Hi everyone today I’m doing another geek out blog post. Today I’m doing a review and comparison of the Percy Jackson books and movies written by Rick Riordan. The series is very long so I’ll only be doing the first book today which is called the lightning thief. Also I’d like to add a SPOILER WARNING FOR PERCY JACKSON: THE LIGHTNING THIEF (book and movie).

If you want to read a synopsis of the book here it is: PJO book

If you want to read the synopsis of the movie here it is: PJO movie

The difference between the book and movie

So if you’ve ever read the book and seen the movie you know that they are very different things. They don’t really even share the same plot. For example in the movie Luke and Percy have a big fight at the end of the movie when Percy is returning the lightning bolt but, in the book that doesn’t happen.

Another example is in the book camp half blood plays capture the flag but they don’t do that in the movie. Capture the flag is quite a big deal in the book and I think it would have been a good idea to include that in the movie.

There were a bunch of character differences as well. One of them was that we never get to meet the camp director Mr D (or Dionysus but names have power so no saying it). 

I think that the movie should have spent a lot more time at camp half blood because it’s such an important part of the story as it’s where all of them live for most of the year. Also we never get to see Percy and Nancy Bobofit interact which is kind of sad because it was funny to read about.

The last difference I’m going to talk about is the age of the characters in the movie vs the book. These characters are children. CHILDREN. They are 12 years old this is a very important because we get the see them grow up together but they can’t do that if they look like their already 15 or 16. What I’m getting at is that the movie should have hired way younger actors to play the characters.

 

My opinions on the book

This is my favourite series at the moment. It is very well written and funny. I love to see how the characters develop over time and the relationships they form. 

The lightning thief really got me hooked on the books. I remember that I flew through it in about three days because I was so interested. I really like how even now that I’m a little older I can still enjoy them. 

I also really like how there are so many different stories in the same universe for example The Trials of Apollo (spoilers ahead for the trials of Apollo and the hero’s of Olympus: the blood of Olympus) the book starts of with Apollo who had been punished for his actions in the blood of Olympus by being put in a mortal body and getting sent to earth. He then looks for Percy and Percy, not wanting to deal with him takes him to camp half blood.

I just think that those little tidbits from other books by Rick Riordan are really fun for the people who have read the other series’.

 

My opinions on the movie

So I’ve already stated that I do not like the movie. But, before I got into reading I despised books and I told myself that I was never going to read the Percy Jackson books. So I did the worst thing ever, I watched the movie before I read the book. I know its bad but that gave me a whole different view of things so that is what I’m going to be basing my opinions on for now.

Before I read the books I thought that it was a great movie and I wondered why no else liked it (I know now). And I still agree somewhat with that statement it’s a good movie on its own but when you compare it to the book it suddenly isn’t so great.

I think that separating the movie and the book is relatively easy seeing as they are so dissimilar. And as I said I believe that separately they are both good but this was an example of a failed attempt at making a book into a movie.

Final thoughts

The fandom was disappointed with the movie but hopefully the series that Disney is making will be better. I’d love to hear what you think of the movie or the book. That’s it for today!

This is Grover, Percy and Annabeth in the lightning thief movie (what they should’ve looked like if there was a fifth movie)

This is Percy, Annabeth and Grover as how their described in book five (imagine as a littler version of these pictures for the first book)

This is rick Riordan’s website/blog: Rick Riordan

Thanks for reading -Sydney🙃