Redux Month: Percy Jackson & the (Olympians: The) Lightning Thief

I took a look at the Percy Jackson movies side by side as a sequel baiting, concluding that whilst neither of them were good, Sea of Monsters marginally edged out The Lightning Thief as a better product. Now time to look at each of them as individual entities.

I have now read the first two Percy Jackson novels and… they were OK. It was a reasonably engaging tale and I like the idea of Greek Gods operating in the modern world but I felt like Percy got to see all the horror and calamity with none of the fun and joy. And this may have been intentional, true to Greek myth and whatnot, but was jarring to me as a reader. It kinda reminded me of the Spiderwick Chronicles (the film anyway, and not in context, but in tone). The Lightning Thief was the worst for this, as we continually saw that Percy was being blamed for disasters caused by the monster fights, being essentially branded a terrorist.

The writer for this first outing and yes, there’s only one, is Craig Titley. He did the not particularly good live action Scooby Doo movie, a couple of decent episodes of Star Wars: The Clone Wars and a few from Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. So, you could argue this as a net positive, not seen Cheaper by the Dozen so can’t use that to judge but it’s never a great sign when you only have one writer, and no-one to reign him in.

Chris Columbus is in the director’s chair, just off of the first two Harry Potter movies, so at least he’s a guy with experience in this. The film made money but not to the same level as Harry Potter did and got a more decidedly mixed reception. Why? Let’s take a closer look.

Zeus’ lightning bolt has been stolen and because of poorly explained reasons, he suspects the son of Poseidon has ordered the theft, as they can’t steal each other’s possessions directly. He threatens war if the bolt isn’t returned to him before the summer solstice.

Poseidon’s son of question is one Percy Jackson, who is confronted by one of Hades’ monsters, disguised as a substitute teacher, searching for the bolt. Percy lives with his mother, Sally and her abusive husband, Gabe. Deciding that Percy is no longer safe at the house, Sally and Percy, along with Grover, a satyr protector for Percy, head to the woods to camp for demigods, Camp Half Blood, they are attacked by a minotaur and Sally is abducted by Hades

Percy, Grover and Annabeth, daughter of Athena, who Percy had befriended earlier, set out to rescue Sally from Hades’ clutches, will they be able to stop the war between the gods whilst they’re at it?

So, saying the book makes more sense, has better characterisation, and less unnecessary pop music practically goes without saying. The humour is done better in the book too, and this all coming from someone who is decidedly mixed on the book. I won’t go into all the individual elements here, since the Dom has a lost in Adaptation on this book/film and you should just go watch that.

What I will say is Persephone’s pearls, one of the major plot mcguffins of this film, is a stupid change that not only has no foundation in Greek Myth, but also makes the plot more predictable and make less sense.

I get the intention to have a more flowing narrative rather than it just being a series of random encounters they have along the way. But the problem is there are 3 pearls collected thanks to their cheap rip-off of the Marauders map. And the obvious problem is that there are 4 people coming out. No-one didn’t see this twist coming. At least in the book, they were given these straight off, so had no control over the number of them they had, but surely, they knew they’d need 4 of them, especially since one of them is the daughter of the goddess of wisdom.

Speaking of the underworld, and Hades in general. They seem to be confusing Greek and Christian mythology. The Underworld is not hell, at least not all of it. The Underworld is where all dead people go, good, bad, unjudged, whoever. Hades is not an evil god, he’s a manipulative dick, but that describes just about every god in Greek Mythology, and from what I hear he’s one of the nicer ones.

He didn’t want to start a war in the book, the last thing he needed was a greater influx of dead folk. Also, what was Persephone doing there in the middle of summer? So why was he after Percy in the books? Turns out his helmet, that allows him to move in the dark without being seen was stolen too, he suspects by Percy, that’s why he took Percy’s mother. Once he sees that Ares had the helm, he restored her, and she in turn cleared Percy’s name in the media.

The book removes two of its main villains, those being Kronos and Ares. Removing Kronos presents a slight problem when it comes to Luke and his motivations. Why did he give Percy the flying shoes if it wasn’t to lead him into Kronos’ trap once he reached the underworld? It also means we’re not introduced to the main antagonist of the entire franchise.

Removing Ares is probably more understandable but means the climax takes place in the air, Zeus’ domain and the one place Percy shouldn’t be when Zeus is angry with him. In the book, the fight with Ares, there was no fight with Luke, took place near the water, Percy’s source of strength. Luke got away scot free in this book.

The soundtrack’s use of pop songs often felt forced, the Highway to Hell moment in particular. Because it’s not Hell, it’s the underworld. I don’t have many complaints regarding the acting, though I feel those playing the Greek Gods were giving at best passable performances. Persephone and Hades were among the weaker ones.

Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief follows the broad-strokes of the plot of the book, whilst diverging in many, often important details, this leaves the film that feels very familiar if you’re a fan of Harry Potter or the like and aside the inclusion of Greek Gods, something they do with mixed results, nothing major is new here. It’s not the worst film I’ve ever seen but it could’ve been a lot better

Rating 50/100