Gods! Thrills are few in Percy sequel

PERCY JACKSON: SEA OF MONSTERS (PG 13)

Adventure/106 minutes

Rating: 2/5

Packed with action, this movie is the second film adaptation of a best-selling series of kid-lit novels.

A fan of the books myself, I had been psyched about 2010's The Lightning Thief. But the origins story, where Percy Jackson learnt that he's the result of a liaison between his human mother and Poseidon, the Greek god of the sea, was rather tepid.

In Sea Of Monsters, Percy (Logan Lerman reprising his role) embarks on a quest for the Golden Fleece.

He and his friends - Annabeth Chase (Alexandra Daddario), daughter of Athena, and satyr Grover Underwood (Brandon Jackson) - are at Camp Half Blood, a sort of summer camp for the love children of gods and goddesses.

There, Percy struggles with his daddy issues and is bested by other kids at trials (rather reminiscent of a certain boy wizard, no?). He also discovers that he has a cyclops half-brother (Douglas Smith).

When the camp comes under threat, the group realises that the Fleece is needed to save it and they must travel to the Sea of Monsters to find it.

They also have to outwit Percy's nemesis, Luke Castallan (Jake Abel), son of Hermes, who is also after the Fleece.

Director Thor Freudenthal (Diary Of A Wimpy Kid) packs in explosions a-plenty and some pretty impressive 3-D effects.

But the young cast, with the exception of Lerman, was less than stellar. Daddario, in particular, was rather wooden and lacklustre throughout.

In the end, one would probably leave the cinema thinking that this is a poor man's Harry Potter.

myp@sph.com.sg

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