Then there’s Anthony Head, best known for his work on Buffy the Vampire Slayer, who portrays Chiron, the activities director of Camp Half-Blood. Chiron is a Centaur and Head acts all natural as a character that is part human and part horse. While the special effects work on this character is impressive, it’s really Head who sells us on the character.
Nathan Fillion of Firefly fame also shows up as Hermes, the god of thieves, travelers and messengers, who hides out at a UPS store in the city. Of course, this UPS store has a door which automatically leads Hermes and our heroes to his base of operations which will provide them with all the things they need for battle, like a bottle containing winds from the four corners of the world. Fillion plays the role broadly and with a lot of humor, but I wonder if he might be playing this role a little too broadly? We’ll have to wait for the full film to see.
As for other actors returning to the Percy Jackson fold, Jake Abel is back as Hermes’ son, Luke Castellan, who was revealed to be the Lightning Thief in the last film. Luke still has a score to settle with Percy whom he says is “not the only half-blood who’s hard to kill.” During the last half of the footage, we see Luke trying to bring Percy over to his side, and one wonders just how tempted Percy will be by the offer..
There are some interesting effects shots in the first thirty minutes too, including a sea horse who takes our heroes across the ocean to a beautiful yacht where their foes are hiding out and a scene with what looks like a huge whirlpool that’s ready to suck Percy and his friends into another dimension. Finally, it looks like that ancient evil does get re-awakened despite Percy’s best efforts and it results in as many great, big explosions as can be allowed in a PG-rated movie.
While comparisons to the infinitely popular Harry Potter series are inevitable, the filmmakers look to have done their best to make Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters stand out on its own.
So far, I like what I’ve seen and I have no doubt that fans will have a lot to look forward to when the movie is released on August 7th, 2013. From these first thirty minutes, I have a feeling that we’re in for a very fun adventure with a sequel that looks like it could be a big hit at this Summer’s box office.
