Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Books vs. The Movie

The Books:

I just finished reading the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series.  The writing is excellent, the plot provoking, the characters entertaining, and some of the best books that I’ve read.  It has the same draw for me that Harry Potter did.  I rarely go out and buy and entire series of books after reading the first one. I’ve only done it about four times in my entire life.  After reading the first page of the first book I knew that this was going to be one of the series that I bought and I did.  One of the best things about this series is the humor that is woven throughout it and the character development.

Obviously I recommend reading the series before watching the movie.

The Movie:

I have to say if I were the writer I’d be very upset with the way the Lightening Thief Movie turned out.  Yes, the casting is good, especially the boy who plays Percy, but the plot barely matches the book.  Yes the point is to return the master bolt to Zeus, but the movie leaves many, many of the details out and fabricates it’s own plot–seemingly playing in the world that the author created versus following the story that he wrote.  Vital things like Percy being claimed by Poseidon, hearing the Oracle’s Prophecy, being given a quest, and even the places they went were left out or frankly screwed up in the movie.  They also left out key characters such as Clarisse and Dionysus.

The movie made it clear that Hades wanted to start a war, even to the point of him showing himself at Camp Half-Blood.  This is not what happens in the book at all.  Hades thinks that Percy may have also stolen the Helm of Darkness–a plot point completely left out of the movie.  Persophone, I don’t believe appears in the first book and definitely doesn’t knock Hades out. Grover does not stay behind in the underworld. There are a multitude of other things that irritated me about the movie.

Needless to say I was deeply disappointed in the movie.  Read the books, they are so much better and you’ll be getting the full experience.

To find out more about the series and author, visit his website at:

http://www.rickriordan.com/