A teenager discovers he's the descendant of a Greek god and sets out on an adventure to settle an on-going battle between the gods.
Before I review the movie I just want to briefly talk about the book.
The plot in The Lighting Thief was very cleverly done. The author took mythology and put it into a more modern light. I was very interested in mythology, but never got the chance to really know anything on it, until I read The Lightning Thief. There are bits and pieces of the plot that connect to mythology and I thought it was so smart how the author put it together. The author some how stuck in bits of mythology into the story and still made it flow together. Although many might think the series are for kids, I disagree. Just because Percy is 12 years old in the first book doesn't mean it will only connect to younger readers. There is character development, not only in Percy, but in the other characters as well. I believe in The Titan's Curse, which is the 3rd book to the series, he's 16. I really liked The Lightning Thief and I will continue to read the series. The Sea of Monsters, here I come.
I heard that many people though it was a "wannabe" Harry Potter series, but if you compare the Percy Jackson series to Harry Potter, there are many differences to the two. Harry Potter is more focused on wizards and dragons and wands and such. Sort of the typical wizard thing. Robes, wands, magic. Of course, I'm not hating on Harry Potter at all. Who am I to judge? I didn't even read the books. The way I see, it's very focused on what wizards are. In the Percy Jackson series, they modernized mythology and opened up a new story of another half-blood or demi-god. Percy is like Hercules, but modernized. What do you picture when you see Hercules? I picture a really buff guy in a white cloth suit and a leaf tiara. (LOL) But when I imagine Percy Jackson, he looks like some regular 12 year old.
I'll be honest, I have the Harry Potter series and I read the first page. I almost fell asleep. When I read the first page of Percy Jackson, it caught my attention right away.
Okay, enough about the book. This is a movie review.
I thought the movie was action pact, funny and a little bit suspenseful. There were some pop-up moments, but it didn't scare you to death.
I watched the movie before I read the book, so obviously that sends a message to you guys. When a movie thats based on a book comes out and you like it, you want to read the book after right. If they don't want to read the book after that movie, it means it's not successful. The whole idea of the author agreeing to making it into a movie is to catch people's attention and read the actual book. [OR it can just be to make money out of that movie, because some people don't bother reading the book even though the movie's good.]
Back to my point, since I read the book it means I thought it was successful and it caught my attention. The plot was interesting, yet it was predictable. BUT, the movie is way different from the book, let me just tell you that.
The solution is different, some parts were cut off or tweaked with, and the characters looked different. Not to mention their ages were way off. I actually liked how the characters looked different from what the book described them, because it doesn't take away the image of how you see the actual characters in the book. For example, Annabeth has blonde hair in the book, but in the movie she has dark brown hair.
Although the plot was changed a lot, I still enjoyed the movie. There was definitely action and the movie went by fast. Each scene transitioned fasted, but I really liked that about the movie because it kept everything interesting. It's like you couldn't go to the washroom without missing something amazing happen. There was a bit of humor thrown into the movie, since it was a movie meant for preteens or maybe even younger viewers. You can see a bit of romance between Annabeth and Percy, when in actuality they sort of hate each other, but develop a friendship. There's definitely some suspense. Some parts of the movie made me jump out of my seat. There were those pop-up moments. Also, the graphics were that bad either. I mean, the monsters looked creepy and scary, but not scary enough to give you nightmares. The whole movie will definitely gives you goosebumps and chills while watching.
Let's move on to the acting. I actually really liked the acting. I saw a lot of familiar and unfamiliar faces. Logan Lerman did a fantastic job playing Percy. You can say Percy's like the typical teenager that always gets into trouble. Brandon T. Jackson did an awesome job playing Grover, the satyr. Alexandrra Daddario did a pretty good job playing Annabeth. Then there are the other actors: Jake Abel (played Luke), Pierce Brosnan (played Chiron, the centaur) Uma Thurma (played Medusa), Kevin McKidd (played Poseidon, Percy's father) and many more. Acting was fantastic and the cast really fit the characters well.
I highly, highly, highly, recommend this movie if you like action, adventure and mythology. Of course, I don't think you'll like it as much if you're over the age or maybe 20(?). I don't know, but it really is a great movie and I recommend you check it out.
Here's the trailer for it:
Percy Jackson: ...and you were a human - goat hybrid... thing
Grover: The politically correct term is satyr.
