Percy Jackson movie - Spoilers!

Spoilers ahead - read at your own risk!

I know I'm probably the first to see this one, but I wanted to start a thread and organize my thoughts.

We went to the midnight release. (as an aside, never again. My kids are so crabby. I'm kind of mad about it. They promised to get up for school if I took them to the midnight showing. Didn't happen.)

Liked:

The casting. Well done all around. Although Zeus is way hotter than Poseidon. I loved Uma Thurman as a creepy Medusa.

The monsters. Very well done. That minotaur was scary!

The quest. They were all well done. I think the Lotus Casino was the very best, but they were all exciting.

Percy. He was very good. (and my 15 year old said he was very hot as well.) And his chemistry with Annabeth was really good.

Dislikes: Camp Half-Blood. OK, the part they kept from the book was good, but they left out so much here! I really wanted to see Percy discover who is father was, rather than have it worked out for him! And no oracle? What's with that? I guess they must not be planning any more movies, because the prophecy is really important!

Ending. Well, not the very ending, but the part at Olympus was kind of cheesy. Disappointing.

Overall: Well worth watching. I would love to see it again. However, I am disappointed that they chose to leave out so much from the book. I know that movies always have to leave things out, but it seems to me that they could have added more and made the movie MORE suspenseful and exciting. Still, if you like the books, go see the movie.

Aaaugh! I came in by accident! *Averting eyes*
We won't be seeing it until the 23rd. I'll come back then, unless I accidentally click into here sooner. :oP

Lots of big, big SPOILERS ahead!

Just got back from seeing the movie. Parts were good, and I'm glad i went to see it, but it's not one I'll want to own, or see again.

Likes:

- Casting of Sally Jackson, Zeus, Grover, Luke, Gabe, Hades, Medusa
- The Lotus Casino: while not what I pictured, it was still pretty cool, and I liked that they ate the lotus blossoms, making that connection clearer than it was in the book.
- Auntie Em's: better than I had pictured in my head. Who was that random tourist woman, though?
- Monsters and special effects: very nice, particularly the Minotaur and the harpy.

Dislikes:

- The fact that Persephone was in Hades at all. Hello! It's the summer solstice -- Persephone should be with Demeter, not prancing around the underworld messing with the plot line.
- Casting for Annabeth (she's supposed to be blond, for one thing) and Mrs. Dodds. I could take or leave Percy, Chiron, and Poseidon.
- The fact that they made the kids so much older than they were supposed to be. I'm guessing that's so they could attract the teen audience, but it works against them if they ever want to make movies of the rest of the series.
- General over-simplification and leaving stuff out. I know this always happens when they make a book into a movie, but it almost always bugs me, too. Where was Mr. D? Where was Ares? Where was Clarisse? It felt like they conflated Clarisse and Annabeth, and I'm not cool with that.
- The fact that Percy comes across as a swaggering little jerk every time he does something remotely cool. Maybe that's why Annabeth was played as so antagonistic -- Percy lacked any charm he had in the book.
- The fight between Percy and Luke was way too video-gamey.
- The extreme sappiness at the end. Sappy lines all around! Let's give some to Poseidon! Some to Sally! Hey, here are a few left over, let's give them to Chiron!

*not reading, not reading*

BN: (I know, overflowing to this thread) I was going to see this today but ended up feeling awful. I'm hoping I can go see it tomorrow.

We may see it tommorrow. Foggi, good catch about Persophone

I agree that the casting for Poseidon was off - he should have been way hotter than that! But I really liked Percy. He didn't come across as a swaggering jerk to me at all, just a cocky teenager. But I 100% agree about the sappiness at the end.

Saw it today. Quick thoughts before I forget.

*I think the gods were a little hotter than they should be!
*I was disappointed in some of the choices they made with cutting scenes and characters. If they are making more of the books into movies some of those characters will be important.
*Annabeth: Hello! Wrong hair color completely. How many times does Percy refer to her hair color in the books? She seemed like a cross with Clarisse.

Overall, I was more impressed than I thought I would be. It was a great movie.

Now I'm going to go back and read your posts above.

#1 cmbohn: I pictured the camp completely different. Didn't the book describe the main house and the cabins differently. Now I'm going to have to go find the book and reread to make sure I'm not loosing it.

#3 foggi: I agree with almost all. I do want to see it again, but I will wait until it comes out on DVD.

#8 -- The camp was definitely different than I pictured it. Espy said it felt like they were playing up the ancient Greek theme too much. My main problem with the camp was that I felt like there was too much fighting, everywhere, all the time. Certainly the demigods train at camp, but it just seemed like they were trying too hard. And as someone who dabbled in archery just a bit, the two scenes where Grover and Percy walked in front of archers with arrows notched drove me up the wall. Bad form on so many levels -- the archers should not have been shooting in such a crowded space (ideally they should have been in an enclosed ring, so that random people couldn't walk between them and their targets), Grover should have known better than to walk in front of archers at practice, and the archers should have been aware that people were around (and walking between them and their targets) and immediately pointed their arrows down and taken then off the string, rather than standing there with arrows pointed at the idiots who had walked in front of them. I realize that this was training for battle, not just target practice, but I don't think that's any excuse for endangering fellow trainees.

Okay . . . archery-related rant done.

I must say I agree with lots of things you said but here are my thoughts:

I finished the series a while ago and forgot many details, thank god. As a movie I really enjoyed it, but like everyone has said, I am having a hard time seeing how are they going to continue the series since many key points in the next books plots were left out completely in this movie.

I really really liked the special effects and imho as a movie on its own it's very good, but as an adaptation from a book it sucks big time.

I think you are right - as a movie on its own, it is a really fun movie. I'm sure my husband will enjoy it. He hasn't read the books, but it is still a fun movie.

yay! i haven't read the books so am sure to enjoy the movie!

I hope i don't get annoyed about the archery part, but my take is if you walk between the archer and the target you are fair game, so probably i won't. Unless they fail to release.

#10 - Don't you mean "Thank the gods"? :P

This is probably silly of me, but what I missed the most was that the gods were dressed as gods, not in Hawaiian T-shirts and such. I loved that in the book. Too much Greek theme, not enough Ancient-Greece-was-a-long-time-ago, which is more how the book felt. Though I deeply appreciated Hades' human form. I loved the casting of the gods, just not the costumes.

I missed having Aries and Clarisse. :( Too bad there wasn't time for more gods and minor characters.

Everything involving water was great. I loved all the water effects and enjoyed seeing Percy use his power. Probably helps that all things ocean are fantastic to me anyway.

I wasn't crazy about the Underworld. I always liked that the Underworld is described as desolate, not on fire like the common version of hell. Hell and the Underworld aren't the same to me. From everything I've read, I see the Underworld as big grey expanses of barren dirt and rocks. More like the intro to the Underworld when they were trying to get on the boat.

Percy, Annabeth, and Grover were good together. I liked the casting very much. I hope those kids get to play in future movies should the movies happen.

Overall, I really enjoyed the movie and will put it on my Christmas list. It would be one I watch often while sewing. I'm sure it helps that I haven't read the book in almost a year, but I've also just become less picky about how books are portrayed. Outside of HP, of which I am protective, I am happy if books I enjoy become a good movie to watch even if not a perfect replica of the book. I've come to understand that some differences are necessary. (Though changes such as hair color -- Annabeth -- and dress color -- Hermione, GoF -- are always unacceptable because they are unnecessary!)

I just got home from seeing this movie. I walked into it when Zeus and Poseidon were already on the screen and am not sure what I may have missed but am all ears for what happened.

A few dislikes:
- While Sally remained a character who didn't seem too strong with all those silent scenes, I think non-readers weren't shown why Percy wanted to stand up against his step father to protect her so much. (Am I making sense?) I also missed her love over the color blue.
- The ages of the kids, and that some characters (Clarisse, the oracle, etc) were missing, as mentioned earlier.
- Annabeth's cap not being in the movie.
- It wasn't well established that each god had a house at Camp Half-Blood. It seemed as though Luke had a place to himself.

Liked:
- Grover's casting was excellent. His character had a different personality, but it was still a good one.
- Some of the acting. The pen scene was one of the scenes that made my family laugh the most.
- I was amused during the scene in the underworld when they're on the boat and you see where Los Angeles should be. It was a pretty interesting interpretation of the movie creators.

I guess I could add my kid sister who's soon to be 15 is of a like mind with cmbohn's daughter regarding Percy's hotness.

I haven't read the book, so I can't make comparisons there. My youngest daughter read the book shortly before the movie release and she really enjoyed and begged to go.

I wan't sure if I would like it ( I hadn't seen any previews beforehand so I had no clue what the movie was about). It turns out that I did really enjoy the movie. I loved Uma Thurman as Medusa. I did find it odd that you could access Mt. Olympus and Hades from the U.S. Though I was amused by the connection with Hollywood and Hades!

My yougest daughter really enjoyed the movie and hopes they make the rest of the series into movies as well.

PollyA, the idea is that the gods move to the current "center" of civilization. Since the western world has been the big thing for the last while, Olympus and all are accessible from here. It was accessible from Greece when Ancient Greece was the hub of the world. Does that make sense?

You should read the book! Usually it's better to see the movie first anyway so that you can enjoy it more. I think so at least -- I'm more able to separate book and movie if I see the movie then read the book.

K, basically Zeus was just telling Poseidon that Zeus was blaming Poseidon and his son for the stolen bolts and if he didn't get them back, doom was upon us all. They also named the deadline of the summer solstice at this point. Nothing too critical since you've read it.

Thanks Lefty! That makes much more sense now! I think I will read the books, my daughter is on Percy Jackson and the Sea Monsters at the moment, so if she's actually going to read the series I'm going to surprise her with the series.

Saw it Saturday; liked it well enough. My major issues were the age of the kids (too old), and no Mr. D, or Clarisse. The friendship/betrayal of Luke and Annabeth wasn't depicted at all. I also liked in the books that Poseiden was depicted wearing Hawaiian shirts--

Loved Uma Thurman as Medusa, and all the monsters were great.

All in all, not a bad adaptation. Certainly much better than what was done to The Dark is Rising, blech.

Mandy, Holly and I saw it on Friday. I pretty much agree with everything Lefty said. It's been long enough since I read the books, that I'd forgotten pretty much everything that happened, so I wasn't bothered by the little things. It helps that I always just thought of the books as fun, fast reads that are great to help kids understand Greek mythology, but don't have tons of life altering messages. I think there's enough left that they can eke some more movies out of what's left.

Like everyone else, I particularly enjoyed Grover. Brandon T. Jacobs is in Tropic Thunder so I already knew he was awesome. The writing could have been better. A couple moments that had both Mandy and I laughing were when Grover kicks out the windshield on the car and then seems surprised to discover that there's glass on the ground, and when they get in the car at the casino and the keys are in there. I'm totally going to try that the next time I'm at a mall or amusement park where they're giving away a car!

All in all, I thought it was a very enjoyable movie.

I enjoyed for what it was--I've long gotten over the excessive changes the movie industry makes in adaptations. I also agree with a lot of what was said.

My biggest surprise was that they made the Lotus Casino seem like a drug trip. It makes sense, but for a PG movie it seemed kind of odd.

My biggest disappointment was the lack of Ares. I wanted to see that fight and the flames in the eyes. It would've also shown the rivalry between the gods better. . . it makes more sense to me that Ares would plan the theft than Luke, who wouldn't know as much about the bolt or how to steal it.

#17 lefty:
Thank you, lefty! I wasn't sure it that was the first scene or not. :)

Yep, it was. After I wrote that I realized you were probably more wondering if you had missed anything before that. So, in a much more succinct answer: You didn't miss anything. :)