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Recent releases:


• That They May Face the Rising Sun
• Jericho Ridge
• Civil War
• Mothers' Instinct
• Sweet East, The
• Ghost Busters: Frozen Empire
• Immaculate
• Roaring Twenties, The (reissue)
• Soul
• Dune: part two
• American Star
• Dune: Part 1 (reissue)
• Jerry & Marge Go Large
• Argylle
• Forever Young
• Jackdaw
• All of Us Strangers
• Holdovers, The
• Mean Girls
• Poor Things

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Complete A-Z list

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Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters (3D) (AF)

Stars: Logan Lerman, Brandon T Jackson, Alexandra Daddario, Jake Abel, Douglas Smith, Leven Rambin, Nathan Fillion, Anthony Stewart Head, Stanley Tucci, Mary Birdsong, Yvette Nicole Brown, Missi Pyle, Paloma Kwiatkowski

Director: Thor Freudenthal

Now that Harry Potter has finally vanished from our screens (unless, of course, someone gets around to remaking 1988’s Troll) fantasy-seeking young moviegoers have been deprived of a heroic teenage wizard.

Which is a good enough reason to welcome this reasonable if uninspired sequel which should find an audience among easily entertained youngsters.

Logan Lerman’s return as the eponymous son of Poseidon demigod Percy Jackson in a movie that, unlike Harry Potter, isn’t packed with retirement-age British character actors, provides young fantasy-adventure fans with a good helping of action, special effects monsters and forgettable dialogue.

Percy and his fellow demigods are enjoying a break in their forest haven, Camp Half-Blood when he has to deal with a massive metallic bull that breaks into the camp and runs riot. This break in the camp’s magical borders is the catalyst for Percy and pals to embark on a quest to find the fabled Golden Fleece, which will serve to save Camp Half-Blood, a search that faces them with more monstrous beings in the Sea of Monsters (better known to mere humans as the Bermuda Triangle).

Director Thor Freudenthal deploys effective enough special effects to good action effect and attempts, effectively enough for purpose, to flesh out the by-numbers (but happily devoid of Harry Potter twee-ness) screenplay. The human actors, as you would expect, are thoroughly out-acted by the made-by-movie-magic creations

And spare a kind thought for Lerman’s half brother who is a single-eyed Cyclops and therefore unable to appreciate the 3D cinematography.

Alan Frank

USA 2013. UK Distributor: 20th Century Fox (Fox 2000). Colour by deluxe.
106 minutes. Widescreen. UK certificate: PG.

Guidance ratings (out of 3): Sex/nudity 0, Violence/Horror 2, Drugs 0, Swearing 0.

Review date: 09 Aug 2013