Film Review – Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters
Director: Thor Freudenthal
Screenplay: Marc Guggenheim, Rick Riordan (book)
Cast: Logan Lerman, Alexandra Daddario, Brandon T Jackson, Douglas Smith, Jake Abel, Nathan Fillion.
Genre: Fantasy Adventure
Rating: ** and a half
Venue: Ster Kinekor Maerua Mall Cine 4
Percy Jackson (Logan Lerman) and his friends make a comeback in this retelling of Rick Riordan’s book, “The Sea of Monsters”. The Son of Poseidon, Percy Jackson, is accompanied by his friends Annabeth Chase (Alexandra Daddario), Clarisse La Rue (Leven Rambin) and Tyson (Douglas Smith), his half brother, on a quest to the Sea of Monsters to retrieve the Golden Fleece and save Camp Half-Blood which is slowly but surely dying. Percy also has to fight his cousin Luke, Son of Hermes and stop him from bringing to life an ancient evil.The half-bloods compete and disobey the rules and set out to the Sea of Monsters, which is also know as the Bermuda Triangle. The ever competitive Clarisse is chosen to find the Golden Fleece. However Percy also goes on a quest in search of answers to a prophecy he is involved in. The dialogue is good though I can not say much about the acting. Most of the actors are either weak or are trying too hard. I’m not sure if the actors tried to improvise or not, because there are more than a few attempts to get quick laughs with one-liners which I did not find too funny. Nathan Fillion’s character “Hermes” successfully gets the laughs he deserves and Brandon T Jackson gives his all and some, and delivers much needed humour. What saves the film are the Computer Generated Imagery (CGI) effects which are excellent. Sea horses (Hippo campuses), centaurs and Cyclops have never looked this cool. I even found myself wishing I could also own a rainbow-coloured hippo-campus (half-horse, half-fish) that the young adventurers rode while pursuing Luke (Jake Abel). Also there is some action where the audience is taken on an adventure in some scenes, here and there. The action is well-executed and fast-paced but then falls flat. Just as it is about to reach the juicy part it abruptly ends paving the way for a sequel which I think was done purposely to leave the viewer wanting more and more adventure. I must admit I was a little sceptical about Percy Jackson’s Sea of Monsters and was even dreading going into the cinema because I have not watched the previous Percy Jackson movies, neither have I read any of the books. All I could think about was how I was going to survive 106 minutes of teenage boys battling sea monsters and girls pining over the good looking boys on a camp in the woods. To my surprise I enjoyed watching every moment. It is not Harry Potter but it’s a good watch that everyone in the family can go and see. After watching the film I am now motivated to find the books and read them. All in all it is entertaining not just for teenagers but for the whole family and paves a promising path for a sequel which I can not wait to see.
