Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters -> disappointment in Greek myths :(

looks like a Star Wars poster, don't you think?

The Plot:
The story begins with Percy recounting the story of Thalia and her great sacrifice in order to protect her friends.



A young Annabeth, Luke, Grover and Thalia are running to Camp Half-Blood while being pursued by monsters. Thalia sacrifices herself to get the others into the camp and her father Zeus finds another way for her to live by transforming her into a pine tree, creating a magical border around the camp so that no other half-blood would suffer from a fate as she did and to make sure that no monsters (especially cyclops) would enter camp Half-Blood.



The scene then shifts to Percy (Logan Lerman) during a camp competition against Clarisse La Rue (Leven Rambin). Percy loses the competition after he assists another camper, and is badgered by Clarisse.

 

Soon after, Chiron (Anthony Head ) and Mr. D (Stanley Tucci) investigate a Cyclops that has somehow passed through the border, and the Cyclops is revealed to be Tyson (Douglas Smith), Percy's half-brother.


After the campers pick on Percy and Tyson, the camp is suddenly attacked by a Colchis Bull, who breaks through the border and ravages Camp Half-Blood.

 
 

Percy finally defeats it with the help of Tyson, Annabeth (Alexandra Daddario), and Clarisse.

 

Following this, Luke Castellan (Jake Abel) suddenly appears and confronts Percy, trying to convert the son of Poseidon to his cause. When Percy refuses, Luke disappears.


The campers soon realize that Thalia's tree has been poisoned and that they have been left vulnerable to attacks. Percy asks Chiron about a prophecy he is involved in (for Luke had tried to bait him with the knowledge earlier), and subsequently visits the Oracle, who tells him of a prophecy of a half-blood of the eldest gods either saving or destroying Olympus.



Percy tells Chiron about the prophecy and the latter then tells him that he is the only living half-blood of the eldest gods, so the half-blood in the Prophecy may refer to Percy himself. Annabeth and Grover (Brandon T. Jackson) then find a way to save the tree as they learn about the Golden Fleece which has the power to heal almost anything and they then propose a quest to Mr. D, in which they retrieve the Fleece from Polyphemus' Lair in Circeland in the Sea of Monsters and use it to heal Thalia's tree. Mr. D then announces the quest, but chooses Clarisse to lead the quest instead, much to Annabeth's and Percy's dismay.

Percy then convinces Grover and Annabeth to accompany him on the quest, and Tyson joins them against Annabeth's wishes. However she gives him the Mist to help mask his facade.




Annabeth hails the Chariot of Damnation and Percy threatens the three drivers to tell him of his prophecy, causing them to give him a set of coordinates in the Sea of Monsters before ejecting the group from the cab in Washington D.C.

 


 \

reminiscent of Harry Potter's Knight Bus

While walking down the street, Grover is kidnapped by Chris Rodriguez and taken to Luke.

Meanwhile, Percy, Annabeth, and Tyson meet with Hermes (Nathan Fillion) and he gives them a thermos that releases the winds from the four corners of the earth, as well as a magical box sealer that, when taped around as a border, can make anything disappear.

 



 

The three ride a Hippocampus to Luke's yacht, The Andromeda, where they are captured and locked in the brig. Percy frees them with the box sealer and they escape after fighting through Luke's men and a Manticore, using the thermos to escape on the ship.

 







The group is consumed by Charybdis after Tyson loses the thermos, and they discover Clarisse in the monster's stomach, captaining an army zombies ship. Percy and Clarisse work together to escape Charybdis's gut, and after understanding the coordinates given by the taxi drivers, soon they arrive at Circeland, Polyphemus' lair, disguised in a theme park long abandoned.

 

 

Percy finds Grover and the five escape Polyphemus, retrieving the fleece and trapping him in his cave.

 
 

Afterwards, Luke arrives and demands the Fleece from Percy, who refuses. Luke shoots a crossbow bolt at Percy but Tyson takes the bolt in the chest before falling to the water below, much to Percy's shock.



Luke begins reviving Kronos as Percy laments over the loss of Tyson. Annabeth then encourages Percy to take leadership. The team then escapes captivity and a fight ensues. Percy grapples with Luke over the Fleece, but Luke easily gains the upper hand. Luke is suddenly thrown away by Tyson, revealed to have survived his wound, due to the water healing it, as he is Poseidon's son.



The group however watches in horror as Kronos rises from the sarcophagus. Kronos consumes Luke and Grover, before battling Percy.

Percy realizes that Riptide is the "cursed blade" of the prophecy, and slays Kronos with it, who regurgitates Grover and Luke, the latter landing in Polyphemus' Lair.

Their victory is short lived as Annabeth is stabbed from behind by the Manticore, who is later  killed in turn by Clarisse and Grover. Annabeth dies in Percy's arms, but is resurrected by the Fleece. Percy then gives the Fleece to Clarisse and they return to Camp Half-Blood.



Clarisse places the fleece on Thalia's tree with Annabeth protecting the tree over night and the campers rejoice.

Percy later settles down with Tyson, drinking nectar, as he encourages his brother to be okay about being a cyclops.

 

The group returns the next day to find Thalia (Paloma Kwiatkowski ) alive, as the Fleece healed Thalia too much and returned her to human form.



The film ends with Percy realizing that Thalia is a child of Zeus, and therefore is another possible child of the prophecy about either preserving or destroying Olympus. The last scene shows the sarcophagus with Kronos' remains in it glowing.



Anyhow, here's a bonus: Character Highlights.

Review:
It was really disappointing this sequel is :(

i really enjoyed the Lightning Thief, i thought it was fresh and entertaining. the sequel though had a few misses that compel me to rewatch it to really decipher what went wrong.

for starters, i wonder why is it Mr D is so horrid. it was akin to seeing Percy's stepfather all over again. the disregard, the neglect.. plus he's drinking on the job whilst caring for the kids. not good! he even had the temerity to ask "what do i miss?" after Percy successfully destroyed the Colchis Bull. i mean, hello! #gajibutabetul!

plus, they make it so easy to penetrate the camp's protection. last time it was Hades, this time Luke and a Colchis Bull. Aduihhh.. plus the fact that though the Greek gods were said to exist so long time before yet their demigods are portrayed to be teenagers and adolescent only? why ha? no grown up demigods to save the world from the Kronos kah?


in order to make more sense to my feelings about the movie, as i said, i watch it again. and it made me revise my rating. it was not THAT bad but rather disappointing.

for an example, the Oracle looks like an amateurish CGI done. i admit, the storytelling is done nicely but the Oracle get up.. disappointing!! i can't imagine the Oracle being chummy with the Chariot of Damnation's drivers. and that Chariot is too much imitative of Harry Potter's Knight Bus, which rather ruins the effect. hurmm.

many aspects of this movie don't add up:

• the title is Sea of Monsters. yet the only monstrous entity in its rightful sense is Charybdis alone. and that creature is to be a sorry excuse for the disappearances of ships and such in the Bermuda Triangle? no sirreee! i mean, Percy and his friends got away by just blasting the canons towards it's stomach and poof! yay! we're saved! argghhh! and pray tell, how does Charybdis manage to ensnare flying aeroplanes? #lawyered

• why must Luke kidnap Grevor only to abandon him in the Polyphemus' lair? why didn't they just bundle up Percy and the rest of the gang to the lair and get it done with? plus, Luke is so resourceful that he can retrieve Kronos' sarcophagus yet he stops short of retrieving the golden Fleece? plus there are so many satyrs in the world, why must Luke pick Grover?  i couldn't brain that!

• plus Polyphemus seems so tame. is he short-sighted as well? Medusa in the last movie is at least frightening and fierce. i mean, Luke could have get away with the Fleece easily!

Clarisse is annoying. brash even. a bully. her in-your-face treatment of Percy only serves to betray her jealousy and insecurity. why? over-acting much? :snigger:

and Annabeth's role, along with her hair color seems to water down in this sequel. she looks prettier nevertheless, yet i couldn't help wishing she has at least more meatier role in this one, at least a close equal to Clarisse. does hanging out with Percy tames her attributes handed down from Athena? or was it because she finally met her goddess of a mother last time, her angst is cured?

Percy is the only redeeming factor. he is naturally good at heart. the way he gave the Fleece to Clarisse as it was her Quest, not his, simply shows how genuinely nice he really is. he's not looking for a name, yet he was constantly bullied, as if his ability to find Zeus' lightning means nothing to his people. why is that?

btw, i still couldn't understand how Tyson could become a Cyclops that is almost human-like? where did he get that human genetics? Poseidon, as you know, is a Greek god whilst Tyson's mother is a water nymph. how did Tyson's get to be a Cyclops from genetics make-up like that?

favoritism much?

Plus, there's no explanation given as to why Poseidon ignores Percy whilst he does answer Tyson? surely Poseidon should have learned his lesson in the last installment, ignore not your children. but then he's a descendant of Kronos who ate his children and whatnots. doing what Poseidon did would have been an improvement, comparatively, i guess.

which proves my earlier point in my review of Clash of the Titans, as such:

"i disapproved the term "gods" used to refer to Zeus and his lot. they're obviously NOT. with human failings and limited powers, well, they are merely deities. plus, if Zeus is so powerful, why must he delegates the dirty job to Hades, who obviously has a bone to pick with his fellow brothers and other Olympians who reside on top of the Mount Olympus while he was supposed to be the king of the misery-fermented Underworld?"  

i think the best way to describe them is Olympians. for they are created, Kronos is no god, his sons are far from god-like. to me, God is explained in its simplest sense in this verse:



think about it. God is Supreme, Powerful. He is without fault, perfection in every sense. He does not die nor His power diminishes. He is the Creator and nothing creates Him.