December 15, 2013 -- This movie, also known as “Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Sea of Monsters” is the second in a planned three-film series based on a series of books by Rick Riordan.

The story concept is very similar to the Harry Potter films and the “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” TV series. Like those story lines, here, you have a youthful hero born with great power, and great responsibility too. Here, you also have a magical world which coexists with the world we know and is kept secret from us ordinary people by magical means. Anthony Head, who was a regular on “Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” also appears in this film as Chiron.

Percy Jackson (played by Logan Lerman of “The Perks of Being a Wallflower”) saved the world in the first film (“Percy Jackson & The Lightning Thief”) but he can't seem to get any respect from his fellow demigods at the training school. He is often teased by the Xena-like daughter of Ares Clarisse La Rue (Leven Rambin of “The Hunger Games”). His friends are a satyr, Grover Underwood (Brandon Jackson, reprising his role from the first film) and the daughter of Athena, Annabeth Chase (Alexandra Daddario, reprising her role from the first film).

In this film, he finds he has a half-brother, previously unknown to him, a Cyclops named Tyson (Douglas Smith of “Antiviral”). Jackson, Tyson, Clarisse and Grover embark on a quest for the golden fleece, located in the Bermuda Triangle. This involves a scary ride in a magical taxi which is a bit like the Knight Bus in Harry Potter. It also involves a stop at a UPS headquarters run by Hermes (Nathan Fillion of “Much Ado About Nothing”). There, they pick up information and magic stuff to help them on their quest. Fillion has a funny show business joke here referring to a cancelled series that he starred in, “Firefly,” which later became the basis for the movie “Serenity.”

The golden fleece is needed to save a magical tree, but it is also being sought by Luke Castellan (Jake Abel of “I am Number Four”) son of Hermes, who has an evil plan to release Kronos and destroy Olympus. Not content with just stopping Luke from getting his hands on the Golden Fleece, the movie goes for the big battle between Percy and Kronos. As you would expect, there are a lot of interesting special effects shots.

There is plenty of action, the acting is good and the story is good enough to get by. As Logan Lerman aptly demonstrated in “The Perks of Being a Wallflower” his acting ability is far greater than is required for this role. It is not a bad film. It is about like the first film in the series. The third film in the series is already in the works. This film rates a C+.

Click here for links to places to buy or rent this movie in digital formats, or to buy the soundtrack, posters, books, even used videos, games, electronics and lots of other stuff. I suggest you shop at least two of these places before buying anything. Prices seem to vary continuously. For more information on this film, click on this link to The Internet Movie Database. Type in the name of the movie in the search box and press enter. You will be able to find background information on the film, the actors, and links to much more information.

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