I just saw Percy Jackson and The Olympians: The Lightning Thief yesterday.

Well let me say this.

HOLY SHEET WHAT THE FUDGECAKE WAS THAT ALL ABOUT?!?!?!

Uh, well, maybe it wasn't THAT bad... But really? *head-wall*

Okay, here's how it goes. If you haven't been an avid reader of the series then you'll probably think that it was a pretty okay flick. But if you've read all five books (and loved them), then you'll make the same reaction I did.

Visually, there was nothing wrong. The effects and the monsters were eye candy, sure. It turned wrong with the actors.

Okay, the first thing many PJaTO fans probably screamed was: "ANNABETH IS SUPPOSED TO BE BLONDE!!!"
Was it so hard to cast someone who had the right hair color? Or at least someone who can ACT for Olympus' sake. Geez.

Next, Grover. Well, I have nothing against the dude who played him; he did the satyr some justice. Most people are complaining that Grover's supposed to be white, but I really don't give a damn.

Third, Luke. Jake Abel as my fave character? At first I gave him the benefit of the doubt, but... Gah. he's too bland.

Oh, Logan Lerman. I love that dude. But hey, Percy's supposed to be TWELVE years old. Geez.

And that's where the movie's storyline comes in.

They totally screwed the book. Percy's identity was supposed to be revealed during Capture the Flag, but noooo. And the movie centered the adventure around questing for Persephone's Pearls. In the book, Poseidon just effing GAVE them the pearls.

What about the good old orange Camp Half-blood shirts? No one was wearing them! And what happened to the gods, eh? Rick Riordan described them as wearing modern clothes (I was really looking forward to see Poseidon in Bermuda shorts), but the movie was like UGH.

Persephone was way, way OOC. She turned into some kind of maneater goddess (hello, that's supposed to be Aphrodite).

Hellhounds are supposed to looke like giant dobermans, not giant naked molerats.

Oh, and for some reason, the flick totally cut Clarisse out of the picture. I guess that could have been fine, but why did they have to take Kronos out too??? Which got me wondering... Is there gonna be a sequel? They messed it up too much to make one.

I could go on and on about all the flaws, but I'll spare you the ranting.

...All I can say is that Chris Columbus disappointed me by a lot. I really expected this to be an out of this world film, considering that he's the director of the first and second Harry Potter movies (Sorcerer's Stone and Chamber of Secrets).

Oh well. There's always the Last Airbender to look forward to. Guess I better not get my hopes up too much this time.

*sigh*

x0x0

~Zeph