Okay so last night I watch the new Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief movie... It was good don't get me wrong, but I spent so much time saying "That is not how it happened in the book" and "Where is (different character's name)?" If I hadn't read the books I might have been happier while watching the movie. Luckily I am adaptable. The books are great for my 6th grade tutoring students. The movie was enjoyable for the whole family. It was funnier than the book in a way. There were moments in the movie that was explained in the book in a way the movie couldn't and didn't. For instance, in the book Percy's mom was not rescued by Percy and in the movie was and she even showed the kids how to get to Olympus which she shouldn't have known about because she is mortal. Or how about the reason that the gods and their offspring: in the book it was that the Big 3 were not to have any children with mortals because of a prophesy and in the movie it was that no gods or goddesses could have contact with their offspring because of chance they risk in becoming more human. The whole thing lacked the suspense that made the books so good. The movie lacked the personality that the books had.
While I recognize that the director wanted to make sure that his Harry Potter deal wasn't repeated, it wouldn't have been better for those that have read the book if it had followed a little more closely...especially since Percy Jackson is a series of books. If they plan to continue making movies based on the book series, the other movies may have a lot of backtracking to do to make sure that characters that were left out of first movie show up in a way that makes sense. Especially since a few of those leftout characters are important in later books in the series. For instance two characters that were in the first book were Clarisse and Ares, which were not even in the movie or thought of. Something else that seemed a little strange was Percy's mom's willingness to "get rid of" stinky (you have to read the book or watch the movie to find out who this character is) when in the book she "stoned" stinky. (Once again this is an event you will have to read the book to understand.) The movie and the book portrays her as "self-sacrifing" and just throwing him out just doesn't flow in the scheme of "protecting Percy from the monsters." As much as I enjoyed the movie, I still think that holding to the book would have made the movie better and would have had less of a "why" aspect.
On to the acting portion of this review: The character Percy is played by Logan Lerman. I have to say that the kid did a great job showing insercurity and strength. He was a good choice for Percy. He didn't overact and he delivered a believable performance. Alexandra Daddario was Annabeth. She was good but showing more of Annabeth's "powers of stratedgy" was have been better. Daddario's character seemed a little flat in the movie while the book had Annabeth as more of an angry but sticks to the rules kind of person. Brandon T. Jackson was great in the movie version of Grover...I don't know if he would have been able to pull off the book version of insecure and earnest Grover though. I don't plan to go into the other characters as this time, maybe later. Just understand that the movie and the book were different. If you are a die hard stick to the book person...don't watch it.
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