Mini Movie Reviews! Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters

So this is my first time doing movie reviews and I thought it'd be awesome to do some mini-reviews on my thoughts on book-to-movie adaptions. This week? Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters!

Disclaimer . . . First things first, I want to be honest and say I have not read the second book in the Percy Jackson series so I am maybe a teeny, teeny bit biased when it comes to my opinion. I actually have those two books on my shelf right now, which I really should get going to on reading but I just never really had the chance. With the movies recently released last month, I decided to give the movies a try and see if I like it. I've been trying to tell myself 'Never judge a book on its movie' mantra so many times, to actually make light of these movies and hopefully enjoy them too! Now let's see . . .

on Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters

Honestly, I was never that big of a Percy Jackson fan. I always thought Percy Jackson was--and still is--an amazing twist on Greek mythology from what I read in the first book, was just ultimately fun and fast-paced and just awesome overall. So I was really disappointed in the first movie's film which totally managed to miss out on plot points, character descriptions, etc. etc. I could go on and on for forever really, and most of the cons of The Lightning Thief pretty much outweighed the pros for me. With so many people complaining and enraged by how the first movie went, I think it was bound to have at least some improvements from its predecessor to at least impress its fanbase.

Oh and look! Annabeth's hair is actually blonde this time. So I at least give kudos to that.

There were some elements of the surprise which I loved. My friend did say some parts of it differed from the book, and we were going OMG practically the whole film at it's more climatic moments. Like the first Percy film, it was fast-paced and jumped into the action right away. In the instance of Sea of Monsters, I don't think it was as messily done to delve into the plot-line as much as the first either. The script was a little... off, and some parts just felt really disjointed to me. The special effects were impressive, and I always seemed to get a Harry Potter-esque vibe from Percy Jackson (Camp Half Blood v. Hogwarts? Hogwarts. Totally Hogwarts.) But something about Percy just never seemed to click as much as Harry's books did with me.

This Percy Jackson movie just... I didn't particularly care for it much. Maybe it could be the fact that I never read the second book, but as a standalone film it was not very good. The characters and plots felt done SO many times before. Nothing felt new or fresh. Fun, but really uninspired. But on the bright side, it is an improvement to the first book (I mean, at least they got Annabeth's hair right...) The plot, unlike Lightning Thief, was so much more tightly held together plot-wise. I felt like it was more episodic like HP movies and books, but I'm just unsure how to feel about this one. I don't like this one--though not as much dislike as the first--and while I knew I disliked Lightning Thief film (no harsh feelings towards the book though! Love the book!) I can't say what made me dislike this one. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that, like Sea of Monsters, the directors and screen writers will continue to make improvements towards the script and characters as well, if not better, than the book series has. Fingers crossed for The Titan's Curse! 

Oh, and here's some Percy Jackson fan art for your viewing pleasure. I am totally not fangirling, I am not a fangirl... okay, yes. I'm fangirling. OMG LOOK AT PERCY.