Percy Jackson:
Sea of Monsters

In the sequel that not many people were demanding, Logan Lerman is back as Percy Jackson – the Half Blood son of Poseidon. Now that he knows his true origins, Percy lives at a camp for the children of the Gods, where they train for whatever major catastrophe or disaster they can stop from happening (I guess it is Hero Training). And, Percy is performing with mixed results and rising self-doubt, even though everyone knows he is kind of a big deal after saving the world in the first movie.

A sacred tree outside of the camp, which provides a protective shield, has been damaged, putting all of the kids in danger, so several are on their way to the Sea of Monsters (which we know as The Bermuda Triangle) to recover The Golden Fleece, which will repair the legendary tree.

Of course, evil forces are at work to get the fleece for themselves, and the prophecy says Percy will either save the day, or lead to the destruction of the world as we know it (that’s some pretty heavy stuff for a teen boy who seems like he just wants to continue being “friends” with the super hot gal pal, Annabeth (Alexandra Daddario), he constantly hugs and who will be inspiring new and confusing feelings in all of the tween boys in the crowd, their daddies and the more adventurous mommies).

Who will find The Golden Fleece first?

When the director’s name is Thor Freudenthal, you think you would get more monsters and even more mythology, but that’s not the case here. Granted, the first movie, Percy Jackson and The Olympians: The Lightning Thief, suffered from too much mythology (and a title so long I started to wonder if they were getting paid by the word), so this movie balances that out by giving us just enough mythology to keep the theme alive, while bringing in enough action to make it fun.

Freudenthal also brings a much lighter tone to Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters. The first was much too scary for younger kids, and included a very adult-themed scene involving the Aphrodite girls (which could have been spun off into an adult movie version of Percy Jackson).

This one, while still filled with some action and monsters, brings in more comedy, especially Nathan Fillion in a great cameo as Hermes that helps him steal the entire movie. Freudenthal uses the comedy wisely to keep the intensity from becoming too much for kids, although nothing in this movie will be considered too intense. Unlike Harry Potter, which the Percy Jackson franchise so longs to be, we don’t get a great deal of complexity or consequences for the major battles of good versus evil. Yep, that makes it Harry Potter-lite, but it’s still a decent movie.

Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters needs more monsters, more action and more danger for the older crowd, but we get enough, especially since this isn’t really a movie for us old folks. It’s for the tweens just getting into all of that stuff, which makes it fine enough.

Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters is rated PG for fantasy action violence, some scary images and mild language.