"I can't pee with her staring at me!" aka why Percy Jackson was awesome
Saw The Lightning Thief tonight with mysticfushia, da_widget, and a couple of other friends. We were probably the oldest non-parents in the theatre, which was awkward for like .5 seconds.
It'll probably come as no surprise, but I loved this ridiculous movie. Yeah, the plot was nothing like the book and there was some other issues with it, but overall? It captured the feeling and the spirit of the books and characters, and I think at the end of the day that's what matters more than the fact that they changed the quest around, added/removed characters, or left out some minor details. Deeper, spoiler filled thoughts to follow under the cut.
Beginning with things I absolutely adored:
Percy: Logan Lerman is Percy Jackson, plain and simple. Everything about him was just right - especially the attitude. I think the moment I was absolutely convinced he was Percy was during the Capture the Flag game when he was like, "You guys take this way too seriously," and then proceded to fall down as he's running away from the Ares guys. OH PERCY YOU ARE RIDICULOUS. ♥ Also, Logan has ridiculous chemistry with like every character, I swear. And by every character, I mean mostly Jake Abel; holy crap, we're about to be invaded Percy/Luke shippers.
Annabeth: I was most concerned with her character's portrayal going in - mostly because Alexandra Daddario was the one member of the main four that I hadn't seen act and, duh, Annabeth's my girl - but I ended up really liking how she turned out. She was great in her fight scenes - I was worried she wouldn't be doing much after the initial beating-Percy-up spree - but her taking on Luke at the end was pure win. The scene that sold it was when she and Grover told Percy to STFU and that they were coming on the quest whether he liked it or not; I thought she just hit all the right notes for Annabeth's character there.
Percy/Annabeth moments: Do I even need to explain this one? There were so many and I just couldn't stop grinning from the moment Percy was introduced to her. AND THE ENDING WITH THEM. SO EFFING CUTE. And the fight scenes? TOTALLY HOT.
Grover: GROVER GROVER GROVER. ♥ I'll straight out admit it; Grover is probably my least favorite character next to Tyson in the books, but holy crap did I love what they did to him in the movie. Although the "I'M YOUR PROTECTOR PERCY" crap got old after, like, the fifth time he said it, at least they made him competent at his job and into a slightly more interesting character than book!Grover. Plus, he had all the best lines and was actually funny.
Luke: Jake Abel was pretty much perfect, the end. I wish there would've been more scenes with him though, but alas, it was not meant to be.
Medusa scene: THIS SCENE, I HAVE NO WORDS FOR HOW EXACTLY AWESOME IT WAS. BUT IT JUST WAS. It was probably my favorite monsterbattle out of the entire quest just because they did the reveal really really well. Also, I was just ridiculously excited that they kept Grover's, "Hey, that looks like Uncle Ferdinand..." scene in.
Lotus Casino scene: It's basically a "demigods get high by eating lotus cakes and almost fuck away their quest" scene set to Lady Gaga music. Why wouldn't that be awesome?
And now for the stuff that I wasn't particularly pleased with:
Lack of backstory/plot and character development: This is really what bugged me most overall; I'm cool with character and plot changes if they're well explained, but some of the stuff just wasn't. I wish we'd gotten more time with Percy and Sally before going to Camp Half-Blood and that we would've spent more time there once we'd gotten there so the camp dynamics would've been established better. I did like what I saw of the camp though - no volcano wall, but those cool ass bridges in the trees made up for it. Did not like that Percy being the son of the Big Three was not a BIG FUCKING DEAL like it was in the books, and that there was little reveal for it. Also, Luke's character was barely developed, which is a problem considering, you know, he's the series villain.
I feel like a lot of interesting stuff in terms of backstory ended up on the cutting room floor, which was unfortunate because the movie could've been a couple minutes longer. The beginning seemed especially rushed and choppy, and I really didn't get into it until we got to Camp Half-Blood. It also didn't help that I had SPOILED MYSELF SILLY for this movie either.
Lack of awesomesauce Olympians: Again, disappointed that the gods had maybe a total of five minutes screentime altogether...okay, maybe I was more or less disappointed that Sean Bean had like five minutes on screen, whatever. I'm a selfish fangirl. Persephone and Hades more than made up for that, but again, there was some stuff from the promos that didn't end up in the final version that I would've liked to see from them.
"You can't see your children!" rule: I was OK with this law of Zeus's until it was revealed that it was because of Poseidon's relationship with Percy and Sally that he started the smackdown on Olympian parent/kid relationships. I would've been fine with it if it was an ancient rule or something (I actually liked the idea when Luke was all being Grumpy McBitter about it), but it just doesn't make sense that with the thousands of kids the gods have had over the last couple of millenia, that Poseidon would be the first and only one that would get super attached to them like that. It's entirely possible, of course, considering the way Poseidon talked about Sally in the books. I actually think this would make a really good discussion for fandom because I think we can think of some good reasons for it.
I mean, all-in-all, it's not a terrible movie - it's a lot of fun and the world is set up wonderfully. If you're a book fan, it helps to check any and all expectations at the door before you go in because you'll enjoy it a lot more if you don't cling passionately to the canon material. If you haven't read the books, the movie is just a taste of the world of Percy Jackson and the books, as always, are a lot better. One of the girls who went with me who hadn't read the books - didn't even know what the books were about - said that she enjoyed the movie a lot more than she thought she would and that she liked it better than Harry Potter. So there you go. ;)
And mostly? I'm just hoping that people will see the movie, be interested enough by it to pick up the original books, and then come play in the fandom. I want more fan fic, dammit! ;)
It'll probably come as no surprise, but I loved this ridiculous movie. Yeah, the plot was nothing like the book and there was some other issues with it, but overall? It captured the feeling and the spirit of the books and characters, and I think at the end of the day that's what matters more than the fact that they changed the quest around, added/removed characters, or left out some minor details. Deeper, spoiler filled thoughts to follow under the cut.
Beginning with things I absolutely adored:
Percy: Logan Lerman is Percy Jackson, plain and simple. Everything about him was just right - especially the attitude. I think the moment I was absolutely convinced he was Percy was during the Capture the Flag game when he was like, "You guys take this way too seriously," and then proceded to fall down as he's running away from the Ares guys. OH PERCY YOU ARE RIDICULOUS. ♥ Also, Logan has ridiculous chemistry with like every character, I swear. And by every character, I mean mostly Jake Abel; holy crap, we're about to be invaded Percy/Luke shippers.
Annabeth: I was most concerned with her character's portrayal going in - mostly because Alexandra Daddario was the one member of the main four that I hadn't seen act and, duh, Annabeth's my girl - but I ended up really liking how she turned out. She was great in her fight scenes - I was worried she wouldn't be doing much after the initial beating-Percy-up spree - but her taking on Luke at the end was pure win. The scene that sold it was when she and Grover told Percy to STFU and that they were coming on the quest whether he liked it or not; I thought she just hit all the right notes for Annabeth's character there.
Percy/Annabeth moments: Do I even need to explain this one? There were so many and I just couldn't stop grinning from the moment Percy was introduced to her. AND THE ENDING WITH THEM. SO EFFING CUTE. And the fight scenes? TOTALLY HOT.
Grover: GROVER GROVER GROVER. ♥ I'll straight out admit it; Grover is probably my least favorite character next to Tyson in the books, but holy crap did I love what they did to him in the movie. Although the "I'M YOUR PROTECTOR PERCY" crap got old after, like, the fifth time he said it, at least they made him competent at his job and into a slightly more interesting character than book!Grover. Plus, he had all the best lines and was actually funny.
Luke: Jake Abel was pretty much perfect, the end. I wish there would've been more scenes with him though, but alas, it was not meant to be.
Medusa scene: THIS SCENE, I HAVE NO WORDS FOR HOW EXACTLY AWESOME IT WAS. BUT IT JUST WAS. It was probably my favorite monsterbattle out of the entire quest just because they did the reveal really really well. Also, I was just ridiculously excited that they kept Grover's, "Hey, that looks like Uncle Ferdinand..." scene in.
Lotus Casino scene: It's basically a "demigods get high by eating lotus cakes and almost fuck away their quest" scene set to Lady Gaga music. Why wouldn't that be awesome?
And now for the stuff that I wasn't particularly pleased with:
Lack of backstory/plot and character development: This is really what bugged me most overall; I'm cool with character and plot changes if they're well explained, but some of the stuff just wasn't. I wish we'd gotten more time with Percy and Sally before going to Camp Half-Blood and that we would've spent more time there once we'd gotten there so the camp dynamics would've been established better. I did like what I saw of the camp though - no volcano wall, but those cool ass bridges in the trees made up for it. Did not like that Percy being the son of the Big Three was not a BIG FUCKING DEAL like it was in the books, and that there was little reveal for it. Also, Luke's character was barely developed, which is a problem considering, you know, he's the series villain.
I feel like a lot of interesting stuff in terms of backstory ended up on the cutting room floor, which was unfortunate because the movie could've been a couple minutes longer. The beginning seemed especially rushed and choppy, and I really didn't get into it until we got to Camp Half-Blood. It also didn't help that I had SPOILED MYSELF SILLY for this movie either.
Lack of awesomesauce Olympians: Again, disappointed that the gods had maybe a total of five minutes screentime altogether...okay, maybe I was more or less disappointed that Sean Bean had like five minutes on screen, whatever. I'm a selfish fangirl. Persephone and Hades more than made up for that, but again, there was some stuff from the promos that didn't end up in the final version that I would've liked to see from them.
"You can't see your children!" rule: I was OK with this law of Zeus's until it was revealed that it was because of Poseidon's relationship with Percy and Sally that he started the smackdown on Olympian parent/kid relationships. I would've been fine with it if it was an ancient rule or something (I actually liked the idea when Luke was all being Grumpy McBitter about it), but it just doesn't make sense that with the thousands of kids the gods have had over the last couple of millenia, that Poseidon would be the first and only one that would get super attached to them like that. It's entirely possible, of course, considering the way Poseidon talked about Sally in the books. I actually think this would make a really good discussion for fandom because I think we can think of some good reasons for it.
I mean, all-in-all, it's not a terrible movie - it's a lot of fun and the world is set up wonderfully. If you're a book fan, it helps to check any and all expectations at the door before you go in because you'll enjoy it a lot more if you don't cling passionately to the canon material. If you haven't read the books, the movie is just a taste of the world of Percy Jackson and the books, as always, are a lot better. One of the girls who went with me who hadn't read the books - didn't even know what the books were about - said that she enjoyed the movie a lot more than she thought she would and that she liked it better than Harry Potter. So there you go. ;)
And mostly? I'm just hoping that people will see the movie, be interested enough by it to pick up the original books, and then come play in the fandom. I want more fan fic, dammit! ;)