Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Lightning Thief (Book and Movie) Review
BEWARE SPOILERS.
by Rick Riordan
Naturally, my obsession with (Greek) mythology dictates that I (finally) jump on the Percy Jackson bandwagon. Though in all honesty, I’ve been meaning to re-watch the movie ever since Jake Abel = Adam Milligan = Luke. And Jake Abel = <3 <3 <3
I’ll start off with the book review first.
Only reviewing book 1 (The Lightning Thief) right now, because it’s the only book I’ve read so far, and because there’s a movie to compare it to.
I like it. It feels a bit childish now, but I know I would have absolutely loved it a few years back. I didn’t jump on the bandwagon back then because I was completely uninterested in mythology. My childhood was all about fantasy and magic. Godless magic.
I felt that the book flowed very quickly, very nicely. The plot made sense. Loose ends got tied up nicely, and the author managed to keep the ending open for sequels.
In all honesty, through the narration of the book, I didn’t see Percy as a 12-year-old. He felt much older. I also liked how he was so realistic (minus the demigod powers, of course). He cries over his mother, he is sometimes impulsive, and he stays true to his heart. I really like that.
At this point, I’m not head-over-heels into it, I’m mostly reading to cross it off my “to read” list. We’ll see where I stand after book 2.
And now for the movie::
Personally, I thought the movie and the book are comparable in terms that both are good without the other. In this case, I have to say that I liked the book more only because it got deeper into the plot. I think they did a decently good job with the movie.
I’ve googled responses and was very surprised to see the amount of hate for the movie. Why? Because they made it a click pen instead of a capped one? Because they took out Ares, Kronos, Naiads, Dionysus, the Oracle and the like and inserted Persephone? Seriously? Rick Riordan made a nice, open ending, although he most likely knew whether he would be writing a sequel. Movies don’t work like that. Will this make it harder to make sequels, since they will start diverging from the books more and more? Yes. But nevertheless, it was a very good adaptation.
If I had any issue with the movie, it was Annabeth’s sudden friendship with Percy and Grover’s mental strength as compared to the books. In the book, Annabeth’s friendship with Percy grew over time. Not too long, only about a week before they set off on a quest, but in the movie she was on best-friend terms, potential love interest in less than a day. I didn’t like that.
I also saw a lot of hate for Grover’s character. I have to agree, I didn’t really like his flirtatious attitude, but otherwise I felt he was pretty much on the mark as to how I imagined him.
The movie portrayed the antagonists quite a bit worse than the book did. Not sure how I felt about that. I know that i really liked how Percy felt sorry for Hades, Cerberus, even the Furies a little. So yeah.
Overall Rating: 4 / 5
