Percy Jackson and the Sea of Monsters


Let’s get two things out of the way first: I am a huge fan of the books, and no, I don’t expect movie adaptations to be 100% faithful.

That being said, this movie was terrible.

I don’t understand how you can fuck this up. You’ve got great source material and a great cast (Nathan  Fillion, Stanley Tucci, that guy who played Giles in Buffy, and the voice of Ron Perlman), so how?

The CG was just okay, the script was crap and its delivery stiff, and whatever chemistry the cast had in the first movie seems to have disappeared.

There’s this attempt to be the next Harry Potter, which I never felt reading the books. The scene where they’re on the Grey Sisters’ cab was made too similarly to the Knight Bus scene in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban.

Also, there were scenes that were supposed to take place on a cruise ship that took place on a yacht which I found hilarious. Did they run out of money? Underwhelming doesn’t even begin to describe it.

I really thought they couldn’t do any worse than the first film (which wasn’t completely terrible, just terribly shallow), OH, BUT WAIT THEY CAN.

There were four things I liked about it:

  1. Stanley Tucci’s quip on water and wine.
  2.  Nathan Fillion subtle reference to Firefly.
  3. The design of the Hippocampus and the Clothis Bull.
  4. Charybdis’s first appearance.
I have to admit, this scene was pretty cool.

Wait for Sea of Monsters to come out cable, don’t bother watching it in the cinemas. In the meantime, read the books if you haven’t, they’re a fun and fresh take on the Greek Mythology genre (Can I call it a genre? Sub-genre?). If you already have, then a re-read is in order to cleanse your palate and to keep you occupied until House of Hades comes out next month. If I’m too late, and you’ve actually spent money to watch this movie, here’s a recipe for blue chocolate chip cookies to cheer yourself up.