Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters is a colourful, action-packed adventure
Starring Logan Lerman, Alexandra Daddario, and Brandon T. Jackson. Now playing
Betrayed by J. K. Rowling’s selfish decision to write other stories, I learned of Rick Riordan from a library display: “What to Read After Harry Potter.” Riordan’s Percy Jackson series chronicles how teenage members of a secret society magically defeat a supernatural tyrant. Chris Columbus directed the first movie adaptation.
Just as one can be a fan of both M & Ms and Smarties, the Percy Jackson adventures have their own appeal. They are distinctly American, with the leads being older and more cynical than their English counterparts. They cross the globe on quests for the gods of Olympus, who still meddle in human affairs and occasionally produce superpowered children.
As a descendent of King Poseidon, Percy can neither drown nor get lost at sea. He also has an enchanted blade conveniently disguised as a ballpoint pen. He needs these gifts; for all their strengths, demigod children are frequently eaten by monsters drawn by their Olympian DNA. To survive, demigods must receive martial training at Camp Half-Blood, a retreat that looks exactly like Central Park in Burnaby.
Unlike Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief, this sequel keeps Riordan’s plotting more or less intact. When the magical tree guarding Camp Half-Blood is poisoned, Percy (Logan Lerman) and his besties/sidekicks, Annabeth (Alexandra Daddario) and Grover (Brandon T. Jackson), undertake to retrieve an all-healing artifact, the Golden Fleece, believed to exist in…the Sea of Monsters!
Directed by Thor Freudenthal, the movie is as loud, colourful, and action-packed as you’d expect. My favourite parts are in the details: the way Grover’s legs actually bend backward, and the wistful cameo by Nathan Fillion as Hermes, father of an estranged half blood. Even in a fantasy movie that features undead oracles, swordfights, and a bloodthirsty cyclops, the greatest harm one can ever encounter is bad parenting.
Comments
3 Comments
Ron Y
Aug 7, 2013 at 3:02pm
Hey ev'body! I want to "dialogue" with the readers, if there is anything to say about Percy Jackson.
Topics...?
I got one: "films that bear no resemblance to the book that inspired them."
Percy Jackson and the Sea of Monsters is not bad in that regard, especially compared to The Lightning Thief.
I've heard that most if not all of the James Bond movies bore scant resemblance to their written origins. I remember reading Goldfinger and finding it good, apart from the casual anti-Semitism and the curious belief that the Walther PPK is a hard-hitting weapon.
The one that really pissed me off was The Dark Is Rising (turned into "The Seeker.")
Here you have a beloved book that is read by generations of kids, probably millions. It's so popular and awesome that a film company decides to invest millions of dollars into making a movie...that has just about squat to do with the title.
Insight on Stuff
Aug 7, 2013 at 11:43pm
I'm just saying.
why would anyone even want the movie to be exactly like the book. If it were the exact same then people who have read the book would know exactly what is going to happen.
Ron Y
Aug 8, 2013 at 10:08am
That's an interesting question, IoS.
It did not occur to me that someone would want the movie version to have a substantially different story and/or characterization.
Like, when I go to the store to buy crackers, I am not disappointed when they are crackers and not, say, marmalade.
Of course, I do expect and embrace changes. The pleasures of written language are different than those of an essentially visual (but also auditory) medium. The length of a plot is finite in film, not so in books. And, regardless of the wonders of CGI, films impose practical limitations that do not restrict authors.
Therefore, I expect any translation to have differences. A film is not a book, or a poem, or a song, and while all may have common inspiration, their expression must necessarily diverge.
I guess my point is that I don't want the divergence to amout to unrecognizability. I find that disrespectful to the source material and to me, as the consumer.
There are exceptions of course. I love the book Starship Troopers, but I also love the movie Starship Troopers, which is a masterpiece of deadpan sarcasm that amounts to Verhoeven farting on Heinlein for two hours.