Sea of Monsters to Sea of Errors

When teens think action, their minds roll right on over to the flashing Hollywood sign of the movie world; however, is action alone enough to suffice an hour’s worth of content? Not likely. Half the time a movie is classified as action, for its exaggerated stunts and dangerous acts, but when it comes to plot, it’s all adventure. Like peas in a pod, very rarely can one genre exist without the other, mainly adventure and action genres.

So why then is this genre popular with teens and young adults worldwide? Simple, adventure/action movies excite the mind into a fantasied reality, where problems of the present are put on hold, even if it’s only for an hour. If put up on a scale of one to ten, the Adventure/Action genre would hold at least the third or fourth slot. Why? Well other than romantic classics and Sci-Fi fantasies, an adventure/action movie combination is sound. It makes sense if you were to put it up against the targeted audiences’ mindset: teenagers. The action part is targeting stress and problematic complications of a teen’s mind, and literally lighting it up with explosions, as if to symbolize the raging emotions on a daily basis. When it comes to adventure it’s all based on the wants and needs of a teenager’s mind. In an adventure movie, a teen can picture themselves as a courageous hero and saving the kingdom, or feel the freedom in strategically placed lines within the film, in which they can relate.

In the movie world, digital effects and green screen brought to life, what one could only imagine from a book’s perspective, and made it reality. Many movies actually fall into the adventure/action genre, even past time favorites. Take the movie, Annie, for example, a classic staged in the late 1930s, but was brought to film in 1982. The entire movie is knee-deep in plot fixations; filled with backstories, present troubles, and futuristic foreshadowing, the dawn of an adventure themed plot. On the other hand, this is Hollywood, so it wouldn’t be quite complete without a few minor fist fight scenes, and, oh—of course—a thrill seeking helicopter rescue scene, where the main protagonist either falls into her captivators clutches or trusts to be saved by the people on the helicopter. This same Hollywood Production, falls among the line of modern day movies, though today, CGI now helps to further engulf the minds of its young audience into a higher thrill seeking escapade.

However, some movies with this excellent combination hit snags because of where they originated from. I’m referring to adventure/action movies based of a book series, and unfortunately, Percy Jackson and the Sea of Monsters, falls into the category. While the struggle with the first movie left some apprehension with fans of the Percy Jackson series, this second movie was followed by a raging wildfire by many angry fans of the series. I can even express such resentment toward the second movie mainly because of the nonsense that occurred in many of the movie’s scenes. While minor errors were fixed from the first movie, including character appearances, the rest basically fell apart. It’s unbelievable to think how the movie companies complain about low budget but then add unnecessary scenes which is exactly what happened with the Sea of Monsters; consequently, many book scenes from other books of the Percy Jackson series showed up in the second movie, so there’s absolutely no hope for future movies touching the Percy Jackson Series. The truth about this film really was the fact that it was a complete bust for loyal fans of the Percy Jackson book series, yet for those not unfamiliar to the series, the Sea of Monsters can be, and is an action packed adventure that the whole family can enjoy.