Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters

Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters is based on the Rick Riordan novel of the same name and the sequel to the 2010 film Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lighting Thief. The new movie, directed by Thor Freudenthal, continues the adventures of Percy Jackson, the son of Greek God Poseidon, who embarks on a journey with his friends to retrieve the Golden Fleece to save their training ground, Camp Half-Blood. They must find and then travel through the Sea of Monsters and face the horrible challenges that await.

This is the little sequel that could. After the first movie came out in 2010, no one was sure if there was ever going to be a follow-up. The first movie made a profit, but had too many comparisons to the Harry Potter franchise. Then to have Chris Columbus, who directed and produced the first two Potter films, helm Jackson, I’m sure that didn’t help the cause to make this different from Potter. And you know the studios thought with a combo like that, this would make Potter numbers. Well it did and it didn’t. On one hand the first Percy Jackson film is well made, and sticks to some of the main themes of the book. But Columbus took way too many liberties and changed the plot of the book. Which many fans disliked. It was like he only read some of the book.

In this sequel it seems the new director, Thor Freudenthal, looks to have read the book and had the challenge to fix what the first movie got wrong. And he did with flying colors. The second movie seems to stay more grounded in what makes the books hugely popular. Not saying Thor didn’t make changes, but at least his changes didn’t change the story too much. He does take some parts out and change some other things towards the end, but his changes feel organic and fuel the plot to move forward. Where in the first movie the changes seem to stall the flick, here the filmmakers made different choices but get the same results as the books, but in new ways.

What makes this movie work is the cast. They had all three of main actors come back and reprise their roles: Percy Jackson (Logan Lerman), Annabeth Chase (Alexandra Daddario), and Grover (Brandon T. Jackson).  The actors pick up right where they left off. There is some fun chemistry between them, which makes watching them all the more entertaining. Unlike the first flick where we have to introduce these characters, here we already know them. We can just dive into the adventure and learn things along the way.

We also pick up some new characters for this new journey. Percy finds he has a cyclops half-brother, Tyson (Douglas Smith) who is sent to help Percy. We also get the very confidant, somewhat mean daughter of The God or War Ares, Clarisse La Rue (Leven Rambin), who takes pleasure in making sure she’s better than everybody at everything she does. Through the course of twist and turns, all five heroes end up on the same quest: To seek out the Golden Fleece and save their beloved camp.

In the Harry Potter films, the filmmakers make it a point to have amazing actors play the teachers. Here in the Jackson films they wanted the same for actors playing the roles of the mighty Gods. They tried a little bit in the first one, but most of the Gods were cut out so it didn’t matter. But here they try again and hit a homerun. Stanley Tucci plays Dionysus, the God of Wine and the head director of Camp Half-Blood. He brings his normal funny and great talent to the role of the god who is being punished by Zeus and can now  drink only water. It feels that Tucci read the book and got to take what the author wrote and added a little bit of himself in the role.

But the god of nerds Nathan Fillion will be talked about the most. He plays Hermes, God of thieves, travelers, and messengers. Fillion comes in and plays, well, Fillion. But he does it so well that you just don’t care. He only has a few scenes, but he makes them the best scenes ever. Fillion has a great comic timing and interaction with the heroes. It’s a shame he couldn’t go on the adventure with them.

The special effects are pretty damn good. They do some cheesy 3D gimmicks when things come at you, but they aren’t over kill, so it never once took you out of the movie. Most of the CGI monsters work and play off the actors pretty well. The giant cyclops, Polyphemus, who has the Golden Fleece, is a really good CGI monster. He’s huge, very expressive, and voiced by Ron Pearlman, which didn’t hurt. The fight with the heroes is fun and never once felt clumsy. These actors know what they’re doing at all times. Even in the huge special effects final battle, nothing seemed out of place. Much time and care was put into making this movie just so much better than the first.

In the first movie, Pierce Brosnan played the role of Chirion the Centaur; I felt his acting with the CGI horse body never really worked. It also seemed Brosnan wanted to be anywhere else in the world and not on that set. But here Brosnan has been replaced with actor Anthony Head (Buffy the Vampire Slayer), who worked with the horse body much better. His movements looked more graceful and natural. That could stem from Head getting better direction than Brosnan, or Head is used to more special effects acting. Either way, the character of Chirion was put to better use here than before.

Overall this is a fun, action fantasy that you can take your kids to. It never once talked down to the audience nor did it take itself too seriously. I think the actors are what make this flick great. You like these kids and hope they win. As a big fan of the books, I was let down by the first flick, but this second movie made up for it. I hope it will make a profit so the studios will want to continue the franchise, I mean they left it open with a huge cliff hanger, it would suck to never see how that plays out. So hopefully the stars will align and we can all see more adventures of Percy Jackson in the future.