Review of Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief (2010) by Entertain Me O — 30 Jul 2013

56%.

Firstly: I read the book. It's alright, not exactly Harry Potter (though it sometimes mimics that structure). But the film departs from the book way too much, forgetting that if they're ever going to make a sequel they would need to remember certain characters. They don't, but in the sequel it looks like they're adding the important characters again. They also left out a lot of things vital to the big picture of the books, which is not a good thing. The screenwriters of the Harry Potter films were wise enough not to make the major condensing move and leave out something just because they didn't think it was important in that individual novel, when it's really important to the whole series. They, after all, had the author of HP looking over their shoulders to make sure they weren't fucking shit up.

That said, PJ is sort of my guilty pleasure of teen fantasy films. It's sometimes fun to watch and so silly in its effort to be good that it entertains me. I'm glad the sequel looks darker and much more urgent than this one, because they could have done SO much better. But, an okay film. Don't hate it, don't love it, I just kind of admire it.