Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters

Story

Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters is the sequel to Percy Jackson: The Lightning Thief, featuring the adventures of half-human demigod Percy Jackson (Logan Lerman).

Set seven years after The Lightning Thief, Sea of Monsters begins with Percy at Camp Half-Blood, a training camp for demigods. Here Percy is hard at work, along with his Cyclops half-brother, Tyson (Douglas Smith), close friend Annabeth (Alexandra Daddario) and a satyr named Grover (Brandon T. Jackson). The camp has a protective barrier created by a magical tree that sprouted from the body of a dying demigod named Thalia. Without warning, a fire-breathing mechanical bull breaks through the barrier and attacks Percy and his friends. Although they manage to destroy the mechanical bull, the magical tree has been poisoned and is dying, leaving the camp open to attack.

The Thalia tree can be bought back to good health with the magical healing properties of the legendary Golden Fleece. Unfortunately the Fleece is guarded by a giant Cyclops on a remote island in the Sea of Monsters, so Percy and his friends must go on a quest to get it. Along the way, Percy meets his old nemesis, demigod Luke Castellan (Jake Abel), who wants the Fleece to revive a dead Titan named Kronos.

Themes

Greek mythology; the supernatural

Violence

Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters has fantasy action violence throughout, including stylised fighting. There isn’t much blood and gore, but the movie does show the deaths of a couple of lead characters (who later reappear). For example:

Several giant Cyclopes chase some young teenagers through a forest. A girl is trapped under a fallen tree branch, and she dies. A second young girl uses a knife to fight off a Cyclops, and a boy is hurled through the air before crashing into a tree.
A giant mechanical bull attacks the teenage inhabitants of Camp Half-Blood. It uses its horns to throw several teenagers through the air and onto the ground. There is some blood on their faces. The bull breathes fire from its mouth, burning a building and the ground as it tries to burn a boy. A boy is engulfed in flames for several seconds, but he isn’t hurt. A boy attacks the bull, slashing and stabbing at it with a spear and sword and eventually making the bull explode in flames and smoke. The explosion hurls the boy through the air, but he isn’t hurt.
A giant rat-like creature with a clawed scorpion tail stabs a teenage girl in the back, killing her. In a later scene she’s bought back to life. Percy and his friends attack the creature with swords and spears and cut off its tail. The creature turns to stone.
In one scary scene several teenagers trapped inside a sea monster’s stomach look like they’re about to die in a giant opening full of teeth that crunch up everything that goes through. The teenagers escape by using the cannons of an old Confederate navy ship to blast a hole in the side of the creature’s stomach, eventually surviving unhurt.
Four teenagers at an amusement park on a magical island go on a perilous ride called the Plummet of Death. The scene shows lots of skeletal remains and human-like skulls on spikes, although the skulls have horns coming out of their foreheads. At the end of the ride the teenagers encounter a giant Cyclops, which chases them, trying to capture and eat them. The Cyclops threatens to eat them raw. The Cyclops tries to stomp on the teenagers and hits two of them, sending them flying through the air. They land hard against a cave wall with blood on their faces.
Several evil teenagers firing crossbows confront four main characters. One boy tries to protect his brother by jumping into the path of a crossbow bolt and gets hit in the abdomen. No blood is shown, but the boy falls backwards off a cliff into a river below and disappears. Later he reappears unhurt.
The Golden Fleece is placed over a coffin containing the remains of the evil Titan Kronos. The coffin burns away to reveal molten rocks that transform into Kronos. Kronos immediately picks up and eats whole a boy and a satyr. Percy Jackson fghts Kronos, using a magic sword to slash Kronos from throat to groin. Kronos falls apart like an avalanche of molten rock and changes into blue light that gets sucked back into the coffin. As Kronos disintegrates, the two boys previously eaten by him reappear unhurt.

Content that may disturb children

Under 5

In addition to the violent scenes mentioned above, Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters has some scenes that could scare or disturb children under five years. For example:

The movie shows images of giant Cyclopes, which have one large eye in the centre of their foreheads. The Cyclopes are violent and threatening. One Cyclops has numerous facial tattoos and a belt of human skulls tied around his waist.
After a young girl is killed, she magically transforms. Tree branches sprout from her abdomen, and tree roots cover most of her body. By the end of her transformation, the girl’s body has a petrified appearance and is mostly embedded in the root system of a massive tree. She is magically brought back to life at the end of the movie.
The movie shows mythical creatures including satyrs; centaurs; ancient mummified women with glowing red eyes; shadowy wolf-like and lion-like creatures; women with a zombie-like appearance, blue coloured faces and burnt-out eye sockets; a male character with eight arms; a giant sea serpent; and a giant rat with large sharp teeth and a snapping scorpion-like clawed tail.
Three teenagers on a raft in the middle of the ocean are surrounded by what appears to be hundreds of shark fins. The fins change into the teeth and throat of a giant sea monster, and the teenagers and raft are sucked into the monster’s stomach. Inside the creature’s stomach are the remains of human bones and wreckage. The teenagers also find an old ship crewed by comical, blue-faced zombies with red glowing eyes. In another section of the stomach is a giant opening surrounded by hundreds of large fangs that crunch any object that passes through.

From 5-8

Children in this age group are also likely to be disturbed by some of the violent and scary scenes mentioned above.

From 8-13

Children in this age group might also be disturbed by some of the scenes mentioned above.

Over 13

This movie should be OK for children in this age group.

Sexual references

Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters has some sexual references. For example, there is a brief low-level discussion about the different types of descendants that come from gods who have children with humans and other mythical creatures.

Alcohol, drugs and other substances

Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters shows some use of substances. For example:

In a couple of scenes a man pours wine into a glass. The wine immediately turns into water. The man doesn’t drink any alcohol.
In a coffee shop a teenage boy orders a glass of magic nectar. There’s a suggestion that the nectar might have an intoxicating effect. No teenager seems to get intoxicated from drinking the nectar.

Nudity and sexual activity

There is some low-level sexual activity in Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters. For example, a teenage boy and girl flirt.

Product placement

None of concern

Coarse language

Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters has some low-level coarse language throughout.

Ideas to discuss with your children

Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters is a fantasy adventure targeting younger teenagers. Although younger teenagers will probably find the movie entertaining, older teenagers and adults might feel that it doesn’t have much of a storyline. Also there are no standout performances.

The movie has medium-level fantasy action violence throughout, although it doesn’t show much blood and gore. There are scary visual images and characters likely to disturb children under 10 years as well as some older children. For these reasons, the movie isn’t recommended for children under 10 years, and we also recommend parental guidance for children aged 10-13 years.

These are main messages from this movie:

People who have power are concerned only about their own needs.
Family and friends are important.
Be yourself – never doubt yourself or think you are less than you are.
We make our own destiny.

This movie could also give you the chance to talk about the real-life consequences of risk-taking. You could compare real life to what happens in the movie, where leading characters come back to life after being killed.