The Task: Watch and write about every movie on my shelf, in order (Blu-rays are sorted after DVDs), by June 10, 2015. Remaining movies: 168 Days to go: 168
Movie #209: Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters
This is not my movie. It belongs to my son, but he brought it out of his room and included it on my shelf because he wanted me to write about it. He’s really very sweet.
And because he’s so sweet and I love him so much, I’m going to give Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters the benefit of the doubt and assume it’s a bit out of my depth of mythology knowledge. I mean, I’ve heard of Poseidon and the Golden Fleece and I’ve watched Clash of the Titans more times than I can count, but I’m not aware of famous cyclops or anything like that and it’s hard to tell how much of these Percy Jackson stories are pulled directly from mythology and how much is fiction from the novels. And honestly I don’t care enough to ever read the novels, so my knowledge is going to remain forever limited. Sue me.
The thing is, though, if I were a teenage girl again, I would be all over these things. I mean, I might not have come to the books first (mythology is a fascination, but maybe not enough of one to get me into the fantasy section of a bookstore), but the movies would’ve fed the crushes of my youth. And then I would’ve found my way around to the books at that point. It’s a process.
My point is that, from what I’ve seen of these Percy Jackson flicks, they’re basically about putting beautiful young people on display. Logan Lerman (as Percy), Alexandra Daddario (as Annabeth), Leven Rambin (as Clarisse), Brandon Jackson (as Grover), Jake Abel (as Luke) … all beautiful. All crushworthy. Not entirely sure who they all are supposed to be or what their collective deal is, but I honestly believe character motivation is entirely beside the point.
There is some cute comedy as Stanley Tucci plays Dionysus, god of wine whose gorgeous vintages keep getting turned into water because Zeus has a grudge. And then Giles from Buffy (Anthony Head) is still doling out sage advice to teens, this time as Chiron the centaur. Plus Yvette Nicole Brown and comedy giant Missi Pyle are two of the three “Gray sisters,” who are sort of like the Stygian Witches of cab drivers, I guess. And who doesn’t appreciate a little Nathan Fillion in their lives, particularly when he’s playing Hermes, proprietor of an Olympian UPS Store? No one, that’s who.
I admit to not remembering a whole lot about the first Percy Jackson movie, but I feel like this one kind of takes off in another direction from that one. Like, Sea of Monsters is all about this girl who dies and grows into a tree that forms a force field around the demigod camp? I just don’t remember that being a part of the first one, and I certainly don’t know why Percy would think about her so often, as he claims to do in his opening voice over, given that in the first movie he didn’t even know he was a demigod until he was older, so he wouldn’t have been there as a kid when she died. But, like I said, the plot strikes me as entirely secondary in these films, so whatever.
As far as a fun, exciting, teen crush movie goes, you could do a lot worse than Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters. It’s bright and it’s clean and it’s quasi-educational, maybe, so good for them. It might not be my cup of tea anymore, but I give it my full, motherly love endorsement. For my sweet, sweet boy who likes my movie shelf project.
Viable Option 