A review that I was hoping would not turn you off into hoping for a continuance of the book series.
As everyone enjoyed the book series so much (even an ebook of book 5 until the TPB comes out) you may have lots of questions unless you figured out what and why they made the movie like it was...
WARNING SPOILER ALERTWell, AFAIC this is partially accurate movie based on the 1st book Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief.
Why? Because we all know that a lot of books written for kids, were being made to movies to attract the audiences that Harry Potter will leave wanting for more and getting a piece of the pie. Narnia book 3 is now under 20th Century Fox after Disney abandoned it. So it's no wonder that Percy Jackson's adventure has been cut to the bare essence of telling a story with a reference to the main title and ignoring the rest of the book.
IMO the producers probably made a choice of making a book accurate movie that will have to have 4 more sequels and make a movie based on some events in the book to test the market if Percy Jackson can compare to Harry Potter's success.
Removing a great deal of information about the Kronos side of the story almost lose one of the endearing aspect of reading the book series. It became Percy Jackson and the Lightning thief because the Olympians were reduced to reference material for the rest of the movie. Thus also removing the idea of the "Prophecy".
I don't want to list the differences and the questions in my head while I was watching the movie painfully in Robinson's Pioneer which was a big mistake cause the way the movie goes; Star Mall EDSA would suffice.
First off the events in the museum were cut short and his math teacher didn't even get vaporized and was never even seen before for the rest of the movie although she and her "sisters" should have been in the bus and underworld scenes.
Where's the tree that guards the entrance to the camp? The archway is now the entrance to the camp cutting a few characters off the storyline including those whom Percy will interact with in the following books.
The camp is too crowded and small like they were out of budget for the production... and what happened to the grandeur of Poseidon's house(?), it was reduced to a log cabin with no walls...
The gods are not allowed any contact with their children, a rule Zeus imposed on all the gods but why on earth can Annabeth and Percy hear voices from their godly parents?
OK, the shield should have been an ordinary shield because it was suppose to be Ares' shield and not the one Tyson made for Percy.
The Master Bolt dilemma
Because they are taking the easy way of making the book into a movie (and hoping it will make good in the box office that they can make a better interpretation of the adventures in the succeeding films), they sacrificed a great deal of storyline by removing Kronos' involvement in the events and making Hades the ultimate villain in the story.
Hades is now under house arrest and cannot leave the underworld so he wants the Master Bolt for himself and for his selfish motives.
In came Luke, who is now revealed as a conspirator to Hades' plans and not Kronos'.
Conclusion
Take it with a grain of salt. If this movie pans out, we may see a better interpretation of the following books as Chris Columbus intended. I don't like what they did to the storyline because it already affected a great deal of information that will affect the rest of the books, but then again it's their problem. If the international audience react like what happened to the Narnia movies where Prince Caspian didn't do well in the box office; we may as well the book as best we can.
Will this movie take over what Harry Potter movies will be vacating soon enough? Sadly I would say NO. Even the Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone was better paced to accommodate the rest of the book series without sacrificing some points on the storyline; Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief was at best a good popcorn movie.
A quote from Kenneth Turan's review of the movie:
"Abandon all hope ye who enter here" is what the poet Dante put on Hades' gates, and unwary adults tempted by this film should take that line very much to heart.
www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/la-et-percy12-2010feb12,0,3353954.story
I'll still watch this though.
