Firstly..Happy EID to all who celebrates this wonderful month. Secondly, again since 2010 the tradition of watching a movie on first of Syawal is still going strong. This year the pick was Percy Jackson and the Sea of Monsters!..it was that or Smurfs 2 .. but Smurfs 2? heh...never gonna happen.
Unfortunately unlike Lightning Thief which I kinda dig, the followup to the first flick pretty much sucked. I'd say the whole story line fails to grasp any interest from me. It went too fast from one scene to another. The journey was lame and way too easy! Whenever the lead encounter any problem it was resolve pretty much at the snap of a finger. I don't get the sense of any real danger from the journey / quest the leads were in. Which says a lot cause the monsters/demons/god they encounter were hard hitters. It's Cronos! for crying out loud! Speaking of which...the end battle SUCKED so hard!
Plot holes! A LOT! I asked a lot of question going out the cinema, and some of the leads actions were weird and stupid ,I wonder why they are still alive. FX apart from the Horse thingy it was nothing worth screaming about..it's also most definitely not worth the extra $$ paid for 3D.
Cast was ok I guess, Logan Lerman is a good actor I have no issues with the chap. Alexandra Daddario caught my eye in Lighting Thief..now...she looks awfully scrawny, me also no likey the highlights. The newbies Douglas Smith (Tyson the Cyclops) and Leven Rambin (Clarisse) were a not bad addition . I told my friends Tyson looked a lot like a young Brendan Fraser and guess what..he was cast as "year old Brendan Fraser" in
Blast from the Past. As for Clarisse, I liked her character..she got spunk. (chic was in
Hunger Games and wrongfully canceled
Scoundrels) The others were just okay, nothing noteworthy.
...except, now here comes the good. Nathan Fillion! Dude was cast as Hermes (not the brand). My friend heard me gasp when I saw him appeared cause honestly I did not know he was in this flick. His scene was the best scene in the entire movie, it was funny and true to what Fillion normally cast as (character wise) ..the insert joke about "a canceled 1 season - cult favorite show" was a hoot! to those that understand it. (i.e
Firefly) Also not to just shine the spotlight on Fillion, Hermes talking staff was equally funny. Watch out for this scene.
With all that said..I still dig the mythology behind Percy. The demi-god, weird characters, Cyclops..etc..I still love watching stories about these..well things. But the lacking of a strong story and everything tied up neatly (and so easy) near the end really turned me off at times. Luckily there was Mr Fillion to lighten the mood (eventhough it's really just a 5 - 10 minute scene) which is why I give it a so-so
5/10