REVIEW SUNDAY
sundayterritorian.com.au
Movies
VERDICT: THIS IS THEM . . . KIND OF
More fun
as Percy
fizzes up
PERCY JACKSON : SEA OF
MONSTERS
106 minutes (PG)
Director: Thor Freudenthal
(Diary of a Wimpy Kid)
Starring: Logan Lerman,
Alexandra Daddario, Brandon T.
Jackson, Leven Rambin, Douglas
Smith
Reviewer: Leigh Paatsch
★★★
THE first Percy Jackson
movie back in 2010 was very
nearly the last.
Though young Percy certainly had a legion of followers courtesy of his epic
exploits on the printed page,
the fanbase didn’t quite
come out in full force for his
big-screen debut.
Put simply, this oh-somodern teenage son of an
ancient Greek god seemed
like too much of a homebrand Harry Potter for his
own good.
As played by Logan Lerman — now 21 years of age
and looking a little too
old to be a demigod still in
high school — Percy remains as blandly charismachallenged as ever.
However, the second set of
adventures ripped from the
books of best-selling author
Rick Riordan offers far
more fun and frivolous fizz
than before.
Director Thor Freudenthal ( Hotel for Dogs ) has a
made a conscious decision
to lighten the tone of proceedings this time around.
All that adolescent angst
once directed at the immortal power brokers of
Mount Olympus is now
channelled into a simple
rescue-and-retrieve mission
located in the centre of the
Bermuda Triangle.
It is here that Percy, together with close friends
Annabeth (Alexandra Daddario) and Grover (Brandon
T. Jackson), bitter rival
Clarisse (Levin Rambin)
and his long-lost one-eyed
brother Tyson (new franchise recruit Douglas
Smith), must locate the
whereabouts of the fabled
Golden Fleece before, you
know, all hell breaks loose
and stuff.
Caring intently about
what will happen is never a
factor here.
In fact, the supposed serious moments prove to be the
film’s most disposable.
What does remain in the
memory is a nimble sense of
humour and some randomly
impressive special-effects.
ONE DIRECTION : THIS IS US
92 minutes (PG)
Director: Morgan Spurlock
(Super-Size Me)
Starring: Harry Styles, Zayn
Malik, Niall Horan, Liam Payne,
Louis Tomlinson
Reviewer: Leigh Paatsch
★★
YOU think it’s tough living
your life in a boy-band? Then
try living it as a boy-brand.
So goes the sole lesson to be
learned from One Direction:
This is Us, a piffling concert
doco about five young men
who have temporarily harnessed the power to make
many millions of young
women scream.
Filmed during the final
phase of a punishing global
touring schedule that only
wrapped a few months ago,
This is Us hosts a predictably
sanitised celebration of One
Direction’s extraordinary
success to date.
You want deep and meaningful insights into life as it is
lived at the eye of the One Direction hurricane?
Not gonna happen.
You want the lads gabbing
about how much they owe it
all to their mums, their dads
and their fans?
Would you mind ever so
much if they took their shirts
off every now and then?
How about a peek inside
the bedrooms where they
used to sleep as kids? Or a
front-row seat for the zany
backstage antics of the boys?
Harry Styles, Louis Tomlinson, Zayn Malik, Niall Horan and Liam Payne star in One Direction:This Is Us
Perhaps some bonus thanking of fans?
Is gonna happen.
It would be unfair to deride
This is Us too much, as its
only job is to preach to the
pre-converted.
The maths have already
been done. If one in ten One
Direction fans worldwide
shell out for a ticket to the
movie — which is in 3D in
most cinemas — then it really
doesn’t matter if the half-
believers or the haters don’t
show up.
The
live-on-stage
sequences happen along every
five or ten minutes, and are
more about generating gyrating close-ups of each individual member than showcasing
the music.
In fact, what becomes apparent very quickly is that
One Direction seem oddly
disconnected from their
songs on both a creative and
and jaded in This is Us.
However, there is a genuine camaraderie amongst the
group that director Morgan
Spurlock (playing it inexplicably straight here) is always ready to capture.
You wouldn’t call it friendship, but there is definitely a
shared bond there that has allowed One Direction to keep
sight of where they’ve come
from during their meteoric
rise to fame.
personal level. Each number
is just another verse-chorusverse job that must be done.
Pop music has always been
an assembly-line business,
particularly in the field that
One Direction has conquered. The trick is making it
not look like the repetitive,
mundane work it actually is.
After such a long shift on
the road and in the spotlight,
One Direction understandably come off as a touch tired
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PERCY JACKSON:
SEA OF MONSTERS (PG) ● ▲
SUN - WED
4.30 PM
6.40PM
ONE DIRECTION: THIS IS US (PG) ● ▲
12.35, 2.40, 7.00PM
10.30, 4.45, 9.05PM
CITY
2D CC AD SUN - WED
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TUE 3.45, 6.30, 9.15PM
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RIDDICK (MA15+) ✚
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1.30, 3.45, 6.30, 9.00PM
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WED
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WE’RE THE MILLERS (MA15+)
WHITE HOUSE DOWN (M) CC AD
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THE SMURFS 2 (G) ● ▲
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2D WED 10.00, 12.10, 2.20, 6.40PM
3D SUN - WED
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9.30 PM
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3D SUN - WED
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TURBO (G) ● ▲ 3D
RIPD (M)
NOW SHOWING
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RED 2 (M) SUN - WED 9.30 PM
SUN
PUB:
Logan Lerman in Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters
Boy band flick a real
scream for fanatics
WSNENT
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GE:
22-S
TE:
R:
LOK
MDA
Y
C
RIDDICK (MA15+) ✚
SUN - WED
1.30, 4.00, 6.30, 9.00PM
THE BEST OFFER (M)
SUN - WED
1.00PM
WHITE HOUSE DOWN (M)
SUN - WED
10.15, 3.45, 6.30, 9.15PM
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Sunday, September 22, 2013. Sunday Territorian.
41