Percy Jackson and Sea of MonstersDirector: Thor Freudenthal
Series: Percy Jackson #2
Genres: Mythology, Fantasy | Childrens, Young Adult
Duration: 106 minutes
Release Date: 7th August 2013
IMDB Rating:
Rating:
In the second installment on films based of Rick Riordan's Percy Jackson and the Olympians series, Percy finds himself on a quest to the Sea of Monsters in order to find the Golden Fleece, the only thing that can cure the tree that protects the borders around Camp Half-Blood.
With the help of his friend's, Annabeth and Grover, his new-found half brother Tyson and fellow camper Clarisse, can Percy find the fleece and save Camp Half-Blood, or will an enemy from his past who tries to thwart his plans succeed in bring back a terror even the gods in Olympus fear to fight?
Oh where oh where to start with this review.. The Lightning Thief I watched when it was released around 2010 and I actually really, thoroughly enjoyed, you can even check out my review for it, a rounded, positive 4 star watch, but Sea of Monsters? It was not so positive or rounded or enjoyable, and at first, I questioned whether it was because I had read Sea of Monsters before watching it, but it later came to my attention that if I'd watched Sea of Monsters first, I more than likely would never have read the series, and that people, would have been a crime. So what exactly went wrong here?
Lets start with the beginning and the absolutely terrible narration by Logan Lerman, the first big, glaring issue that was his voice. I understand that there was a three year difference between the first films release and the second, but it wasn't just me that thought Lermans voice had changed in that time was it? He doesn't have the right tone of voice to narrate and sadly, he no longer had the right tone of voice to play Percy, at least, not in my mind. My Percy had a light feel to his voice, was snarky and quick-witted and had many tones to his voice for the right occasion, but Lerman, to me, seemed to lose all emotions during his filming; when he was to act surprised or scared, or happy and at peace, or vicious and dramatic, his voice was always at the same tone, a lot like Kristin Stewart, except instead of her face, it's Lermans voice. Add this was what must have either been terrible acting skills when I watched The Lightning Thief, or developed declining skills within Sea of Monsters and Lerman was not scoring in my book - Percy was nasty, in an on screen way.
But this wasn't the end of my issues. There were comparisons to the novel that I was bound to make, the biggest being Annabeth. Whether Freudenthal decided that Annabeth needed to become more damsel like instead of badass daughter of Athena, or whether it be that Alexandra Daddario played Annabeth that way herself, the character itself was terrible. She wasn't bad during the Lightning Thief, but I genuinely cannot remember, nor did I take note of a single scene that involved Annabeth having any real imput that didn't involve running, screaming, standing shocked or generally delivering clich� speeches galore during Sea of Monsters and half of the time, it made me feel ashamed for having enjoy the Lightning Thief at all. Even Brandon T. Jackson wasn't as enjoyable as he was previously, partially because he wasn't featured in the film that much, but he also lost a vital sense of his character and humour which really kept the first film in check, not the mention the lack of empathy link between Grover and Percy which was a pretty important feature throughout the novel. Secondary characters also lost a large amount of their mojo, in fact, many of the actors and actresses really didn't seem to do much acting at all; there was no emotion from them, there was no believable and I lost all the connections I'd made with them previously, even Luke, bestill my heart, didn't improve on this feature, not to mention that some actors clearly left after the first installment and were replaced by others, take for example Chiron (originally Pierce Brosnan, now Anthony Stewart) and I think for a series that originally, in novel form, relied on the characters to drive them an awful lot, these films just don't have that helping hand.
The other feature the original novels rely on is the world and the plot, an interesting, believable plot, and once again, Sea of Monsters didn't have this. The Lightning Thief was a great film and could have easily been watched as a standalone, it had a clear, defined plot, with a steady pace, good amount of action and a sense of the realistic features involved, but Sea of Monsters, to me, didn't seem to have any of this. You couldn't really watch Sea of Monsters on it's own and appreciate the plot by itself, like you could with the novel, and you really couldn't find a definable plot within the film - where Percy, Annabeth and Grover searching for the fleece, when they didn't have the quest, and therefore any permission to do so, or where they searching for Grover, which, strike me as funny, didn't appear to be important to either Percy or Annabeth.. not once was he mentioned in the little conversation they had, but they didn't appear particularly worried or distressed that he was gone, in fact, they really didn't even seem too bothered that they'd swapped a satyr for a cyclops, Tyson, (who was also one of the saving graces of this film, I thought Douglas Smith, bless his soul, played him very, very well). And don't even get me started on the special effects this film had, or did not have..
Either the Freudenthal saw that the Lightning Thief didn't make as much at the box office and they would have liked and thought that by shrinking the costs of making Sea of Monsters, they would, in turn, make more money from it, but I do believe that this, more than likely, bit them on the buttocks. If I were in his positions, I probably would have spent more on making the film as logical and loyal to the book as possible, as this was the biggest issue other fans had with the first installment, and made sure that everything that could be perfected, was, yet instead, someone, somewhere, decided that to two things that would take a knock would be the special affects, which therefore affects the entire world, and the loyalty to them novel which I will get to later. The lack of real special affects in this film was in no other word, shocking. There were some that looked okay, scenes like the Chariot of Damnation (lets ignore the fact that it was in completely the wrong place plot wise, and that in fact, most of the film was in a completely different order to the novel, but hey..) which was also one of the few entertaining scenes included, but some, like the 'Water Horse' scene (do excuse the fact that I cannot remember what it's called..) they were horrendous. You could actually see what was real and what wasn't, if it wasn't for the fact I'd have damaged my laptop, I probably could have traced the actual separate parts of the imagine seamlessly and that's not just terrible effects, that's shoddy editing work too. Oh, and have I mentioned how absolutely horrifying seeing Thalia turned into a tree was? I had visions of being turned into a tree myself in my sleep and that people, doesn't encourage anyone to turn the lights out.
There was so much missing from this film that I loved about the first, like the lack of interaction between Percy and his Mother, and indeed, his Father, who didn't even so much as create a bubble throughout the novel, what on earth happened to these family aspects, or indeed, any interaction with the gods? The only 'god' we got to meet was Hermes and though I really like Nathan Fillion, he definitely is not Hermes to me. I missed the humour the first film had, and what humour they tried to include during the film was just either not funny or amusing, or felt like it was being pushed too much, therefore making it lose it's appeal. In fact, when I think about it, there's actually very little I enjoyed about this film, other than a scene here or a character there and even though I read the novel first and was completely thrown by the order, the style and just how much was in fact changed from the original format, Lukes ship and the scenes on there, the actual Sea of Monsters and those scenes, the dodge-ball open scenes, the 'island with the cyclops' scenes, (or lets just be honest here Amanda, near enough every single god damn scene in the film), I honestly believe that if I hadn't read the novels, I would have been disappointed with this film on close to the same level as I am.
There's nothing special about Sea of Monsters, and it definitely has begged the question of whether I will continue with the series on the big screen if a third comes about. The answer is currently unknown, but I do know that unless some serious changes are made and some loyalty is given to the novels, I definitely won't be recommending this collection to anyone. Maybe the much younger Amanda who was swooned by Greek Mythology on screen, actors with lots of shaggy hair and a really good, entertaining plot would've liked this installment, but I'd like to think that even she had her limits. No matter how much I enjoyed the Lightning Thief, I would never recommend anybody who enjoyed that film watch it's sequel, it's really not worth the 106 minutes I wasted on it.
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