Percy Jackson and the Lighning Thief

This afternoon, Clyde and I went to see the movie. First of all it is the first time we have gone to the local theater and it has been full. That was a bit of a surprise. We have gone to movies that are popular that have just come out before and been the only ones in there. I was quite delighted to be in a full theater. Call me weird. The other thing is that people were coming in late and the audience was getting annoyed. They were yelling for the people to get seated! I liked that too because that meant that we were with people that truly wanted to see the movie and not just waste the afternoon.

I go to movies based on books with no expectations of the movie ever being close to the book. The ONLY movie that has ever come close or beyond my expectations with a book was "Jumanji." What could you possibly do to mess up a picture book?! Plus the author helped write the screenplay. I have a question? Why don't authors get to help write the screenplays. For "Holes" the author helped and you could tell. Anyway - back to Percy. I was terribly disappointed on one major front - 'Camp Half-Blood'. It looked like a Boy Scout camp not a Roman Arena - like I imagined. Not only that - it looked like a forgotten Boy Scout Camp. The story meandered around from several books. I wasn't sure which book we were following. But on other hand for pure entertainment - it was fun. You did have to kind of know the books because there was no character development (or know mythology). They sort of explained Percy, Annabeth and Luke but not really. Grover was great! I loved his characterization. Percy was led immediately to his cabin and told he was Poseidon's son. Dionysus and Clarissa are not in the movie at all (or Aries or a bunch of other characters that I thought were important). Apparently who I thought was important were easily merged with other characters or eliminated all together with this screenplay.

For 2 hours of movie going - it was fun. Be sure and stay through the credits. As always Chris Columbus keeps the movie going 1/2 way through the credits. I am glad I saw it and yes, it will probably be added to our DVD library.