Movie Review: Percy Jackson and The Lightning Thief

As a lot of you know, I'm in love with the book series, Percy Jackson and The Olympians. When I learned about.....um maybe 2 years ago that they were making a movie, I was happy and sad about it. When you love a book as much as I love this fantastic Greek mythology based book series, you hate to see someone else take their own ideas and mix them with the author's, creating a mess of weirdness and stick it on the big screen. However, I'm a movie lover. A big movie lover. So, I decided to give it a chance.
I FINALLY got around to seeing it today with Papi, having waited two weeks after it's release. I knew that there were already two things that this movie had going for it before I even entered the theater. 1- They have a GREAT movie poster [see pictured above]. I was actually worried that they were going to re-release the 1st book of the series (Author: Rick Riordan, for anyone interested in checking them out) with the new movie poster as the cover. (They often do this with books, no?) I KNEW that I'd buy it, even though I already own a hardcover, glossy and very beautiful copy with the original cover. However, they did not. (I was kinda disappointed, but my check book is grateful.)
And 2- The main actor, Logan Lerman, is EXACTLY how I pictured Percy Jackson. It's crazy. (At least how I pictured him in books 4-5ish. In the first book he's only 11 years old....and in the movie he's like 16 or something.)
I left the theater kinda bummed. However, during the whole movie I wasn't bummed once. It was actually pretty decent. I was entertained, for sure. As expected, the main actor was great! I really love him. If he weren't like 17 in real life, or I was 17 again, I might have a fangirl crush on him. However, since I'm 7 years his senior, I have "what a cute kid" type feelings for him. (Oh my gosh, I feel disgustingly old right now. Blech!)
Most of the actors I enjoyed very much. Sean Bean plays Zeus! I LOVE Sean Bean. He's such a fun actor, and he always plays his characters so well. Kevin Mckidd plays Poseidon. For those who watch Grey's Anatomy, you'd know him as Dr. Owen Hunt. I don't like him in that show, but I loved him in this. Boy, he is one good looking man. He had a Brit accent in this movie, but in real life he's got an Irish one *swoon*. Great job by Uma Thurman cast as Medusa. She was PERFECT! And wow, they nailed those CGI snakes. Pierce Brosnan, who I'd lost all faith in after seeing the movie Mama Mia!, restored my love for him in this film. Though, in the film his character's part was quite small. (In the books he's a major character) Also, props again to the special affects team for making him look like a real Centaur.
OK, so basically, I loved the characters themselves, however that's not to say they reflected the characters in the book. Most of them didn't, but in the context of the movie, they were very well done. They all had great chemistry, which is something that really glues a movie together, in my opinion.
Now, onto the plot. Here is why I left the theater bummed. THEY COMPLETELY OMITTED THE ENTIRE STORY ARC OF THE FIVE BOOKS!!! What the hell?? How are they even suppose to make movies of the following books if they do that?? It's impossible! They left out at least a dozen extremely important characters, and changed the other half into completely different characters who happened to have the same names. (Except Chiron AKA Pierce Brosnan. They really nailed his character.) I mean, seriously though. They took the SUB STORY of the first book and made a movie of that. SO weird. So weird. I'm just so.....unsettled about it.
I guess in the great scheme of things I can understand why they did what they did. They didn't know how the much the movie would make so they wanted to make it more of a stand alone movie. I understand it , but I don't like it.
Also, in the first book, the main characters are about 11 years old. For the movie they aged them like five years. (Another obvious reason they had to omit the story arc...it would have made no sense at the age they were in the movie.) Again, I understand why. Who wants to watch a bunch of 11 year-old kids do stuff?
There is only one more thing that really irked me. And if you can believe this, it's what irked me the most. The main female character, Annabeth, is BLONDE in the book. Percy mentions it like a trillion times. It totally adds to her character! But of course they couldn't find any blondes to play Annabeth in the movie, I mean, they were wiped out with the dinosaurs right?? So the Annabeth in the movie was brunette. Ugh. Bugs. Plus they left out 90% of her character's qualities, so I guess it doesn't really matter. But still. Grrrr. (Although, the actress was not bad. She's actually in White Collar as Neil's long lost girlfriend, for anyone who watches that! LOVE that show.)
So, if it was possible for me separate my love for the book, and my like for the movie, all would be well with the world. But alas, I can't seem to do that.

If you like fun movies, that are really made for younger audiences (although it was surprisingly NOT immature) and you haven't read the books, check this movie out! Then after you do, go read the books. Because they're amazing. I think I'm going to go read over my favorite parts as soon as I'm done blogging!!

I give it 3 out of 5 stars. :)

*So, this is my first ever movie review. Maybe I'll give you more in the future, but only if you comment on what a fab job I did. ;)*

Love you all! -Peace