Percy Jackson and the Olympians

A couple of weekends ago, I went to see Percy Jackson and the Olympians. The Lightning Thief, rated PG. The book was so well-written, and was such a page turner, that I was compelled to see the movie. Overall, the movie was okay, but I would have to give it one thumb down. I gave it one thumb down because if you haven't read the books, you would still be disappointed in the film. The movie was cheesy, with bad special effects, and plastic, fake-looking props.

I know this sounds a little harsh, but the unsophisticated special effects, put together with poorly designed props made it did not look phony not even convincing. If you have seen the movie Avatar, you will notice, that Jake Sully is disabled. His legs even look like he has atrophy. That means he is paralyzed, and the muscles can't move voluntarily. It looks really convincing. In this movie, there are satyrs ( half human, half goat creatures), and centaurs ( half human, half horse creatures). They used computers to make the mythological creatures , but it looks so disjointed. There are so many other things in the movie, that had special effects, like Luke's flying shoes, the giant gods and goddesses, and Mount Olympus, which were disappointing. The only exception is Medusa's hair of snakes, which was pretty cool.

In the movie, many of the scenes take place in magical places. I know in most movies the props are fake, but these are not very professional-looking! If you have ever seen the Harry Potter series movies, the props appear realistic. The candies, food, wands, furniture, decor, cars, and every detail looked like it was real. When I went to the Harry Potter museum in Chicago, I saw all these things in person. I was surprised that they appeared so boring in the museum display when I thought they looked so real in the movie! Whereas in Percy Jackson and the Olympians The Lightning Thief, the swords, shields, campsite, costumes, all looked no-convincing in the movie. The swords, I would have to say looked the most fake, like it could be purchased at any old costume store during Halloween.

The main reason I gave this movie one thumb down, was because the movie did not follow the book, which was such a good read. The movie left out some interesting characters, and twisted the plot around. In the book, as Percy discovers his powers, he realizes he can control water. So small details like water emerging from toilets and water fountains are not included in the movie version. Another thing was Annabeth is supposed to have blond hair, not black, while Poseidon has black hair, and not light brown, Hades is supposed to be bald, and not have mid-length curly black hair, and so many other little things like that. These things kind of bothered me, but in most movies, which are based on books, they usually leave out side plots, or minor characters. The biggest thing that bothered me, though, was the fact that Annabeth, in the book fights with a dagger. In the movie, she was fighting with a sword. Another really big aspect the movie makers changed was that, they made Percy older than he was, in the book. Percy was supposed to be twelve, Logan Lerman, who plays Percy is seventeen... This changed the whole perspective of the movie, because as he gets older, you would think he would start noticing his demigod abilities, and he would be a little more scared and confused, about his dad being Poseidon, and knowing he is a demigod.

I saw this movie with a friend, who also read the books too, but all it seemed like we were doing was criticizing the movie. It was especially disappointing because the book was wonderful, full of action, and myths. To conclude, I would definitely say the book was much better than the movie.