Okay, first let me start with saying I love adventure movies. I get it that you can’t fit all the details of a book into an itty bitty 1.5hr movie. So if you’ve read the Lightening Thief by Rick Riordan and you are expecting all the adventures and storyline to be the same in the movie that you’ve read in the book – you are in for a surprise. Not a good one.
THE MOVIE
The movie was rather good. It had a kid turned hero. It had great strong sidekicks that helped him out in a jam. It had conflict and a Mission. Percy Jackson didn’t realize that he was the son of Poseidon – the god of the sea. Yet he finds out as a victim of circumstances when he is thrust in the middle of a battle between Zeus, Hades and Poseidon as he is falsely accused of stealing Zeus’ lightening bolt.
This movie was action packed, had great special effects and for my husband, oldest son, and younger two kids this was a top notch 4 star movie. For my daughter and I who’d read the book, we rated it only 2.75 stars because the storyline was drastically changed from the book. Major plot points were squished together for me and the biggest twist was that they didn’t have to change it. But to be fair – it was still a ride. I will definitely be buying it in dvd, because it’s a keeper.
THE BOOK
I loved this book because I write with the same purpose in mind that Rick Riordan wrote this one – to show kids that they are empowered. Percy is the odd kid out. Picked on in school even after he goes to the demi-god camp he is an outcast. Yet Percy never gives up. He wines about his plight as any kid does, but he consistently keeps fighting for his true goal – to save his mother and to find the lightening bolt. This is where the movie and book differ. In the book Percy’s obvious desire is to find the lightening bolt, but his secret desire is to save his mother. He also desires the love of his father and his father makes a public display of claiming him as his son while Percy battles in the ‘capture the flag’ game.
Also, in the book there were many more challenges that Percy and his friends had to conquer. They were constantly being mislead by other gods and minions who had different reasons for kicking them off their path to find the lightening bolt.
The book in my personal opinion was much, much more exciting than the movie.
So after you check out the movie – definitely pick up the book. You won’t be disappointed.
3 comments:
I have the book on my TBR list, but saw the movie without have reading the book. And I loved it, will certainly see it again. Also , not going to lie, Logan (percy) was very attractive. I pray that they make a sequel, I will be disappointed if they don't.
Great review!!
I loved the book and was a bit disappointed in the movie. I'm not saying the movie was bad, but...
My biggest nitpick with the film was the ages of the characters. They were definitely younger in the book. I was disgusted with the political references. The exclusion of a couple of the characters from the book was disappointing but not catastrophic.
Great post! Thanks for sharing you thoughts with us.
I guess I'm the odd-man out here. I thought the movie had great special effects and Uma Thurman made a wicked Medusa...but that's the extent of the good stuff (for me, anyway).
There is a chance my distaste largely stems from the drastic changes between the movie and book, but my wife (who had not read the book) was also less than enthused about it.
The movie (for all the cool effects) just didn't seem to have the action of the book, and I really can't think of a good reason for the drastic changes that were made.
OK. I'll stop ranting now :oP
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