Despite my extreme disappointment regarding the screen adaptation of The Lightning Thief, I looked forward to the Sea of Monsters premiere with a great deal of anticipation. After watching the trailer a couple times, I concluded that the production crew had attempted to correct some of their bigger, more overlooked mistakes–such as changing Annabeth’s hair color, and adding in the previously-forgotten story of Thalia’s tree–in order to stay true to the books. However, my immediate assumption proved to be wrong, and I was even more disappointed by this movie than the last one.

Upon reading reviews, I have discovered that many critics have referred to the Percy Jackson series as “the next Harry Potter.” Although both series are exceptional, I’ve found that there’s a huge difference in the immensity of their  fan base–Harry Potter’s being much greater, for many reasons. I believe that a lot of this has had to do with the movie adaptations, of which had nearly opposite turnouts. The Potter books and movies were nearly identical, whereas the Percy Jackson movies were barely recognizable from the books with the exception of the loosely similar, kind-of-relative storyline. I believe that the Percy Jackson movie would have had a much better turnout if they had stayed true to the books; the theater-goers would be pleased by Riordan’s geniusly thought-out, perfectly-paced  plot, and in turn, the movies wouldn’t be shunned by the series’ die-hard fans, therefore receiving more recognition altogether.

Of course, much of this is due to Rick Riordan, his flexibility regarding new ideas, the contract he agreed to, blah, blah, blah. But still his readers demand to know… why did the Percy Jackson series have to change when transferred to the big screen? And why did Rick agree to it? I’m sure he had his reasons, but as a reader heavily devoted to the series, I believe I speak for all his readers when I say he should have stuck to his ideas no matter what the cost, and remained loyal to his series when negotiating new ideas with the production crew. This makes me admire J.K. Rowling, who didn’t take no for an answer when it came to contributing her ideas; she even demanded an all British cast (even the movie extras) in order to reach her goal of remaining true to the setting of the saga.

Being an EXTREME fan of Percy Jackson and the Olympians, I naturally dissected the movie scene-by-scene, mentally counting and tallying everything that appeared in the movies that didn’t in the books (sadly, I lost count only about fifteen minutes into the film). However, my sister claims that I would have liked the movie if I hadn’t read the books first, which I, being extremely biased, continue to deny wholeheartedly. Although I will admit that there were some epic fight scenes in both The Lightning Thief and The Sea of Monsters, along with some hilariously funny and awkwardly placed jokes and offhand comments that had everyone in the theater to busting up laughing, which caused me to glare at them and remind them annoyingly that “That wasn’t in the books…”

There being a ridiculously high amount of things that didn’t live up to expectations (which, I’ll admit, were set a bit high as well), I’ve had to narrow everything down to a list of the top ten things in the movie(s) that didn’t do the book(s) justice.
(Note: my list contains minimal spoilers) Continue reading →

I want to start off by saying the Percy Jackson series is one of my favorite series of all time. The first book, The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan, begins the entire crazy adventure for Percy and his friends. I had high hopes for the movie version, though I never expect them to be as good as the book. That being said, I was still disappointed when I saw the movie.

There is no denying that it wasn’t a good movie, but lots of “creative license” that the movie took were really annoying. There were little things they messed up on like Annabeth’s hair being brown instead of blond, completely cutting out Clarisse, and giving Hades a surprise appearance at camp. There were other major things that got on my nerves, though.

There was the random quest to find pearls, when in the book, they were a gift from Poseidon to Percy. Speaking of Poseidon, he caused the gods to be distant from their children because he was becoming mortal? That was really weird and felt very unnecessary to the plot.

The thing that changed the most was the main characters’ age. Percy, Annabeth, and Grover were only supposed to be 12, but they were driving cars and looked 16. Which completely changes the course of the series. There were plenty other things that changed from the book, most of those are understandable for the time restraint.

Now on to the positive parts. There were good fight scenes (most not in the book) with great special effects. The scenes with Percy healing himself and Annabeth looked really cool. It was also interesting to see the different scenes at Camp Half Blood, Medusa’s place, The Underworld, and Mount Olympus. The movie was far from bad, it just can never compare to the written version.

This movie would probably be enjoyed more by someone who didn’t read the book. The experience, of course, is different for everyone. So the only way to know if you’ll enjoy the movie is to see it yourself. So which you like better and why as books vs. movies continues.

-Nicole G., 10th grade