Trailer Reviews - Percy Jackson and the Sea of Monsters

I've mentioned before on this very blog that I'm a huge fan of Rick Riordan's various mythology-inspired fantasy series, the Greek ones in particular. Of all of the fictional properties that I invest time in, his two Greek series, Percy Jackson and the Olympians and The Heroes of Olympus are close to the top of my list, and Percy Jackson is probably my favorite fictional hero. So like many fans of Mr. Riordan's work, I was sorely disappointed by the first attempt to adapt the Percy Jackson series into a film. Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief, the adaptation of Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief, written and directed by my least favorite director aside from Michael Bay, Chris Columbus, was a failure on almost every account, and for good reason. Don't get me wrong, from a technical standpoint the movie was pretty good, and the acting was good from every actor who actually took the job seriously, but the directing was choppy, the movie was filled with gratuitous celebrity cameos, and large portions of the plot were changed either to transform the movie into a standard action movie, or to blatantly replace the Greek mythological imagery with more recognized Christian imagery. It was barely even fantasy by the time it made it to theaters. The characters were cast older than they were in the book (though I can't complain about that much as Logan Lerman looks and sounds exactly as I'd picture Percy Jackson), and some characters, the way they were written and directed, barely resembled their book counterparts at all (I'm looking at you Annabeth). Clues and references to the overreaching plot of the series and important recurring characters were omitted completely. The crew went for what was easy: sex jokes, pop culture, CGI action, and familiarity, and it just didn't do the amazing book any due justice.

See what I mean? That's a long list.

The writing in the first movie was so bad that it seemed likely that if there was a sequel it would be even less recognizable as a Percy Jackson and the Olympians story than the first. I consider myself an expert at filling plot holes, and I had no idea how they could fix the franchise after this movie. I was devastated, and yet I still desperately wanted to see Percy on the big screen done well, so I decided that, if a sequel was greenlit, and as long as Chris Bane-of-My-Existence Columbus wasn't involved, that I'd keep an open mind. For awhile it seemed that the sequel was coming, but then it seemed that it wasn't as Chris had left (huzzah!) and they needed writers, so I stopped paying attention. Then, just recently, I decided on a whim to take another look and discovered that the movie was under production. After digging some more it became clear that the new writer, Marc Guggenheim, was backpedalling and fixing as many mistakes as he could. Important characters missing from the first movie were to be introduced, characters who were gratuitously cast were recast properly, and that overreaching story that I mentioned had been ignored was to be introduced and followed. Once I read enough to avert the majority of my apprehension, I even made a video on my YouTube page asking fans of the books to give the movie franchise a second chance. I knew the movie was set for a 2013 release, and so I waited patiently for a trailer. It wasn't long before I got one, and it looked pretty good, but this was little more than a teaser trailer. I wanted a full trailer, and just this past week I finally got what I wanted.

Now understand something before you read this next part: I love all of the books in the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series. That being said, there is a certain blessing to having to set the series on track at the second installment, because of all of the books Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Sea of Monsters is the weakest. Don't get me wrong, it introduces some important characters and plot elements, and develops others, but it is almost a direct rehash of the Odyssey by Homer, with some Jason and the Argonauts thrown in for good measure. All of the books draw heavily from Greek myth, but this one is close to the original, and it's a story that many people already have some knowledge of. That makes this movie the perfect place to introduce those missing plot elements. Understanding this, when I saw the second trailer, the first story trailer, I was overjoyed. It looked like my high hopes for the movie were in fact justified. The setup in the movie is clearly quite a bit different than in the book, but that's just because they had to work with what Columbus left them. The trailer, which felt like a letter to the fans saying "hey, look, we're fixing it", showed right away that the characterizations had been improved, that the Greek mythological elements were being included, and that the story that the fans know and love was in fact going to be told. There are changes from the book, clearly, but they don't seem any more substantial than in other recent fantasy adaptations, including The Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter. The trailer even confirmed that the movie has Nathan Fillion in it. Nathan Freakin Fillion!

Am I 100% confident that this movie will be great, that it'll set the movie franchise back on track? No, I can't be, because the movie isn't out yet and I therefor haven't seen it. However, based on the trailer, I've gotta say my hopes are certainly rising, and my recommendation regarding this movie remains the same as in my video: fans of the series need to give this movie a chance. If this movie is good, and yet the fans ignore it, there's a chance that it'll kill the film franchise dead, and I don't think that's something that the fans want to happen. I certainly don't. Of course my opinion isn't the end all be all. Check the trailer out and see what you think.