Today, I celebrated Percy's birthday by wearing a blue shirt, drawing a trident on my hand, and baking blue chocolate chip cookies!
What did you do to celebrate?
Aug 18, 2013
Aug 8, 2013
Sea of Monsters Movie Review (Spoiler-Free!)
This afternoon, I went to the movie theater to watch the Sea of Monsters with some of my best friends. Prior to going, I was reading feedback from various admins on Facebook, and the opinions were very mixed. I wasn't quite sure what to think or expect. And even now, after seeing it, I frankly still don't know what to say.
I think the trailers for the movie were somewhat misleading. It made it look like we were going to get a movie that, accuracy-wise, was 50 times better than The Lightning Thief adaptation. Sadly, such was not the case.
Without thinking of the book, I suppose it was good. One could say that I'm biased due to the fact that I have read the book, and most certainly loved it. The acting improved from the first movie, and the new actors were definitely refreshing. I'd like to give huge pats on the back to Stanley Tucci, Nathan Fillion, Douglas Smith, and Leven Rambin, who all made fabulous additions to the cast. Logan Lerman's narration was great. The cinematography was enjoyable, to say the least. Some scenes were super cool in how they were filmed, and others were mediocre. The movie was packed with thrill and action.
One thing that really bothered me was the pacing. I found it quite odd, and somewhat imbalanced . It spent too much time on some parts, and not enough on others. As the movie neared the end, it seemed sort of awkward -- it definitely could have used a few extra minutes, and/or two or three extra scenes.
Now, the part I'm sure you've all been waiting for: how it ranks as a book-to-movie adaptation!
My first problem with it, from the book-lover's standpoint, was the character interaction. Some characters just weren't interacting with each other properly, which could be linked to the change in how the characters met each other in the first place. Additionally, Percy's internal conflict at this point was completely different than it was in the book. Perhaps it was because of the age difference? Hades if I know.
Another mistake they made, yet again, was plot/occurrences. Yep. That's right. They messed it up again. The plot itself, on the outside, appeared to be the same, but Percy's motivation to go after the Fleece was slightly different. For me at least, I feel like internal conflict/feelings of characters/motives are a huge part of what makes me enjoy books and movies.
As I previously mentioned, the pacing was seriously messed up. There were plenty of scenes in the book which could have fit in very well with the movie that they simply didn't include. In my very humble and honest opinion, adding stuff that actually happened in the book to certain spots would have helped fix the timing issues.
A major problem I had with it was that they revealed things that really shouldn't have been revealed until about, hmm, two or three movies later? There are certain things in the book that were kept secret or unsaid for a reason. At this rate, they're either going to run out of surprises by The Last Olympian, or just have to start making them up.
Finally, the entire end, except for the last two minutes, of the movie was just... different. I could go on forever just WONDERING why they would even change something that they honestly didn't need to change.
I really hate to seem like a negative Nelly with this, but it seemed like this movie had so much potential to be a great book-to-movie adaptation! I guess I'll have to mention positive things now... I LOVED DIONYSUS! He had some genuinely funny and Dionysus-like lines, and he pulled them off very well. There were some things they changed that I actually found very clever, and the references to the book that it did include made me feel very fangirly inside, even though I wish that they would have included more of them.
One thing that really got me excited was all of the flashback scenes. Ahhh!! Little Annabeth, Grover, Thalia, and Luke were adorable and amazing. A++ to them. :)
I'll definitely include more positive things in my review with spoilers. It's hard to say what I did like about it without actually giving away a lot of the movie's content. I'd say it was more loyal to the book than the first movie was, but that could be just because it hasn't quite sunk in yet. As of now, I liked it better than The Lightning Thief. That may or may not change over time.
P.S. My review with spoilers should be up within the next 7 days or so.
My first problem with it, from the book-lover's standpoint, was the character interaction. Some characters just weren't interacting with each other properly, which could be linked to the change in how the characters met each other in the first place. Additionally, Percy's internal conflict at this point was completely different than it was in the book. Perhaps it was because of the age difference? Hades if I know.
Another mistake they made, yet again, was plot/occurrences. Yep. That's right. They messed it up again. The plot itself, on the outside, appeared to be the same, but Percy's motivation to go after the Fleece was slightly different. For me at least, I feel like internal conflict/feelings of characters/motives are a huge part of what makes me enjoy books and movies.
As I previously mentioned, the pacing was seriously messed up. There were plenty of scenes in the book which could have fit in very well with the movie that they simply didn't include. In my very humble and honest opinion, adding stuff that actually happened in the book to certain spots would have helped fix the timing issues.
A major problem I had with it was that they revealed things that really shouldn't have been revealed until about, hmm, two or three movies later? There are certain things in the book that were kept secret or unsaid for a reason. At this rate, they're either going to run out of surprises by The Last Olympian, or just have to start making them up.
Finally, the entire end, except for the last two minutes, of the movie was just... different. I could go on forever just WONDERING why they would even change something that they honestly didn't need to change.
I really hate to seem like a negative Nelly with this, but it seemed like this movie had so much potential to be a great book-to-movie adaptation! I guess I'll have to mention positive things now... I LOVED DIONYSUS! He had some genuinely funny and Dionysus-like lines, and he pulled them off very well. There were some things they changed that I actually found very clever, and the references to the book that it did include made me feel very fangirly inside, even though I wish that they would have included more of them.
One thing that really got me excited was all of the flashback scenes. Ahhh!! Little Annabeth, Grover, Thalia, and Luke were adorable and amazing. A++ to them. :)
I'll definitely include more positive things in my review with spoilers. It's hard to say what I did like about it without actually giving away a lot of the movie's content. I'd say it was more loyal to the book than the first movie was, but that could be just because it hasn't quite sunk in yet. As of now, I liked it better than The Lightning Thief. That may or may not change over time.
P.S. My review with spoilers should be up within the next 7 days or so.