Review: "Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters"

When 20th Century Fox made Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief in 2010, it was just another in a long line of youth fantasy films for the studio -- including franchise non-starters Eragon, The Seeker: The Dark is Rising, and City of Ember -- that was designed to cash in on Potter-mania. As you can imagine, it was quite a coup for them to get Chris Columbus in the director's chair; Columbus had helmed the first two Harry Potter films, and was instrumental in bringing J.K. Rowling's beloved books to life on screen for Warner Brothers. His involvement with Percy Jackson lent a legitimacy and creative weight that none of Fox's other Young Adult projects had. The end result was a well-produced, well-cast movie, with a tone that was a bit more lighthearted and campy than the Potter movies -- perfectly suiting a series that is meant to hark back to classic Ray Harryhausen monster movies like Sinbad or Clash of the Titans.

The problem was, it didn't light the box office on fire, and some inevitable behind-the-scenes changes were made by the studio before continuing the series. Even with Columbus' involvement, The Lightning Thief was still a second-tier blockbuster with a $95 budget (For comparison, Iron Man 2 came out the same year, boasting a $200 million budget). For Sea of Monsters, they started by trimming the budget back even further, replacing Columbus' experience with the younger, presumably hungrier, and definitely cheaper Thor Freudenthal, who directed Diary of a Wimpy Kid. The supporting cast was drastically cut down from the first film, eliminating most adult characters and recasting others with more affordable actors. Also, and unfortunately, the special effects sequences have been scaled back considerably -- for a movie titled Sea of Monsters, there is a surprising lack of monsters and mythical creatures on display.

The film begins with a flashback, as four demigod children retreat towards the refuge of Camp Half-Blood, home of the demigods on Earth. They are being chased by something deadly, and in order to save the others, a young girl named Thalia (Katelyn Mager) fends off the beast, but is killed in the process. As a tribute, Zeus turns her dying body into a tree that produces a magic shield over the camp, protecting the sons and daughters of Olympus. Back in the present day, Luke (Jake Abel), the lightning thief from the first film, returns and poisons the tree, breaking the seal and placing all the half-bloods in danger. To save the camp, Percy (Logan Lerman), Annabeth (Alexandra Daddario), and Grover (Brandon T. Jackson) must embark on a quest to find the mythical Golden Fleece, which will heal the tree and restore the protective shield. Along for the ride is Percy's half-brother, a cyclops named Tyson (Douglas Smith), and Percy's chief rival, Clarisse (Leven Rambin), the current "it" girl at camp. As our heroes race to find the Fleece in the Sea of Monsters -- better known as the Bermuda Triangle -- they discover that Luke and his followers are also after it, for a more nefarious purpose.

The film moves at a brisk pace and carries over some of the humor from The Lightning Thief, but things feel heavier this time around, leaning on the aesthetic established in the last few Potter films, right down to the darker look and muted colors of the cinematography. This was obviously a calculated decision, audiences turned out big for Potter (and The Dark Knight trilogy), but it gives the film a drab, unimpressive visual style. Dialing down the color and under-lighting scenes is a little bit lazy and more than a little bit boring. And, it should be considered passé by now. The rest of the technical credits are solid, but unremarkable.

The young cast is amiable enough, but whether native to the source material, or not -- Marc Guggenheim (Green Lantern) penned the screenplay from Rick Riordan's novel -- there just isn't much going on for anyone besides Percy. He's going through a crisis of confidence at camp, wondering if he deserves the rock star treatment anymore, and with his daddy-issues still brewing, the appearance of a new brother is something he'd rather not deal with. Grover disappears for much of the film (those Satyr legs must be an expensive special effect), and Annabeth has little to do except tag along. The romantic tension between her and Percy has, curiously, evaporated between films, and Clarisse has taken her place as his competition at camp. Tyson, the cyclops half-son of Poseidon, is the only bright spot, and his upbeat nature lifts the movie out of its humdrum mood on occasion.

Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters is, for lack of a better term, serviceable. It's got action, but doesn't feel epic in any way. In fact, the journey never really seems that difficult. I won't pretend that it wasn't a pleasant enough experience, I just wish the changes that were made seemed born out of creativity instead of trendiness. Hopefully, any future sequels will once again look to the great adventure films of the past for inspiration.