THE GODS MUST BE CRAZY (PERCY JACKSON AND THE SEA MONSTER)

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Blame JK Rowling.

Ever since the Harry Potter franchise blasted onto our screens, Hollywood studios have desperately been trying to replicate its success.

Mark Waters' 2008 adaptation of Tony Di Terlizzi and Holly Black's fantasy novel 'The Spiderwick Chronicles' generated a decent, if unspectacular profit for Paramount Pictures.

Walden Media was more successful with its trilogy based on CS Lewis's Narnia books, producing two movies initially for Walt Disney and a third for 20th Century Fox.

And in recent days, Harvey Weinstein has announced plans for a movie based on Irish author Eoin Colfer's popular 'Artemis Fowl' series of adventure books.

Three years ago, 20th Century Fox turned to Rick Riordan's Percy Jackson series as the next cash cow and the director they chose to launch the franchise was the filmmaker who brought Harry Potter to the big screen, Chris Columbus.

The result was 'Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief', made on a budget of $95 million, it gave a contemporary twist on Ancient Greek mythology and starred the wide-eyed Logan Lerman as the demigod teen hero.

The movie began spectacularly with Sean Bean's Zeus and Kevin McKidd's Poseidon meeting on top of the Empire State Building.

Its starry cast saw Steve Coogan turn up as Hades, Ray Winstone as Ares, Uma Thurman as Medusa, Rosario Dawson as Persephone, Catherine Keener as Percy's mum and Pierce Brosnan as Chiron, a centaur. 

But while the visual effects were impressive enough to net the movie $226 million in international box office, the movie itself felt like a half hearted attempt by Columbus to recapture old glories.

Sensing Percy Jackson could be lucrative, 20th Century Fox has now returned with a sequel, 'Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters' in the hope that it will work its magic this summer with teenagers and would-be teens.

Columbus has wisely passed on directorial duties this time to the German filmmaker, Thor Freudenthal, who gave us the comedies, 'Hotel for Dogs' and 'Diary of A Wimpy Kid'.

This time, the movie has a less starry cast, with Stanley Tucci as Dionysus and Anthony Head (of 'Buffy, the Vampire Slayer' fame) probably the best known cast members.

Head replaces Brosnan as the centaur, Chiron, while Tucci mugs shamelessly for the camera.

'Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters' begins with Zeus's demigod daughter Thalia, as a child, sacrificing her own life to protect her friends from a gang of marauding cyclops.

Her only way of surviving is to turn into a tree which provides a protective shield around the half-bloods training camp which Percy and his friends now occupy.

Percy is one day surprised to learn from Dionysus and Chiron that he has a Cyclops half brother, Tyson (played by Douglas Smith) who turns up in the camp.

But when the protective shield is breached by a rampaging mechanical bull which has a flamethrower in its mouth, it becomes clear that Luke Castellan (Jake Abel), the demigod son of Hermes, has poisoned Talia's tree and is setting off on a quest to retrieve the Golden Fleece and ultimately destroy and usurp the Gods.

Percy, Tyson, Annabeth, the daughter of Athena (Alexandra Daddario), Grover, a satyr (Brandon T Jackson) and Clarisse, daughter of Ares (Leven Rambin) set off on an epic journey that takes them to Washington DC and then the Bermuda Triangle in search of the Golden Fleece in the hope that it will restore Talia's tree back to full health.

But they must overcome Luke's gang of corrupt henchmen and some nasty sea creatures if they are to get their hands on the fleece.

Like its predecessor, Freudenthal's film is a messy affair with clunky and occasionally annoying dialogue penned by Marc Guggenheim.

The movie makers attempts to combine contemporary teen speak with Greek mythology is as cloying as its predecessor.

And while the visual effects once again impress, the tendency of characters to spring back to life just when you thought they had been killed totally destroys any prospect of tension.

The cast's penchant for taking time out to emote only adds to the overall sense of boredom and frustration.

Freudenthal's cast are engaging enough but, if you are being brutally honest, the whole venture smacks of a vastly overbudgeted B Movie.

'Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters' will probably do well with its key demographic - teenage boys (mostly) and some pre-teens - but it has nothing memorable to recommend it.

In fact, the lack of inspiration only serves to underline the paucity of ideas in most Hollywood studio fare these days.

While it is far from being the worst movie to hit cinemas this year, one cannot help feeling that it is time, in the words of one popular brand of Marks and Spencer's sweets, to Reversy Percy.

('Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters' opened in the Movie House and other UK and Irish cinemas on August 7, 2013. This review originally appeared on Eamonnmallie.com)

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