Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The lighting thief
I am usually not a purist in terms of movies based on books. I understand that you really can't do a movie that is 100% faithful to the book (specially if it was written by Stephen King book, or is a Harry Potter book or a Lord of the Rings book, etc.). I even liked the adaptation of the Lord of the Rings books to movies (with a few exceptions here and there, but they were, in my opinion, fairly good).
But just a few days, I ended up reading Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The lightning thief . When that movie was in theaters, I was planning to see it, but it last so little that I didn't have the chance (I guess that should have been my first hint). So, I found the book and read it, it was quite good, the story was interesting, the mystery surrounding the story was good, and I kinda like how they put together old mythology and the 20th century culture, where even if you are a god, you still have to pay your employees (this is specially true where the heroes finally get into the Underworld). I also liked the depiction of the Gods, where they weren't good or evil, just plain narcissistic, egocentric and with a duty to do.
I also realized that it would be a pain in the ass to turn it into a good movie. The plot is quite simple, the f/X depicted in the book are fairly simple, and there were too many plot devices to be used later in the story and many plot twists that it would have been difficult to include them all. Besides, the action scenes (the favorites of most people) were lacking or where quite simple and short.
So... yesterday I saw the movie (cassen_grrrl bought it a few days ago) and everything that I liked about the book was destroyed in the movie. The story in a VERY GENERAL sense is the same, but all those things that I liked about the book where destroyed in the movie. So now, we have the typical good gods and one evil god, where all their actions and consequences to the human race is purely "collateral damage", where it's not that they didn't want to see their kids, but because Zeus ordered them not to contact their kids. So all the gods are just "victims" of a law that had to be in place so the world could function. I mean, couldn't they find a lamer excuse??!!?!?! And of course, the whole depiction of the underworld. Why, o why did they have to depict Hades as Satan (wings and everything) physically, why did they have to depict the Underworld as Hell, and why did they have to destroy an excellent depiction of Hades (again, not good nor evil, just fulfilling his duty) in order to use, again, an stereotypical view of a modern Satan (cruel, with no honor, etc). They also destroyed all the mystery surrounding the story (who was the real bad guy, how the lighting got stolen, the meaning of the prophecy, and some other things that are discovered later) and just did a "let's kick some underworld ass" action movie with Demigods as the action heroes.
Too bad, it could have been a better movie, maybe not a huge success, but at least a good movie. I now understand why it bombed in the theaters.
But just a few days, I ended up reading Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The lightning thief . When that movie was in theaters, I was planning to see it, but it last so little that I didn't have the chance (I guess that should have been my first hint). So, I found the book and read it, it was quite good, the story was interesting, the mystery surrounding the story was good, and I kinda like how they put together old mythology and the 20th century culture, where even if you are a god, you still have to pay your employees (this is specially true where the heroes finally get into the Underworld). I also liked the depiction of the Gods, where they weren't good or evil, just plain narcissistic, egocentric and with a duty to do.
I also realized that it would be a pain in the ass to turn it into a good movie. The plot is quite simple, the f/X depicted in the book are fairly simple, and there were too many plot devices to be used later in the story and many plot twists that it would have been difficult to include them all. Besides, the action scenes (the favorites of most people) were lacking or where quite simple and short.
So... yesterday I saw the movie (cassen_grrrl bought it a few days ago) and everything that I liked about the book was destroyed in the movie. The story in a VERY GENERAL sense is the same, but all those things that I liked about the book where destroyed in the movie. So now, we have the typical good gods and one evil god, where all their actions and consequences to the human race is purely "collateral damage", where it's not that they didn't want to see their kids, but because Zeus ordered them not to contact their kids. So all the gods are just "victims" of a law that had to be in place so the world could function. I mean, couldn't they find a lamer excuse??!!?!?! And of course, the whole depiction of the underworld. Why, o why did they have to depict Hades as Satan (wings and everything) physically, why did they have to depict the Underworld as Hell, and why did they have to destroy an excellent depiction of Hades (again, not good nor evil, just fulfilling his duty) in order to use, again, an stereotypical view of a modern Satan (cruel, with no honor, etc). They also destroyed all the mystery surrounding the story (who was the real bad guy, how the lighting got stolen, the meaning of the prophecy, and some other things that are discovered later) and just did a "let's kick some underworld ass" action movie with Demigods as the action heroes.
Too bad, it could have been a better movie, maybe not a huge success, but at least a good movie. I now understand why it bombed in the theaters.