Review by Bookreader for Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Lightning Thief
Rating:
First off let me just say that I have read all 5 books at least twice through. I am an avid fan of this series. I was looking forward to this movie for quite a while. Of course this takes the course that many book adaptions take. That is, it differs from the book in many ways. Personally, I went to the midnight showing of this film expecting the differences, and went with an open mind to the idea of differences. And you know what? I immensely enjoyed this film! First, let me run down some differences between the book and film.

Unless you’ve read the book and don’t mind finding out what was cut and changed, consider this your SPOILER ALERT!

First and most obviously, the ages of the actors. They are all in their late teens, whereas the kids in the book are 12.

Second, no Ares, Clarisse, or Dionysus. The fight for the Lightning Bolt is with Luke instead of Ares. And Annabeth takes on the role of the warrior girl in the movie.

Third, instead of a quest, Percy Grover and Annabeth just ditch camp to get the lightning bolt and save Percy’s mother.

Fourth, NO PROPHECY. No mention of Thalia or the Big Three pact. I hope they mention it in The Sea of Monsters if they make it.

Those are the 4 biggest changes I remember from the movie and biggest complaints from avid fans. Logan Lerman (Percy), Alexandra Daddario (Annabeth), Brandon T Jackson (Grover), and Jake Abel (Luke) are all great actors. I hadn’t really heard of them until The Lightning Thief. But they are terrific actors! Brandon is hilarious as Grover, and makes tons of jokes as the comic relief. Some may find his constant cracking of joke irritating, but in the right mood he’s hilarious.

Sean Bean, and Kevin Mckidd are great as Zeus and Poseidon respectively. They’re not in it very much, but Mr. Mckidd’s entrance in the beginning of the film is awesome. I won’t reveal more, but he’s the first we see in the film.

And lets not forget Uma Thurman as Medusa! She was brilliantly done, and was very spooky and awesome. If you’ve read the book you know she dies, but I wish they would find a way to bring back Medusa because Uma Thurman was brilliant!

All in all, this was an amazing film, and I look forward to the deleted scenes included with the Blu-Ray release, because only 5 out of 10 scenes are on the DVD release. Plus, the Blu-Ray comes with a DVD and a code for a free copy on iTunes, which is brilliant. So this is a great film for the whole family, and I know I will be headed to the store to get it after it’s release. (or, I think I’ll just buy from amazon, because they do have really good prices on Blu-Rays)

Review by hpfreak611 for Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Lightning Thief
Rating:
I’m going to start this review by saying, yes, I did read the book.

I went into this movie with one of my guy friends, and I wasn’t expecting much. I read the book when I was twelve, and I vaguely remember enjoying it. I was pleasantly surprised. The movie was pretty entertaining, not too cheesy or predictable, and I loved the mythology that was tied in with it. After seeing the movie I went back and read the book again. There were a lot of differences from the book. The movie appears to have been made to target teens, and I’d recommend it for teens. It was a fun movie.

I also recommend reading the book (either before or after seeing the movie). Even re-reading the book (at 17), I enjoyed it. It was quick and light and funny at times. Overall and easy/fun read.

Review by Mahlers2nd for Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Lightning Thief
Rating:
My son who is twelve has read all the books and when he saw this movie was coming out, he was thrilled and was counting down the days. I had never read the books but having seen the trailer, wasn’t exactly looking forward to it — Medusa’s head was pretty creepy and there was a lot of scary imagery so I didn’t think it would be my thing.

So going into the movie, my expectations were pretty low and my sons were very high.

That said, I (for the most part) really enjoyed the movie. One of the things I liked was the way they turned Percy’s “faults” (Dyslexia, ADHD) into advantages — but they did it without heavy handed preachyness that you often find in kids cartoons. My younger son has Asperger’s so it provides a natural “talking point” to help you show your kids how to think of their own personalities as positives.

The characters were likable and there were a lot of funny lines. It wasn’t too predictable or formulaic (with the exception that I spotted the villan the minute I saw him and you did know that good would triumph over evil). I found parts of the movie a bit far-fetched but hey, that’s pretty much to be expected in any movie — particularly one aimed at tween-agers. Overall, I thought it was fun and am looking forward to the sequel.

That said, my son came away rather disappointed. This is his first experience seeing a book he has read turned into a movie (he never got into the Harry Potter series). He said that many parts of the book were left out and parts of the movie just weren’t in the book at all. He still enjoyed it for the most part and definitely is looking forward to the sequel. However, the movie did not live up to his expectations — as opposed to my expectations being surpassed.

I note about the imagery. I found a lot of the imagery to be rather yucky and scary. I would definitely not recommend it for kids under the age of 8-10. The Medusa just really creeped me out and Hades was very scary as well — and I’m 46 years old. So if you are taking your kids and they have much younger siblings you might want to leave them home.

Overall, for me it was a fun afternoon and I’m glad I went. I’m a little sad that my son was disappointed but given how Hollywood often takes “creative license” with books, I’m not too surprised.

[NCJAR]

Review by J. B. Pritchard for Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Lightning Thief
Rating:
Pros: One or two redeeming acting performances, decent special effects.

Cons: Bad casting, failure to bring the world to life, lack of creativity, complete failure to capture either the tone or the characters from the book.

Percy Jackson and his friends are racing to the underworld, desperate to get the lightning bolt in time. As they reach Hades’ residence, they are greeted by Persephone, wearing a ripped black lace, cleavage baring dress. They ask to see Hades, but Persephone makes a few suggestive remarks and then thrusts her breasts into Grover’s face.

“I’ve never had a satyr …(long pause) … visit before,” she purrs in a Spanish accent.

Grover (who has already been established as sex obsessed) is appreciative.

If this sounds like a scene that would remotely fit in with your concept of the first Percy Jackson book, then you might enjoy this movie. If not, then stay away, because it’s pretty well a snapshot of the movie as a whole.

They went for a more mature feel for the movie – not just the characters’ ages, but the content reflects this. The casting for this movie was completely wrong. It wasn’t that the acting was bad, exactly, it was just that some of the actors were completely inappropriate for the parts they were playing. Grover is not a smooth talking, wise cracking, confident character. Sure, the guy playing him was funny, but he wasn’t Grover. Annabeth was an even worse failure. They kept telling us that she was smart, the daughter of Athena, etc., but we don’t actually get many instances of her acting smart. Instead, she seems like a generic tough, sexy action girl. In fact, every female character in this movie (with the exception of the mothers) is sexualized – Annabeth, the women at the Lotus Casino, the Aphrodite girls, Medusa (who is supposed to be ugly), Persephone. Female characters that could not be turned into sexy girls (like Clarisse) are cut from the movie altogether. It isn’t that I have a problem with action movies that are about smashing heads and meeting beautiful women, it’s just that this is so not what the Percy Jackson series is about.

By making this movie about the action, the creators have really undersold the wonder and magic of this series. I’m not a person who believes that a movie must mimic a book exactly, but there are so many missed opportunities here dealing with setting alone. For example, in the books each of the Olympian gods has a unique throne – Poseidon’s is a fishing chair. This is something that could have been a great visual for the movie and could have been played up even more – instead the movie opts for identical marble thrones. In Camp Halfblood, we get generic military setting instead of the unique cabins and campers. In the Underworld, we get a generic hell instead of great details like the EZ Death line and the burnt out fields of Asphodel. Generic is the best word to describe this movie.

There were a few good points. The kid who played Percy Jackson really captured that character’s impulsiveness and good heart despite being way too old for the role. The special effects were okay. Not great, but okay.

You might be wondering if this movie would be good to someone who has never read the books. The answer is no. It might not be such a huge disappointment, but it is still nothing more than a below average action flick.

I tried to decide if the few points of light were enough to give this movie two stars. I concluded that they weren’t, because not only does this movie suck, but it completely ruins any chance for a decent series. If they make another Percy Jackson movie, then it will have to move away from this one completely to be any good. 1+ stars.

Review by Eileen K. Balesteri for Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Lightning Thief
Rating:
My son talked me into reading these books with him, and we loved them.

When we went to see the new Harry Potter movie, scenes for it came on during the trailers.

He recognized the story the second the preview started. He was thrilled, and so was I. What potential this unique and fun series had for a movie–or movies…I mean, they advertised that it was being brought to us by the people who make the Harry Potter movies.

The Potter movies stay so true to the book–taking care to absolutely keep things in the screenplay that are necessary to the plot line.

I wish I could say the same for this movie.

When it finally came out, we went to a movie theater in NJ that was right across the river from NYC.

We could see the Empire State building from the theater parking lot, and took it as a sign that the movie was going to rock. We were so psyched to see it.

When we left the theater, I thought my son was going to cry, and I couldn’t un-scrunch my eyebrows–huh?? I felt so bad for him, for me, for Rick Riordan…

We understand that it’s impossible to make a movie exactly like a book– but this was a travesty.

Every important aspect of the story was by-passed for the sake of special effects.

It’s almost as if the screenwriter had been given a verbal summary of what the book was about, and took it from there. So many important plot points were left out or down right changed to the point that it would be impossible to even think about a sequel.

It’s such a shame. These stories have the “book made to movie” potential of the Potter series, or dare I say, a kids “Lord of the Rings”.

If someone with vision had just read the books, the money used to make it could have been so much better spent.

It could have been knocked out of the park, but, alas, the ball was dropped and we all lost.