BOOK and MOVIE REVIEW: Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief

WARNING: The following may contain spoilers for both the book and the movie of the same title: The Lightning Thief (Movie Tie-in Edition) (Percy Jackson and the Olympians)

I decided to do this review as my very first review online only because a) I liked the movie version even before I read the book and b) I liked the book even after I’ve seen the movie.

Wouldn’t you agree that sometimes movies turn out to be better than their book counterparts or vice versa? Like for example, the Twilight series. I’ve read the whole series but the Twilight movies (Twilight and New Moon) didn’t impress me much.

Anyway, let’s get back to business.

Oh, and by the way, I don’t plan on summarizing the book and then analyzing it. I’m just going to give my opinion straight out but the review may contain bits and pieces of the book.

So here goes…

I thought it was a good idea to have seen the movie version first before reading the book. I’d been eying the book for several weeks but was holding off until after I saw the movie. That did not disappoint.

Percy (short for Perseus) Jackson is the main protagonist, apparently with problems with authority except for his mom and Mr. Brunner. I must say that they did a LOT of revisions and were VERY, VERY liberal with the book. For example:

• BOOK VERSION: Percy Jackson is 12 years old
• MOVIE VERSION: Percy Jackson maybe around 15-17 years old as portrayed by actor Logan Lerman.
• BOOK VERSION: Nancy Bobofit as the school bully
• MOVIE VERSION: No school bully
• BOOK VERSION: No funny “this is a pen” dialogue
• MOVIE VERSION: The unforgettable “this is a pen” dialogue.
• BOOK VERSION: Annabeth Chase nurses Percy back to health after the fight with the Minotaur. She also is teammates with Percy during the Capture the Flag game.
• MOVIE VERSION: Annabeth isn’t friendly at all towards Perseus and has a swordfight with him during the Capture the Flag game.
• BOOK VERSION: No Persephone
• MOVIE VERSION: Persephone plays a big part on Percy’s success.

And there are TONS more differences.

I liked both versions. Both versions were funny and action-packed and did not disappoint me. One could exist without the other, unlike, say the Twilight Series. You would be missing out on a lot if you’ve just seen the movie and did not read the books. Or maybe the Harry Potter series, both books and movies, would probably be a better illustration.

But maybe if they’d stuck with the book, it might’ve been a totally different movie. But I’m still really happy with both versions.

On the actors: Logan looks really cute and wasn’t bad at all. Alexandra Daddario who plays Annabeth Chase is gorgeous and is convincing as Athena’s daughter. I wasn’t surprised that Sean Bean is Zeus and Brandon Jackson who plays Grover isn’t as annoying as the one in the book.

So, get it if you will.

And this is my noise on my choice.