The Lightning Thief...my review

Last night, Sofia and I saw The Lightning Thief at midnight. For those who don't know, this movie is based on the book of the same name, about a character named Percy Jackson who learns that he is a demigod: half human, half Greek god. Sofia has loved the series of books for nearly five years. If you remember back to my blog last summer, I waited in line for two hours to get the author's autograph, since Sofia was in Costa Rica. She's crazy for the books.

So it was only fitting that we go see the movie as soon as any non-theater employee/industry insider possibly could.

Sofia didn't have school Friday, but I did. So I purposefully fell asleep when I lay down with Bella and Alex, and then woke up around 10:30 to get ready to go. Sofia also took a bit of a nap.

We dressed, drove to the theater, got our popcorn and drinks, and found the perfect seat. The showing wasn't a sell-out, but it was pretty full.

So now, for those interested, I present my review of The Lightning Thief.

I haven't read a single review of the film yet, so I want to get my two cents posted before I check out what the critics are saying. I've read all the books, so my opinion will obviously be flavored with that perspective, but I'm not one of those people who hates when movies change the storyline or details. I know adapting a book to a movie is a bit of an art form in and of itself. I'm cool with that, as long as it's done well.

Faithfulness to the book's plot: B-
Sure, there are some differences in the plot, but the basic premise is the same: Percy Jackson gets blamed for stealing Zeus's lightning bolt and has a limited time to find it and clear his name to save his mother and prevent war between the gods. The only reason I didn't give this category an A is because the omission of the Oracle and the whole prophecy thing. That prophecy is an important thread that runs through the whole series, and it was left out, for reasons I can understand (too much information for the average moviegoer to keep straight in such a short time). But that still drops it from an A to a B-. Most other departures from the book seemed necessary for time limitations (including Clarisse and Ares would have cluttered the movie too much) or budgetary concerns (The battle in the St. Louis Arch would have been much more costly to produce than the fight in the Parthenon in Nashville, TN. Plus, have you ever been in the arch? I have, and it's really small and cramped up there! That would make for an awkward fight, or they'd have to fictionalize how much space there is up there.)

Faithfulness to the book's tone: B+
The book is written in the 1st person, so it's infused with the voice of Percy, who's a classic modern American teenager (though I recognize that description is pretty useless). In other words, the book has the humor and pop culture perspective of a teenager. They do a decent job of keeping that tone, largely through Logan Lerman's (Percy) and Brandon Jackson's (Grover) acting and the script.

Two big departures kept this category from getting an A: the change in Grover's character from being a worry-wart (a la Telly from Sesame Street or Arnold from Magic School Bus...how's that for providing some comparisons that most adults won't understand!) to a humorous, hip, girl-crazy, faithful protector. I love the change. Grover was never my favorite character, because worry-warts kind of annoy me (I never liked Telly and I wished they'd thrown Arnold off the bus). In the film, Grover actually steals many of the scenes he's in.

The other big tonal departure is the change in the gods. In the book, they act and dress unexpectedly modern and human. For example, Poseidon wears flip-flops and shades and sports a nice tan, as if he's on a beach all the time. And in the book, Ares (the god of war) is a muscular biker dude. In the movie however, with the exception of Hades, all the gods look like they stepped off the set of a sword-and-sandals epic (Kevin McKidd, a favorite of mine from the HBO series Rome practically just dusted off his costume from that show). Steve Coogan's Hades wore the guise of a bad boy rocker, which was a great touch. But I think the director was afraid people wouldn't see the others as Greek gods if they weren't wearing togas and body-sculpted gold armor. Oh well.

Writing: C
The first scene scared me. And not because it was scary. It's because the dialogue between Poseidon and Zeus is pretty bad. It's cheesy. It's melodramatic. It's overacted. And even worse, it's dumbed down to not lose anyone from the get-go. So I cringed a bit, fearing that I was in for two hours of George Lucas-esque dialogue. But once Percy appeared, the writing was better, more natural, and the melodramatic god-speak was minimal (save for the final scene at the end, but even that was better than the opening scene). The opening scene makes the first impression, so I'm more harsh on this category, since the offending dialogue was in the opening scene.

On the way out of the theater, I heard a guy complaining about the scene where Percy pulled the minotaur horn out of the tree, despite the fact that the minotaur couldn't pull it out himself without it breaking off. I'm much more forgiving when it comes to details like that. Percy is one of the most powerful demigods around. Who am I to say that he shouldn't be able to yank an embedded horn out of a tree in the adrenaline-powered heat of battle? There were probably more of these kinds of issues, but frankly, I don't quibble about that kind of stuff.

Casting: A+
I loved the casting. Every character was cast well.

Acting: A-
Overall, the acting is excellent at best and average at worst.

Special Effects: A-
Excellent. No major disappointments. There were maybe two moments where I felt conscious of the CGI and it briefly took me out of the moment (like when the minotaur picks up Percy's mom) but overall, the SFX are wonderful. Medusa is a joy.

Overall grade: B+
I was not disappointed at all. I only read the book once, and it was years ago, so that probably helps me be even more forgiving than I usually am. But I really liked the film and thought they did the book justice.