Born Movie Reviews

Movie Review written by: Born Movie Reviews

RT Critics Rating: 3.4/10

Born Movie Reviews' Rating: 3/10

I like how the movie title this time took out "& the Olympians." Guess they found out that the predecessor's title had too many syllables...

The film begins with a weirdly narrated backstory of four kids running towards Camp Half-Blood, away from incoming monsters. One of the kids was Annabeth Chase. The story focused on her friend Thalia, who risked her life to save the other three. In return, and to ensure the safety of all demigods, Zeus transformed the deceased Thalia into a magical tree, creating a powerful force field around Camp Half-Blood, forever protecting the demigods from any incoming threats.

Back in the present day, Percy (Logan Lerman) is not the brightest demigod in Camp Half-Blood, constantly overwhelmed by Clarisse La Rue, Ares' boasting demigod daughter. He is worried that his journey from the previous film was just a lucky shot for him, and he feels out of place. At the same time, he discovers that he has a half-brother Tyson, who is a cyclops. Things seem to be going normally until Luke, the demigod son of Hermes, poisoned the magic tree, leaving Camp Half-Blood vulnerable for attack. Annabeth soon discovers that only the Golden Fleece can restore the tree's magical powers. Of course, Percy sets off with Annabeth, Grover, and Tyson, to find it. However, they soon find out that Luke and his fellow half-bloods are looking for the Fleece as well, but to summon Kronos, the greatest of the Titans, father of Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades, so he can destroy Mount Olympus as well as the world. How this world annihilation benefits Luke, I don't understand.

It is amazing and amusing, that The Lightning Thief set the bar so low for this new installment, and yet... it fumbles even more. To quote the Washington Post, "It's a shame that the millions of readers who fell in love with Riordan's classic-meets-contemporary children's stories have been handed such limp adaptations of the material." Every single problem that is in The Lightning Thief shows up again here, as if they didn't learn from their mistakes... at all. The only difference between the first entry and this new one is this new one adds two new cardboard-characters-played-by-bad-actors, a lot more loud CGI action sequences, and a much messier narrative.

This time, Sea of Monsters completely took storytelling and threw it into the trash. Forget storytelling. Forget plot. Just throw in a laundry list of jokes and funny entertaining moments that all add up to a two-hour long running time. What's the plot of this film? Um, what plot? Why do they need a plot when they can have a long sequence of three blue-skinned crazy women with no eyes throw wheezy funny lines at each other? Why need storytelling when kids can admire two funny snakes on a scepter? This is fantasy film manufacturing at its dumbest.

For some odd reason, this new installment's editing and pacing is even worse than the previous film. The way scenes transition from one to another is so sudden, so quick, that story-wise, you get taken out, not that you would care for the story here. As for other things wrong with this film, please just read my review on The Lightning Thief. I don't want to talk about the same flaws here...

In conclusion, if you did not like The Lightning Thief, then there is absolutely no reason why you should see Sea of Monsters. The entire film is loaded once again with a cardboard cast, where the CGI sequences are mediocre, along with wheezy one-liners, pop culture references, and product placements. It's almost as if the movie itself is a product... huh, that's because this is a product, and a bad one made by Twentieth Century Fox. But stay for the song at the end credits. It's so out of place and does not fit the tone of the movie, but it's pretty enough.

Box Office Prediction: Around $200 million