Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief is the first movie based on the Percy Jackson and the Olympians book series. After seeing this movie I was intrigued and wanted to read the books so I went out and read the series. Unfortunately, after reading the books it really effected how I felt about the movie. While it is totally understandable within a thousand page Harry Potter book to take out moments here and there but in a book that is only 350 pages you do not get that same liberty. Percy Jackson without reading the books ends up being a fine enjoyable movie, but with the knowledge of the book series the movies loses a lot. One can view the first movie and the first book as being completely different stories. Given that Percy Jackson was still an interesting and fun new update to Greek mythology in a way that the audience forgets that mythology has been around for hundreds of years.
Logan Lerman in the role of Percy Jackson does a fine job. Lerman does a very solid job gibing the audience the hero/underdog in a way that we cant help but want him to succeed. He is also believable in the unbelief he has at first in relation to being a half God. The audience grows with Lerman throughout the movie as I felt his resolve and presence onscreen get stronger as the movie moves forward. While I liked the selection of Alexandra Daddario in playing the role of Annabeth, the characterization for Annabeth was not what it needed to be to match the book. Daddario many may recognize her from her small role on the show White Collar as Kate. The problem with the character of Annabeth is that she ends up being the hybrid of Clarisse and Annabeth from the books. Daddario plays her part the way it was written which is just fine, but it ended up feeling disappointment that her character was written so far off form the book. The rest of the cast while okay, I felt there were some definite casting issues. For me Brosnan, Thurman, Coogan and Dawson were wasted in their roles. These four always give strong performance and in Percy Jackson it is not different, but the star power ends up being a little distracting to the viewer. The viewer with some of these being such small roles that by the time you finish think "Oh cool, Uma Thurman is Medusa" her role has already hit its climatic moment and is beginning to move on.
Had Percy Jackson been a stand alone movie that was not so loosely based on a book the story would have been a strong one. Now with the announcement of working on another installment based on the second book, some of the weaknesses that I could have overlooked are now true weaknesses that will hurt the overall ability for fluidity, unless they are able to repair these definite shortcomings. The most glaring issue is the lack of the overall villain who is the mastermind that is orchestrating everything throughout the entire book series, without the introduction of Kronos, we are left with a book series that is nothing more then mere adventures in each following movie. The lack of laying the villain foundation for Kronos would be like the first Harry Potter movie leaving out any mention of Voldemort, it is just unimaginable that they would have left that out. Also leaving out Clarisse, Aries, the Oracle and replacing the Chimera with the Hydra were omissions and changes make this adaptation a real struggle because these all play vital parts in future books.
The battle sequences and action were a definite strong point. The battle with the flying sneakers was a nice new twist for a climatic battle. It was very enjoyable to watch the action unfold throughout the movie as it really helped to keep everything moving that I was caught up that I was not wondering how much longer the movie would be. Along with the action, a movie that deals with mythical fantasy creatures must do a good enough job on these creatures that the audience is willing to believe that they are watching a creature that is actually possible and does not look fake. The CGI and special effects are able to make the creatures believable and it works well for me.
Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief would have been a great movie if it was not based on a book series. My overall feelings for the movie were effected by reading the books, and it really hurt my opinion since it so loosely followed the source material. The young stars in this film have definite star potential for the future, and I look forward to seeing how they improve as this possible book series all get made into movies. Since Percy Jackson was not as close to the book as I would have liked I am giving it two and a half buckets of popcorn out of five. I hope that the second movie will fix on the weakness from the first movie and I hope they will follow the book closer. If you have read the books go into watching this movie with very low expectations and you will enjoy it. If you have not read the books and do not plan on reading them then you will greatly enjoy this movie.
-The Movie Man
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