Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief

Ugh.  I really, REALLY wanted to sit here and rave about how wonderful Chris Columbus interpreted my current hot little series I've been reading.  I even picked up the book when I saw the movie preview back in November and remembered that I had bought the book a few weeks before.  Unfortunately, having just read the books, I don't feel as if I really enjoyed the movie as much as I would have either not reading them completely, or so close to the movie.  So I don't forget what I liked and didn't like, here is a list of pros and cons to the movie, compared to the book...Spoilers! 

(And before I get into it..I do realize this movie was intended was for a younger audience..but so were the books..and I feel like Hollywood forgets about book's fan bases.  Young Audiences get it..you don't have to dumb it down all the time..)


I'll start with the Pros:

-Grover.  I thought Brandon T. Jackson was hysterical as Grover.  Grover is kind of whiny and timid in the books, which is fine, but I really enjoyed Brandon.  He was funny, and I like my protectors characters to be a little more kick ass.  Probably one of the best things about the movie.

-Percy.  I thought he was well cast...and pretty. :D  I don't really have anything negative to say about him (although he had some cheesy moments that reminded me of Zac Effron, but its all good.)  and over all, he was a good choice to represent Percy.

-Fight Sequences.  Excellent sequences and special effects.  I did like the Annabeth/Percy fight for capture the flag.. (and I will get into more of that scene in my cons..)  and I loved the Minotaur and Hydra sequences.    The ending showdown between Luke and Percy was awesome too, but again, I'll elaborate more in the Con section.  For people wondering wether or not their kids will enjoy it, I reccomend it to people with kids over 7 or 8.  The action is engaging and fun, with that little bit of Danger. 

-Medusa.  Enough said.  Loved that whole part.

-Camp Halfblood/Chiron.  I loved the layout for the camp.  It made me want to enroll, demigod or not.  For the small amout of time Chiron's character was on screen, I enjoyed it.  He made a good centaur.

-Lotus Casino.  Fun scene, again, Grover made it.

-Poseidon.  I liked the changes they made for Poseidon.  I liked his and Percy's dynamic at the end of the movie.  Missed his Hawaiian shirt though..

Here is why, as a fan of the book, I didn't like the movie...

-The Plot.  WHAT THE HELL, COLUMBUS.  It was like you decided that there wouldn't be any sequels and gave up on it before we even knew if we had anything.  How do you throw out the entire main plot and substitute it with the sub plot?  You left out all the depth!  You didn't even try to throw some information into it so that if there was enough demand for a sequel, the information would be there.  At least it would have felt a little more epic than "Somone stole my bolt, your kid did it! WAH!"

-The Antagonist.  Again, how do you remove the main antagonist??  Ares was that whole book, in my opion.  Sure, Luke is a good antagonist later on, and yeah you're supposed to hate him by the end of the first book..but you hate him because he tries to kill Percy in an act of betrayal, not "Oh hi! It was me who set you up! Hahaha! Let's Duel!"    Hello! Chris?  You adapted Harry Potter for the big screen and kept it's plot integrity...why couldn't you do the same for Percy Jackson?

-Luke.  Akward.  All I gotta say.

-Annabeth.  Badly cast.  I didn't think she had much personality or enough wit to be Athena's daughter.  Most of that was the writing, but I really didn't care for the actress either.  Plus, concidering (and this is coming from almost finishing the 4th book, I have not read the 5th as of yet) that I'm feeling that Percy and Annabeth may have some chemistry, she looked almost like his sister.  I felt the initial contempt she has for Percy concidering the mythological relationship between Athena and Poseidon was forced and akward.  And where was her invisibility cap?

-Persephone/Hades.  I'm not really irritated that Rosario Dawson was Persephone, because I'm a fan of Rosario and thought she was great in the role they created..but I didn't like the whole Hades/Persephone deal.  She's no where to be seen in the book, other than her pearls, and concidering Rosario's name is in the credits, I was expecting to see her more..kind of like Dakota Fanning in New Moon.  They make a big deal of them being in the movie, and you don't see them until the end.  Plus I don't understand the point of adding scenes/characters into established plots.  Why not just take the time to incorporate information that's already there?  I had this problem  with Two Towers.  (and if you know me, Im a HUGE LOTR fan.)  The whole reason Helms Deep was so epic in the book was because the Men of Rohan were able to hold off the Orc Army by themselves..adding the Elves was unnessicary.  But there you go.  And hello, Hades is the God of the Underworld...he's supposed to be scary, daunting, larger than life.  I'm a fan of Steve Coogan, but was NOT a fan of his interpretation of Hades.  Sorry.

-Capture the flag scene.   I did like the fight between he and Annabeth, but again, would it have screwed with the movie to have the trident appear over his head, and reveal him as the Son of Poseidon, rather than having Chiron tell him 10 minutes prior?  ((side note, loved the Poseidon cabin))

All in all, I did like the movie.  Enough that if anyone wanted to go and didn't have someone to go with, I'd tag along, my shock value is now gone that I have vented. Plus, I think I have a crush on Logan Lerman :D