My Thought on... Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters Film

Plot:

After Luke Castellan, son of Greek god Hermes attacks Camp Half-Blood and poisons Talia's tree, which protects the demigods with an invisible barrier, Percy Jackson, son of Poseidon and his friends Annabeth Chase, Grover Underwood, his half brother (and cyclops) Tyson and Clarrise La Rue must find the Golden Fleece, which can cure anything or anyone to save their home. On top of that, Percy is told about an ancient prophecy stating that at some point, he will have the power to destroy Olympus. The demigods must travel to the Sea of Monsters, which we call the Bermuda Triangle, where many obstacles await them.


My Reaction To The Sea of Monsters:
So many things happened in this movie that I don't even know where to start... In all honestly, although I was obsessed with the first movie, this one was much better.

What really impressed me was how well the writers and directors plotted the movie. As most of you guys know, in the film adaptation of The Lightning Thief, many, many things were changed. They removed Kronos, which was an essential part of the whole series, they didn't mention that Aries betrayed the other Olympians, how Percy and Annabeth really met and many other things. For the past three years, I've been wondering how the writers would include the big bad Titan in the second movie and how much were they going to steer away from the original books. Though, after watching The Sea of Monsters, I finally have my answer!

Of course, I won't spoil you guys too much. I bet some of you who haven't watched it yet are dying to.

I think that in this second film, the acting was better than in the first one and the actors have evolved a lot and matured. One of my favorite changes though is that Alexandra Daddario dyed her hair blond for this film! I know it's not a very big deal but if you've read all the Percy Jackson books, like myself, then it's a big deal.

What I was really excited to see though (other than Logan Lerman and Jake Abel, of course) was Tyson and Talia!

The Canadian-American actor, Douglas Smith took on Tyson's role as a half Cyclops while nineteen year old, Paloma Kwiatkowski played the strong and determined, Talia Grace!

Douglas Smith as Tyson

So to start things off, let's talk about Tyson: I think Douglas Smith did a great job at portraying the one-eyed mythical creature. Smith is very comical and wears Tyson's the facial expression's perfectly! He was the loving and clueless not so scary monster everyone loved! If one thing he could have done better was showing the sadder emotions. When he was shot and fell off the cliff, I think maybe he could have showed a bit more fear. Other than that, I think he was a great Tyson! Not to mention that this was one of his real first roles in a blockbuster! I hope he gets more opportunities to be able to improve his skills even more!

Now off to Talia (the older one, the one in the end): So Kwiatkowski pretty much had one line and honestly, I don't think she was that great. I mean, physically she looks almost exactly what I thought Talia was going to be but just the way she said that one line was just so... I think she should have sounded more confused. I mean, she'd been a tree for gods know how long and to me, she sounded a bit too calm... So I was kind of disappointed with who they cast as Talia.

Leven Rambin as Clarisse

Another person I was impressed with though was Leven Rambin, who played the Clarisse La Rue, daughter of Aries, god of war and Percy's arch nemesis at Camp Half-Blood. Some of you might have first seen her in the film adaptation of The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins but I first encountered Rambin as a recurring character on Shonda Rhimes' Grey's Anatomy, where she played the long lost daughter of one of the main characters. That was almost three years ago and let me tell you that in between then and now, I thin she's progressed a lot in her acting career! When I saw her in Grey's, I thought she was all right as an actress but ever since seeing The Sea of Monsters, I think she's gotten so much better! So Congrats to Leven and I think she looks so good as a brunette (her natural hair color is blonde)!

Who else totally fell in love with fetus Luke, Annabeth, Grover and Talia? I think it was a smart move to tell the story of how Luke and the other got to Camp Half-Blood in the beginning of the film because otherwise, I have no idea where they could have possibly added it!

One of the things that I was kind of confused about was why they made Polyphemus‘ lair in an abandoned amusement park in Circeland… In short, instead of two separate islands like the novel, the screen writers just blended them together to create one. I’m guessing it was just too long to add Blackbeard and CC’s Spa & Resort part from the book? *sighs*

In all honestly, while reading the series, because of its name, I thought that the Hippocampi looked like hippos. I didn't realize they were actually sea-horses until I looked it up. And I think because Blackjack and the Hippocampus were both horses (well, Blackjack is a Pegasus), they just decided to delete one. Now I'm just ranting here but I was not happy when Blackjack didn't appear in the film. He was my favorite mythical creature! Oh well... Now the writers are going to have to find a way to include him in the future films because I will be extremely disappointed if he doesn't at least show his face once! And I'm telling you, you do not want me mad.

Anyway, another thing I wish they could have at least spared the scene where Percy copied Odysseus by calling himself “Nobody”. That was honestly one of my favorite parts in the novel because when I was reading The Sea of Monsters, my class had just finished learning about Homer and the Odyssey and for some odd reason, that really excited me.

Moving on... Let's talk a bit about the soundtrack. For me, the whole thing was perfect! Some of the songs included are Wild Taxi Ride, which I liked because it was extremely funky (oh gods, I can't believe I just used that word! It's so unlike me) and Hippocampus, which I liked because the music sounds so magical! It made me feel like I was in a fairy tale! And my absolute favorite was Talia's Story just because when I was watching the start of the movie, I was so excited and I feel like this song pretty much said every single emotion I was feeling, from excitement, to dread, wondering if the film was going to be any good. And I'm betting that you guys can guess which scenes theses songs are from! ;)

A small side note though, the picture of the soundtrack, doesn't Annabeth (Alexandra Daddario) look really animated? Or is it just me?

But in all, I think the actors, producers, director and screen writers did a great job! They were able to capture the essentials of the whole series like the Golden Fleece, Kronos and Talia becoming human again!

So if you haven’t watched Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters yet, I’m guessing you’re going to have to wait for the DVD to come out because I’m pretty sure the film is still showing in only a handful of cinemas worldwide. And if you haven’t read the book and didn’t understand half the things I just ranted about, you should read the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series. It’s a good laugh and it will get you addicted to Greek Mythology!

I think I'm done for now but what about you guys? What did you think of the film (if you've watched it) or the books (if you've read them)? What changes did you like and which were the ones you absolutely hated? Make sure to comment below!