One Minute Movie Review: Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters

Based off of the book series which I never intend on reading, the first installment was a good little flick, heavy on the FX, light on the acting, but somewhat interesting as a definitive tween focused take on the mythology.    So I didn't expect much out of the sequel.   This time out director, Thor Freudenthal, know for such blockbuster hits as Diary of a Wimpy Kid and Hotel for Dogs (sarcasm alert), tries his hand at the franchise.  To keep it simple, this is a kids' film by all accounts just with a bit more maturity and severely overloaded with CGI.  The plot is intriguing and, again, the modernized take on the Greek legends is engaging even for the anyone above twelve year old demographic.   However, the performances do not rise to the occasion actually feeling quite stale to the point where even the actors seem bored in and with most of their scenes.   High energy from the cast is absolutely required in these type of flicks in order to capture this generations' gnat like attention spans and that is immediately absent here.     It is a shame, if the cast would have stepped it up, with all the remaining factors in place, this might have been a fairly cool film.  2 out of 5 Kernels: doesn't quite descend to the level of Hades, but still barely scratches the surface of its potential.