Review: Percy Jackson: Sea Of Monsters

I'm starting this review off with a very important note that you should all keep in mind while reading this review, I'm extremely biased. Now that we got that little piece of information out of the way, let's get on with the review...

I FUCKING LOVE PERCY JACKSON!!!! I started reading the books around the time the first one was coming into theatres although I didn't have it done when it was in theatres so I skipped it, or at least until it was on DVD. When I did finally watch it I did enjoy the movie very much, despite the fact that they changed so much for the movie, and I don't mean subtle little differences that Harry Potter fans whine about "That's not how Harry met so and so" and "This part was before that part" in the first one they changed the villain altogether!! The next paragraph is going to contain spoilers from the first movie and the first book so if you don't want to read them skip it.

In the first book the fact that Luke was setting up Percy to be killed was a big cliffhanger at the end of the book when he tries to kill him with a scorpion in the battle arena it is only then revealed that Luke had been using Ares (God of war who Percy actually battles once he leaves the underworld. Now I know it's easy to make Hades the villain since general movie going crowds already know Hades is bad from everything else so they don't have to know anything more about the villain. But my favourite parts of the first book is when Percy goes to talk to Hades and Hades says that he doesn't want the Olympians to fight that he was sent down here as punishment and he would be upset if war broke out among his siblings. It makes you feel BAD for Hades, a feeling that most Greek mythology books does not, so rather than having a big reveal at the end of movie 1, which could possible increase interest in movie 2 since the audience would feel betrayed by Luke just as Percy and friends were since we would know him as a good guy instead of seeing him in about 10 minutes of screen time, half of which he is complaining about his dad so we don't actually end up liking him before we are told he's bad.

Okay spoilers done, but as I am, I'm able to separate books from movies. I was able to enjoy both, do I think the movie could have been better? Of course. But that didn't change the fact it was still a really good film. The 2nd movie did a complete 180 and was much more faithful to the book only changing a handful of things, which really weren't a big deal to me anyways.

In the spoiler section I talked about how the first film failed to cause excitement for future movies, the sea of monsters was an interesting stand alone story that you don't really need any background on to enjoy. All the while planting the seeds to show what's in store for future and more promising arcs.

Although Percy and the gang will undoubtedly be written off, unfairly might I add, as tween and teen centric dumb fun, but really in a summer that has been bogged down by dark and bad films. Percy breathes a breath of fresh air into movie theatres. Logan Lerman continues to lead the cast by being a believable Percy with off the chart combat skills but an equal amount of uncertainty about himself in his future. The production values are much better than the first with a better special effects to boot, although that's to be expected since they spend most of the first film in the United States whereas number 2 is heavily placed in the Sea of Monsters. Also I was surprised by the 3D... I was expecting no real 3D just put in 3D to have extra money to put towards the film, but it was actually kinda worth it and the only reason I say "kinda" is because I really don't think any 3D is worth the 3$ surcharge.

I give Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters 4 out of 5 demigods.

B.O. Preview: September 13th 2013

Hello all, and thank you for reading this first post in this new series I like to call Box Office preview, I'm your friendly neighbourhood Blogger-Man DonnyFTW so what should you see this weekend? Let's take a look:

This weekend we have 2 new nationwide releases, first up opening in +2,900 theatres is the 2nd chapter of horror franchise Insidious, which follows the haunted Lambert family as they seek to uncover the mysterious childhood secret that has left them dangerously connected to the spirit world. The first Insidious grossed a mere 13 million in it's opening weekend, which is very low for a supernatural horror film, though the movie did have surprisingly strong word of mouth which lead it to finish up it's run with a 54 million total. Couple the popularity of the first film with the heavy marketing push for chapter 2 and you should see an opening above $20 million, taking into account that director James Wan was responsible for the surprise hit of the summer in "The Conjuring" I wouldn't be surprised to see it push up to $30 million especially given the Friday the 13th opening. I think any less than the originals $54 million overall would be a disappointment for the film, though I expect a steep drop off after Friday and Saturday given that at this point everyone knows what to expect from Insidious and horror movies tend not to hold that well over time so the opening weekend will likely be responsible for 50% of the movie's total income.

The other new release is Luc Besson's "The Family" starring Robert DeNiro, now by this point we know DeNiro in gangster roles generally sell tickets, even though at this point in his career he's limited to playing ex-mafioso's given the fact that he is now 112 years old. The film is cleverly marketing this as "From Martin Scorsese" as he is producing to mask the fact that Besson is indeed directing and he's best known for doing "The Fifth Element" and a bunch of middling to no success movies highlighted by "The Professional" starring Jean Reno and Gary Oldman and "The Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc" starring Milla Jovovich and Dustin Hoffman in roles they'd rather forget I'm sure. So what is The Family even about? A mafia boss and his family are relocated to a sleepy town in France under the witness protection program after snitching on the mob. Despite the best efforts of Agent Stansfield (Tommy Lee Jones) to keep them in line, Fred Manzoni (Robert DeNiro), his wife Maggie (Michelle Pfeiffer) and their children Belle (Dianna Agron) and Warren (John D'Leo) can't help but revert to old habits and blow their cover by handling their problems the "family" way, enabling their former mafia cronies to track them down. Chaos ensues as old scores are settled in the unlikeliest of settings in this darkly funny film. Seems like an interesting enough storyline. I'd have to guess the floor for this movie is around 10 million although I expect something around Righteous Kill money, about 16 million. Though that was released in 2008, adjusted for today's theatre prices would be around 18 and a half million. Where as the ceiling would have to be Analyze This, adjusted for inflation would be just below 30 million, though it originally was a hair under 20 million in 1999. I can't see the latter happening but I foresee a little less than Righteous Kill... Then again, I seem to be guessing on the high end for The Family, but call me old fashioned, I love me some Tommy Lee Jones.


The wild card here might be Lee Daniels' "The Butler" who has been scoring some pretty nice green from the adult crowd thus far as they have been pretty much ignored since August began, now that there is another movie playing targeted at an older crowd it'll be interesting to see if The Butler continues to hold well, thus taking money away from The Family, or if it'll start it's descent down the top 10 ladder now that it has some competition.

Expect more sharp declines (50%+) from Elysium, One Direction: This Is Us, The World's End, The Mortal Instruments: City Of Bones, Getaway and You're Next. As well as you can expect Riddick to take a similar plunge than it's predecessor did on it's second weekend (60%+) especially considering the Horror/Sci-Fi club has been looking forward to Insidious 2. This Is The End is also expected to digress in a big way after Sony threw it back into theatres to collect some more money off the back of James Franco's Roast.

Movies that will have decent holds tend to be the ones that have a family appeal so continue to expect the likes of Planes, Percy Jackson: Sea Of Monsters and surprise August hit We're The Millers to lose about 40% of their grosses. Also expect to see Spanish sensation Instructions Not Included in the top 5 again as I suspect word of mouth will keep it strong and may even gain on last weeks box office this in it's 3rd week of release.

So here is how I imagine things shaking out:

1. Insidious Chapter 2 (30 million)
2. The Family (15 million)
3. Instructions Not Included (7.5 million)
4. Riddick (7 million)
5. The Butler (5.8 million)
6. We're The Millers (5.5 million)
7. Planes (3.9 million)
8. Elysium (2.5 million)
9. One Direction: This Is Us (2 million)
10. Percy Jackson: Sea Of Monsters (1.8 million)