Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief – Movie Review

Percy Jackson is a dyslexic boy who finds out that he’s a demigod. That means half-human and half-god. He’s the son of Poseidon, god of the seas. He is also believed to be the lightning thief who is given just a few days to return the bolt to Zeus or else, war between the Olympian gods would ensue and the mortal world will be doomed. If that doesn’t make you want to watch the movie, I don’t know what will.

I’ve been dying to see this movie. The reason I picked up the book last year was because I knew it was gonna be made into a movie. Also, I badly needed a replacement for Harry Potter which is about to end soon. In cinemas, that is.

I absolutely love this series as evidenced by my book reviews. But having learned from experience, I know not to expect the movie to follow the book so much. In fact, I was bracing myself to see a story with characters far flung from what I had read. I was just excited to see how they’d interpret it into the silver screen. And with this mindset, I’m happy to report that I loved the movie!

I already saw it twice so I’m confident I can give a balanced review of it. That’s one of the things that irk me about book loyalists. I love reading books but I also know how to appreciate a good movie.

So what I do before entering the cinema is I try to forget as much as I can about the book. Thankfully, this isn’t hard for me with my short term memory disability. A disability used to my advantage much like Percy’s dyslexia!

Several things were changed to fit the movie. So I’ll start with those.

Differences from the Book

These are just the ones I can remember off the top of my head. And because of that, I’m not trying to find any more because the ones I missed here obviously didn’t affect my enjoyment of the film and are most likely not worth mentioning anyway. In short, that’s just nitpicking. And I hate criticizing just for the sake of criticizing.

• Grover as comic relief. At first, I hated the fact that they made Grover black. I’m not racist or anything but it just didn’t make sense when looking at it from a book fan’s perspective. But after seeing the film, I understood why they did it. The movie tries to cater to the teen moviegoers who have not read the book. Most teen movies these days need to be funny and expectedly there’ll be clichéd characters. A white kid for an unlikely hero. Check! A black guy for his sidekick who will crack jokes every now and then. Check! And a pretty girl as the hero’s love interest which leads me to the next point.

• Annabeth is shown as a head-turner in this movie. I never got the impression that Annabeth is supposed to be a looker in the books. It even took a while for Percy to notice that she’s actually a girl. Haha! But I guess this change comes as a consequence of the age difference with the characters in the book. And I’m guessing that since the book is in first person they’re making the movies that way too. So it follows that we are made to look at Annabeth this way since we’re seeing things on Percy’s point of view.

• Every young character is older. The trio in the books are supposed to be like 12 year old kids. I also didn’t like this change at first but as I mentioned in the first bullet point, it’s a good thing for the teen audience. And it would also be very reminiscent of Harry Potter if they were younger because the two book series do share a few obvious similarities. My only worry is that the actors would surely look too mature for their parts by the 5th movie. Although by then, we might have gotten used to them already.

• A lot of important stuff are missing. No tree of Thalia. No Clarisse. No Oracle. No pit of Tartarus. And NO mention of the prophecy. This is understandable as these are not really important to the story YET. They are cut off for time constraints. They can be easily introduced as new stuff in the next movie.

• The concept of houses are not mentioned. In Camp Half-Blood which is the training ground for the demigods, each hero lives in the house of their parent god. But in the movie, we’re told that Poseidon built a house specially for Percy. Okay maybe now I’m just nitpicking but this is important because Percy will have a house buddy in the second movie. But yeah, I guess that although this is an important fact, it can be left out here as it’s not really crucial to this movie’s storyline.

• But the biggest change that I really didn’t like is how they had to push the love angle between Percy and Annabeth this early. Percy certainly didn’t have love at first sight with Annabeth in the first book! Even the second book only had subtle hints. But I guess this change works well for the movie and for the general audience. Still, I hate “love at first sight” kind of stories!  :?

Despite these differences, The Lightning Thief ends up as a perfectly enjoyable film for readers and non-readers alike. It’s gonna appeal to younger audiences because of all the magic and yet there’s also plenty for adults to enjoy too. Look out for the Lady Gaga song in the Las Vegas casino sequence. That’s easily one of the best parts of this movie. Oh, and there’s an extra scene too after the cast credits.

It took a while for me to like the actors’ portrayal of their respective characters. But for the most part, they were all good. I think Logan Lerman portrayed the egotistical attitude of Percy very well although in some scenes it felt like he was overdoing it. Alexandra Daddario does a convincing Annabeth but I hated her characterization here. She’s not supposed to admire Percy that much here. Brandon T. Jackson as Grover was genuinely funny in many of his scenes.

The movie’s two hours long but I barely felt the length of the film. You know how there are movies that are an hour and a half long and still can’t wait for the credits to start rolling? Well with this one, I never had the urge to look at my watch – something I usually do in theaters for movies that I don’t end up liking.

I’m taking away a point from the score for the wooden acting of some actors (mostly the gods) and another point for their decision to bring up the Percy and Annabeth love angle this early. Yeah, I still prefer the tension and suspense of the attractions unbeknownst to them in the books.

Overall, I rate this movie a 8 out of 10. Mind you, I had very high expectations and I didn’t even expect I’d like it this much.

A message to the book’s fans:

If you can just forget about the several stuff they left out, no matter how important they may be for the next books, and see this as just a fun, myth-inspired adventure film, then you’ll definitely enjoy it.

The feeling I had after seeing this reminds me of the time when I first saw the first Harry Potter movie. It was so surreal. A lot of things were different from the book too but I was happy with what I saw and accepted it as just a version of the story.

People focus too much on the negatives of every single thing in this world. I’d rather look at the good side as doing otherwise won’t do me any good anyway. The Percy Jackson movie is what it is – an adaptation. Deal with it or if you can’t, take this as a clue not to watch the next ones.

Phew! Sorry about the rant. I’m just so pissed off with all the hate I’ve read in forums.

The next Harry Potter of Hollywood?

So does Percy Jackson have what it takes to be the next Harry Potter? Well, it depends on what you think I mean by that question.

Box office-wise, it would be a stretch to say that this series will be as successful a franchise as Potter. Harry had the advantage of being the first. Now, fantasy book to movie adaptations are the norm. But when you think about it just in terms of popularity with the general moviegoing audience, I think Percy has a good chance of making a mark in that aspect. With four more movies, the franchise will only get even more famous. And it has a very solid foundation now with the first movie so I’m very optimistic about this series.

The second movie The Sea of Monsters is slated to be released next year. This book happens to be my favorite so far because I still have yet to read the last two books. But unlike with Harry, I’m not forgetting my own version of Percy’s world in my mind. As I said in my book review, I can connect with Percy’s character a lot and so I’m doing my best not to ruin that picture. It’s an awesome thing… reading stories and making up worlds and people in your head.

* I first saw this movie just by myself at Gateway cinema 5 on Feb. 13, 2010. The following day I watched it again but this time with the company of mati and megane-kun at SM North Edsa. A landmark event in Little Wolf’s life! Why? That’s the stuff of another blog post.