Everyone knows the “sequel curse”— the original movie is better than its predecessor.This is not the only curse movies fall prey to, however. Sometimes, the sequel doesn’t need to even happen. This can occur due to a number of factors. One would be that the original movie didn’t make enough money. Another is that the original didn’t need a sequel.An example of this would be “Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters.”
The original ruined the chance to make a sequel. The first movie, “Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief,” didn’t follow its source material and acted as if it was intended to be a solo film. Because the first movie made enough money (actually doubling the budget), the studio went ahead with the concept of a sequel by turning the next book of the series, “Sea of Monsters,” into a film.
At the end of the movie, “The Lightning Thief,” Luke, actor Jake Abel, is the son of Hermes and poisons the tree of Thalia, daughter of Zeus. This important plot point led to “The Sea of Monsters” where Percy, played by Logan Lerman, and friends set out on a hunt to find the Golden Fleece, which will recover the tree. In the end of “The Lightning Thief,” this part was entirely left out, thus leading to “The Sea of Monsters” having a massive hole to fill in order to stay true to the book.Though the film left large shoes to fill, it somehow managed to pick up the pace by intertwining the ending of the first movie to the beginning of the second. This fixed a problem the movie had but could not make up for the mistakes that occurred later in the film.
In the movie, Percy and his friends, Annabeth, Grover and Tyson (Percy’s half brother) go on a search throughout the Bermuda Triangle to find the Golden Fleece and Luke before he sets up his next evil plan. Clarisse, another camper at Camp Half-Blood, has already been granted a mission to do this herself, whereas Percy has not. As Grover is kidnapped by one of Luke’s men in the beginning, the others now have another thing to add to their endless list of “things-to-accomplish-before-we-run-out-of-our-budget.” After finding Luke on his yacht, the three are also captured by Luke and are held hostage. Once escaping, they find Grover in a lair, which surprisingly holds the Golden Fleece.
After taking the fleece, Luke arrives and wants the fleece as well. Because Percy will not budge, Luke shoots Tyson with a crossbow, which was intended for Percy. Next, a raging fight breaks out. As Luke gets possession of the fleece and intends to bring Kronos— who was the main villain in the previous installment— back to life, Tyson comes “back from the dead”—let us not forget this was a PG rated movie— and throws Luke to the side. However, he is too late and Kronos rises and attacks Percy.
Once the fight is over, Annabeth dies in Percy’s arms, but is later healed by the Golden Fleece. As the story comes to a close, Clarisse takes the fleece back to Camp Half-Blood and places it on Thalia’s tree. Later, Thalia is brought back to life which leads into the next part of the series.
This movie, after reading the book, turned out to be a disappointment as it did not serve its purpose. The flaws this film had were the same the first had. If you haven’t already read the books, you may feel as if this movie was a fun adventure. But for fans of the book series, you will find nothing more than a better chance to say, “the book was better than the movie.”