy Jackson film was how Greek mythology and elements were implemented into the mortal world. In this film, while they don't have as many as the previous, they still manage to throw in some cool and funny nods to Greek mythology. For example, about halfway through the film, they need to find the Greek Messenger Hermes. Since he's a messenger, they have to go to a post office to find him which I thought was imaginative as it would make sense for a messenger to be in a post office. As I'm on the topic of Hermes in this film, probably the best thing about this film was actually his character as he was just so suave and acted like a real business man. As if that was not awesome enough, Hermes is played by the great Nathan Fillion, and while conversing, Hermes makes a reference to a certain cancelled TV show which only me and one other person in the audience reacted to, which I felt was great. While some mythical things were good, there were some just bizarre ones that unfortunately created small plot-holes in the story. For example, the whole point of the film is to recover the Golden Fleece which can bring anything back to life. While this is cool, this raises the point that when the film kills off an important character, they don't really die as they can be instantly brung back to life with the fleece. While useful, this leaves a plot-hole and doesn't keep the audience on the edge of their seat in suspense. 

Still of Nathan Fillion and Logan Lerman

As for the acting in the film, I felt it was way better than the acting shown in the previous instalment  Most of this is thanks to Logan Lerman's enhanced acting ability thanks to his role in the 2012 underdog film The Perks of Being a Wallflower. Other heavy-hitters in the film include Stanley Tucci as Mr D. and Nathan Fillion as Hermes, who both for some reason, are only in the movie for a short time. Listen to this directors, when you are given the acting talents of Nathan Fillion and Stanley Tucci, try and put them in as many scenes as possible. Even if they don't say anything, just stick them in the background for no reason. While it would be stupid, I would just be happy they got more screen time. One more person who actually did a good job was Leven Rambin as Clarisse a.k.a the biggest b***h in the movie. I don't know where this chick gets her anger from, but her playing an annoying and angry is just uncanny as this was shown in both this film and in 2012's The Hunger Games as in that film, she played more or less the same character. Overall, the acting in the film while not spectacular  it worked just fine for a family film and didn't really bring anything award worthy to the table. 

Still of Stanley Tucci and Logan Lerman

Overall, Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters really did surprise me as it was much better than I had originally anticipated. As a big fan of Greek Mythology, I really dug this film as it managed to make references to various people from Greek mythology. Although I have not read the books, it appears that the film seems loyal enough to the books and although I think the movie needed a stronger plot and some inclusion of the Greek Gods, the film was still enjoyable, to a certain extent. 

OVERALL: 6.7/10