Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief Review

 Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief

Starring: Logan Lerman, Brandon T. Jackson, Alexandra Daddario

Director: Chris Columbus

Year: 2010

Oh, where to begin. First, a lot of background information. I actually read the Percy Jackson books, and with how nostalgic I am for them, they are sort of my favorite book series. Then when this movie came out, I was stoked. It came out of nowhere, and although I saw some things that scared me when the trailer came out, I kept a clear head. I didn’t have internet the whole time, and didn’t look that much into it, and just waited. Then it happened. I saw the movie by myself. Imagine me, told to go in a wrong theater, switched when I realized it was playing in the other one, sipped on a soda that tasted nothing like the Sprite I requested, and watched the Lighting Thief. And the first time… I didn’t hate it. Don’t get me wrong, my dream of seeing my book come to life would have been great, but I knew going in that obviously wouldn’t happen since they look ten years older than the twelve year olds they’re portraying, and it just didn’t feel right. But over time as the books kept coming, the more disgusted I was with the movie. The fact that it wasn’t getting the treatment like books like the Hunger Games or Harry Potter series got insulted me, especially when those movies sent flocks toward the books. Then there was no love for my books. But before I go in, there a philosophies I stand by. One, the BOOKS DO NOT MATTER. This is its own creation. That being said, the source material is a lot of the time a wonderful source to grab as much material as you can, and a lot of people love seeing that come to life. And this movie seemed to just want to chuck the source material at a wall, and see what stuck. And not much is the answer. It steals the idea and the name, and makes what it wants from it. And to be honest, the end product isn’t bad. And as much as I hate that, and just want to see the characters I grew up with, they’re not alive in this, and most likely will never come to life in cinema form. And when I say there are big differences in the plot, I mean it. Entire main characters are missing. The main villain is rewritten in, and the big bad fight at the end is completely different. Character arcs gone, leaving them with a lot less to work with. The characters themselves don’t even resemble what they’re supposed to be, whether its personality or image. With so much different, it’s a completely different story. Usually when I hear other people complain about young adult books, like let’s say the Hunger Games, they don’t like the change. (those spoiled assholes, not feeling what I felt going through this!) but I can understand that. Stories are like puzzles, and each piece makes one great hole. With pieces missing, the entire thing is different, or feels incomplete. But as I said before, this is based off the book, and its own thing. And for what it is, it’s different. It’s something new, and it’s not bad. I mean probably to the snobby reviewer who won’t let himself/herself get swept inside a movie, but aside from them, I don’t see many people hating this movie. Unless you do stand by the philosophy the source material matters. And I agree that this movie would have been immensely better if it took some pointers from the books. The characters would have felt more original, and the story would have been much deeper and entertaining. There’s no reason to add random scenes, or thrown in random Grover and Hade’s wife sex jokes when you could have done it the original way. I for a person who cared for the books so much, and spent so many hours reading them, surely would have enjoyed seeing it get recognition, and more important, a new way to experience it. I don’t know what this is, or why they went with some of their choices. Maybe they couldn’t see a movie with young twelve to thirteen year olds selling well to the rest of the audience, but movies like Super 8, Stand By Me, the Goonies prove many great stories are those told through something we all were once, and that’s children. And just saying, you are making a PG movie based off of children’s books, it’s not like your audience wouldn’t have gone to see the movie if you changed that. All in all, is this a bad movie? No. Does it give the book justice? Hell the fuck no. Did it pain me enough to lower the score? Eh… it would have. But it’s a dead horse now, and I can’t keep beating on it. I don’t know if it’s good, average, above that, and I don’t really care. I’ll do what the creators did, and throw it at a wall, and the three that sticks will be my score. (just saying I say myself giving everything from a 2 to a 1 before watching it again) Anyway, sometimes things don’t go the way you liked, but this doesn’t affect the story I love, and that to me is what matters.

Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief gets a 3/5

Spoilers: Oh, I don’t want to do this. Ugh. Well, let’s see. We could talk about the capture the flag scene. I feel like that’s a good thing to go from. It would rather cut Clarisse out, alter Annabeth’s character (instead of being a smart strategic girl who won the match using wits and showing how much she liked Luke, they let her just fight good with a sword) And rather than an epic reveal that I remember catching me the hell off guard as a kid, you just already know Percy is Poseidon beforehand. And he just wins, which is very un-Percy like. And that’s pretty much what the whole movies like. Awkward, not written as good as it could have been, but still had moments. But still a disappointment.

(Received No Badges)