Movie Review - Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters (2013)

Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters is the sequel to 2010's Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Lightning Thief, both based on books from a wildly popular YA fiction series penned by Rick Riordan. This film has rather unfortunate ratings: 5.7/10 on IMDb, 42% on Rotten Tomatoes, and a paltry 39% on Metacritic. These are well-deserved, because as we know, the success of a book may not guarantee the success of a movie. And boy, did they take an appealing concept, likable characters and great special effects and completely ruin it with a script that stank.

I don't want to give spoilers, here, so I will try to be kind of vague, although I will state unequivocally that I would not recommend watching this movie. It's 106 minutes of your life that you can't get back; I'm just saying.

Throughout the entire movie, characters who are supposedly on an urgent quest to save not only the world in general, but the life of a very special individual in particular, show no sense of urgency in getting there. They stop to ask questions or get backstory when they could be actually moving right along while doing that. In one particularly urgent case, Percy stops to have a bonding moment when he could be quickly sprinting the last ten feet or so to prevent something that could destroy the world.

At other times, characters seem ridiculously oblivious: When Percy is pursued by a threat to the demigod kids' camp, he faces it down alone, even though everyone in camp could (and should) be rushing to his aid. After all, they're all demigods and should be well-qualified to assist him.  Indeed, when he returns to camp, no one even asks him what happened! 

There are plenty of other complete lapses in judgment and utterly stunning flubs: One character asks for help catching the bad guy's yacht while Percy seems helpless and hopeless, and yet soon after, we see that he had more than enough personal power to do that on his own. And an island and a whirlpool that were firmly established in the waters around ancient Greece show up in the Bermuda Triangle, of all places. Yikes!

The whole thing is just a mess. The producers who approved Marc Guggenheim's plothole-ridden screenplay should be slapped twice, and director Thor Freudenthal, who stuck with it instead of spotting the obvious inconsistencies, should be sent to bed without supper. It's mortifying, and I'm sure Rick Riordan can't be too pleased. The movie clearly sets up another installment to follow, but this sequel was such a wild mess that no more movies have been made. The popularity of the books remain, though, and there have since been some shorts, an animated, feature, and a miniseries. Apparently, a TV series is in production and planned for release in 2024. Let's hope it doesn't insult our intelligence like Sea of Monsters, which would be better off sinking back under the surface without a trace. 

Here are some reviews of things I didn't hate:

https://bucketofuseful.blogspot.com/2016/04/review-of-kaiser-chiefs-cd-yours-truly.html

https://bucketofuseful.blogspot.com/2020/02/my-review-of-beyond-thickburger-from.html

https://bucketofuseful.blogspot.com/2022/02/review-of-historian-by-elizabeth-kostova.html

Image Credit: https://www.pexels.com/photo/underwater-photo-of-bubbles-15537421/

What is SEO, and How Can It Help Me Earn Money?

If you have your own website or work as an online content producer who earns money for page views, you understand that the money part is all about website traffic, or how many people visit and view the content (and, therefore, the ads). On some content production sites, writers can get some income from socializing with each other and earn money that way, but the real money is in outside traffic. There are already millions, if not billions, of internet users out there from whom you can draw views, if you know the secrets of SEO to increase your traffic.

Just What is SEO, Exactly?

SEO stands for "search engine optimization". It refers specifically to how easy your website is to find by using a search engine like Google or Bing. Search engine optimization relies on the use of various techniques, including the use of keywords, which are words that are likely to be entered into the search engine by the person who is looking for information. 

For example, a person who is planning to travel to Mexico for the first time and wants to make sure they book a decent hotel sight unseen may enter the following search criteria: "hotel reviews Guadalajara Mexico". If your website features reviews of hotels in Guadalajara, you will want to feature those keywords prominently enough for the search engine to bring your website up near the top of the search results.

How Does SEO Benefit Me?

As you can imagine, there are a lot of websites out there fighting for real estate on the search results pages. Some popular terms can bring up literally millions of hits on Google, and potential customers certainly won't waste their time checking more than the first page or two of results. The use of SEO practices can increase your visibility and thereby your traffic. Even your website's URL can influence how easily potential business can find you.

Image credit: https://www.pexels.com/photo/person-holding-100-us-dollar-banknotes-2068975/