percy jackson and the olympians: the lightning thief — movie
first off, i liked it. two hours went by and i remained fully immersed. the action sequences had a lot of umph and power so i was glad they didn’t try to make it some soft pansy kid movie. well, it couldn’t be a kid movie since most of the cast was approaching mid-twenties and 12 year old percy was actually 18, but who’s nitpicking? i mean, annabeth’s blond curly hair was brunette and straight and grover’s gangly acne-ridden awkwardness was replaced by a stronger, older, comedic brandon t. jackson. but you know, alexandra deddario has beautiful blue eyes that are striking against her dark hair and actually perpetuate a sense of godliness and brandon t. jackson was an amazing comedic relief. and his CG goat legs came out great. so no harm done.
i heard that the director chris columbus replaced the chimera with the hydra because he thought the chimera was lame. but the hydra shows up in the second book. i guess he’s just going to leave it out of the second movie since it doesn’t play a huge role. and why make medusa beautiful (uma thurman)? but i guess the hydra was enough ugly for the movie. WHERE WAS CLARISSE???? THALIA????? and more importantly, WHERE WAS ANY MENTION OF KRONOS????? oh wait, i think they did mention him in the museum. it just kills me that a movie will fail at building an underlying thread when the whole story is already written out. instead, they will introduce a backstory all at once when it has less of an impact. i mean, when the trio are in the underworld, there’s no tartarus and krono’s voice trying to suck percy down. no shoes with wings trying to fly grover into the abyss. luke does give percy the shoes with wings but they aren’t used at all how they are in the book.
i have to say that my favorite part was the lotus casino and hotel. perfection. lady gaga songs and all. and the effect of eating the lotus flowers…you have to see it. i didn’t really like the camp on screen. they didn’t have separate cabins for each god. they even made it so that poseidon built a lodge specifically for percy only. the gods were made to be more influential in their children’s lives. and instead of the long standing rule that gods can only act indirectly with half-blood offspring, the movie made it so that zeus made this rule because poseidon was becoming too involved with percy. AND there’s no mention that “the big three” made a pact to never procreate again. AND there was no waiting for your possible god parent to claim you. everyone just accepted that percy was poseidon’s kid. i’ve learned long ago to separate my book and movie experiences so that if something does match up, i’m impressed. i’m excited to see the rest and hope that the liberties are at least kept on the same level as this one.
percy jackson and the olympians: the lightning thief
i caved. i saw the movie trailer before anything and thought “what is this harry potter rip-off crap?” then it made it on someone’s end of the year best books list and that’s when i caved. i can’t help but compare it to harry potter. the adventurous trio: two boys and a girl. the girl being the genius of the group. one boy who is an adorable dimwit, then the star of the show who is brave and defiant…gee whiz. they even use the term “half-blood” for their camp name (not to mention that they have to go to this camp to hone special skills). the trio go on perilous adventures to save the world. sheesh. aside from the minor distraction of comparing percy jackson with harry potter, i enjoyed it quite a lot.
it is a bit geared towards a younger crowd but i found myself laughing out loud a few times by some special one liners. the incorporation of traditional greek myths was very interesting and the way they were reworked to fit into a modern time was fun. i really appreciated the explanation of why certain characters in greek mythology were alive today even though they were supposed to be killed in the myths. kronos, who is the titan father of “the big three” (zeus, poseidon, and hades) is given some explanation. i wasn’t very familiar with titans in mythology and i found it refreshing that the mention of this titan father is the start of the thread to the 5 book series. it was very easy to get lost in the details of this story: the daddy/mommy issues all demigods (half-bloods) have, the dyslexia & ADHD, the magical weapons, the prophecies, the pit stops during the trio’s quest that each touch on a different myth, the tragedy of thalia…yeah, i impulsively bought the entire series in hardback and it came in this cool chest thing.
the bookend. 