Tonight I went and saw Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters and it was an fair family film. It was completely a family fair and looks to be for the tween market. It is probably a little too much for young, young children, but a bit lame for teenagers (unless they were like I was/am and love a good lame-ish family adventure file).
Sea of Monsters continues after the events of Percy Jackson and The Lightning Thief (2010). I don't really remember what happened in the first movie but besides the general idea and knowing the backstory of the characters I don't think it really effects being able to figure out what it happening. For me the story was pretty straight forward and there was not really mystery or surprise. Anyway you need to know the Percy Jackson, played by Logan Lerman, is a half human son of Poseidon who is living at a camp for children of gods (Olympian) he is there with his friend a satyr Grover, played by Brandon T. Jackson, and daughter of Athena Annabeth, played by Alexandra Daddario. During the events of The Lightning Thief these three go against Luke, played by Jake Able, son of Hermes when he is trying to steal Zeus' Lightning Bolt.
Sea of Monsters starts with the story of Thalia, the daughter of Zeus who sacrifices herself to protect the camp and save her friends. We then go to modern day where the rival between Percy and the daughter of Aires Clarisse, played by Leven Rambin, and how she is always beating Percy and likes to be the best. After it is discovered that Luke is alive and that he is trying to destroy the camp Clarisse is sent on a quest to get the golden fleece from the Sea of Monsters. Percy, his friends, and his newly discovered Cyclops brother go off on their own because of the prophecy that puts Percy in the middle of this drama. Along the way they have to overcome challenges and try and come together to be successful.
One of my favorite parts is the Cameo of Nathan Fillion, who plays Hermes (Luke's father) and during this he gets to be his wonderful self and also make a fantastic reverence to how Firefly was canceled in it prime. I was not expecting this nugget and I think that I was the first one to get it during the movie because I laughed out loud and then a few of the teenagers mad a comment.
I saw this movie in 3D and although how it was incorporate it didn't bug or distract me from the movie, I don't think it really added anything. Yes there were moments when things came from the screen but most of the time I just forgot it was in 3D. The CGI was not the best but again it wasn't jarring or distracting from the movie.
This is very much a family movie and is set for that, so some of the simplicities of how things came about could have been more complete and clever but all of it seemed congruent with the type of movie it was. I think one of the main problems would be trying to incorporate so much lore, references and characters into it. I think if some of the characters were pruned it would have given a chance to see who each of them were. Knowing about Greek god lore and also the story of Homer's the Odyssey will make it easier to identify the characters and references and I am sure that I missed a lot of this and just glossed over it because the story kept going.
Overall this was a fair family film but probably worth seeing on TV unless the kids really want to see it now.
My Rating: 2-
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