5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
Reviewed in the United States on December 5, 2015
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Reviewed in the United States on October 8, 2022
I have seen all other Percy Jackson movies but miss this one. good watch over all
Reviewed in the United States on August 29, 2022
I enjoy watching this movie. The DVD was in good condition.
Reviewed in the United States on June 30, 2010
I really enjoyed this movie, even though there are slight changes to the story compared to the book. First of all the plot line of the story... Percy is an ADHD and dislexic child attending Yancy Academy. One day on a field trip, a substitute teacher pulls him aside but turns into a winged creature and attacks him. Mr Brunner, another teacher, and Grover, a friend of Percy's, come to his rescue and subsequently explain that the winged creature was a furie. Percy is given a "pen" that turns into a sword from Mr. Brunner, and sent off to Camp Half-Blood. On the way to camp, Percy, his mother, and Grover are attacked by a Minotaur. Percy defeats the beast but not before he believes it has killed his mother. Percy and Grover arrive in Camp where he meets Chiron, the centaur. Chiron shows Percy the cabin that "his father built for him." The audience finds out Percy's dad is Poseidon. The campers then participate in a pretty full contact game of capture the flag, where Percy beats Annabeth. At the celebration that night Hades appears in the fire to force Percy to give Zeus' lightening bolt to him. Percy, Grover, and Annabeth then set off on a quest to get Percy's mom back from Hades even though Percy didn't take the lightening bolt that Hades wants. Luke, another camper, gives them a few items to help along the way, such as a shield and some winged shoes. In order to exit Hades they must find three of Persephone's pearls that are hidden around the USA. And off they go! They rest would just spoil it for you : )
I know that it was different in ways from the book but I, overall like the flow of the movie a little better. I do wish they would have kept all the detail regarding info on the Greek gods and myths in the movie. I also feel that the movie version of Camp Half-Blood did not live up to the image the book portrays and therefore could have been done better. I was really looking forward to seeing all the cool cabins, especially Poseidon's, but they were just kind of generic camp tents in the movie. Also, they took out a lot of what went on at camp before the quest and people Percy meets. In the movie there is no Dionysus, no oracle, no prophecy, and no Thalia's tree. Oh, and Clarissa. If you have never read the book you wouldn't feel like something is missing but it would have been cool to see the oracle and in my opinion the prophecy is important for the sequels. All this said, after Percy and company leave on their quest, I like the movie better. I probably can't give you as much detail on this but....I felt the changes they made to the book to make the movie after they left camp made the story flow much more smoothly. I liked that they left out Ares and Aphrodite, which in my opinion seemed a little disjointed from the rest of the plot of the book. Instead the blame goes right to Luke, which makes sense. And when they are traveling the country in search of the pearls....makes way more sense when thinking about why they traveled all over and then Poseidon's messenger just happens to give them the pearls. Also Percy's defeat of Luke at the end is way more believeable than Percy defeating Ares, god of war!! Anyhow, I hope you enjoy the book and the movie! I would recommend both!
Reviewed in the United States on February 23, 2015
I finally got around to watching this rather interesting movie. After inundated with many episodes of NCIS (all series) and CSI (all series) I felt I
needed a change of pace and being interested in Greek and Roman mythology and history, I purchased these films as well as the book set. I found
the movie very interesting, well made, cast well (with some exceptions) with a decent if rather unbelievable story line. The young man and the young
woman were exceptional, especially the beautiful girl. I love women with dark hair and bright blue eyes and she had those. The young man
was also quite attractive and has, I think, a good future in movies. I did have a problem with some of the political correctness that seems to be a
necessity in movies and TV today. They showed a black man God on Olympus and that simply is not factual; all the Greek and Roman Gods were
quite European. Also the Sataryr (!) was played by a young black
man who seemed to be primarily the comedy relief. Though perhaps I am nit-
picking, I like historical accuracy in stories. Imagine if a blond haired, blue eyed Euro played Martin Luther King in a movie of his life. Still, the
Sataryr (!) was well played and was a hero near the end. I may have miss-spelled the goat-mans species name; forgive me.
The tale of the Madusa creature was accurate as depicted in the movie except that she was kills thousands of years ago by Perseus. I
guess
Hades brought her back. The tale goes that Athena (that goodly wise Goddess) discovered that the young Madusa who was a priestess of hers
had been raped by Poseidon but punished Medusa as if she was the guilty one and exiled her and condemned her to live forever and turn people
to stone when she looked at them. And gave her a snake coffiere to boot. Lovely Goddess Athena, lady of Wisdom and Justice!!!
The tale of Hades is inaccurate: Hades was not an evil God, but he was a bit
crabby be being stuck in the Underworld to watch over the dead.
Not all of the Underworld was bad: Tartarus was were all the evil people went to suffer for ever, but the Fields of Eleisium was a pleasant place
for the good (mostly the upper classes!) and a middle world for the rest of us, rather boring but no suffering. there it is as I understand it. In
most movies the God Hades is portrayed as evil, but in reality he really wasn't, just grouchy! In the second of the "TITANS" movies,
he became
rather good at the end. But this film I think is fun, well done with a lovely young girl as a heroine, some good action including a near destruction
of the Empire State Building and lots of vertigo scenery. Evil is vanquished at the end. FOUR STARS for fun and imagination. I got my DVDs as
usual from Amazon.
One more thing. In the Odyssey there is character named Calypso who in fact may have been black. And I think the Calypso in the "PIRATES
OF THE CARIBBEAN" may in
fact supposed to be the same woman, as she was a Demi-Goddess. So there! Live long and Prosper! Enjoy!
Reviewed in the United States on February 16, 2022
Since I haven't read the book, I found this a pretty good adventure. Killings without gore, no foul language, no nudity and some fun laughs.
The creatures were well-made (CGI) and were scary without being frightening for kids. Kids like to be scared but not overly so.
I read in reviews complaints about hair coloring, etc. I have found that to be true about most movies...adult as well as children.
I think this is a fun movie for the family to watch together and for people to read the books separately and not try and compare the two. So, popcorn all around, please.
Reviewed in the United States on July 10, 2022
I enjoyed it as much as my 12-year-old. We had a lot of fun reading it together. We had a hard time finding what was next after reading the Harry Potter series. This was it. Enjoy.
Top reviews from other countries
2.0 out of 5 stars Too many changes
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 2, 2013
A review by Kieran my 13 year old son;
I have been reading the Percy Jackson series for some time so when I decided to try the film I was quite excited. I was to be disappointed.
Bad Points: I'm guessing that this list is going to be longer than the good points list (most bad points are just things that I thought were needlessly changed from the original book).
So first is the age of the actors, Chris Columbus was the director of the first in the Harry Potter series, the Philosophers/Sorcerer's stone. I like this film and despite many critics saying that he did not make enough changes from the books it was generally well scored. The actors in Harry Potter were perfect; they grew up as the films grew up. Why is this anything to do with Percy Jackson? In the books Percy is 12, the actor, Logan Lerman, is 17 (at the time of filming). Big problems already, Chris Columbus obviously thought...something. It was probably to do with acting ability. If the Percy Jackson & the Olympians were to become popular enough to have lots of films in the series then there would be huge problems. The actors would get too old and they would need to find new ones. Percy isn't even the worst! Grover (12-13 in the book) is 25 in the film!
Next is the school, Yancy Academy, the first school in the series that Percy goes to. I was pleased that the author of the book, Rick Riordon, didn't go with the classic look of making American Schools look horrible, sure, he puts in the occasional Bully but not all that over the top stuff that lots of people add into books or films. Watching the film however is different. You are immediately greeted as Percy and Grover walk into the school by two boys attacking each other. Percy and Grover then start grumbling about how badly they hate High School, stating how terrible it is. I don't come from the U.S.A or even America so I don't have that experience; I bet most people who are from there don't either.
I'm sorry to say that the worst is yet to come. The changes that are made through the transition between book and film are very important, they are usually due to shortening the story to just two hours long. But Chris Columbus seems to have changed whole
scenes, settings and characters so I have made a nice list (WARNING: spoilers).
1. Percy Jackson learns his skills too quickly (the first time you see him he is showing them off).
2. He uses his sword to take down a Minotaur in less than a minute, there is nowhere near as much drama as there is in the book, it's like watching someone play a video game on "very easy" or "novice".
3. Camp Half-blood is in a forest, not a valley.
4. Annabeth is a horrible Bully who likes nothing more
than to hurt and injure people while being especially arrogant. For those who have not read the book that is a girl called Clarisse's job, Annabeth is meant to be a very nice person who nursed Percy back to health. This is very important as Annabeth turns out to be a very important character in the book.
5. It seems that the cabin idea in CAMP Half-Blood has been ditched and instead Percy gets a huge floating mansion, he doesn't get claimed either. Another part of the story missing.
I could probably go further in this section but sadly I could only watch the film for 30 minutes before I had to turn it off. I have never had to done this before.
Good Points: It's a great time to now add the small amount of good points. These pushed the film up from a one star review to a two star review for me.
Gabe Ugliano and Sally's characters were pictured perfectly and there ages weren't ludicrously different to the book like some of the others. They were different to how I thought of them but I don't mind since they were done so well. Chiron was OK too.
However my main good point is that Percy Jackson & the Olympians: the Lightning Thief actually has lots of action and amazing special effects. For someone who has not read the book (otherwise the changes will irritate you) and loves a good action film this is great. It's just a shame that it's lost so much of the books brilliant storyline.
3.0 out of 5 stars Good but different from the book
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 7, 2013
It's very difficult to get a book made into a film without it being completely gutted and re-written. This is what has happened with this movie version of what was a very enjoyable book.
The film, on its own, is quite entertaining, and if the viewer hasn't read the book it will not make a difference to the level of enjoyment. If you have read the book, be prepared to watch a film that has very little in common with the story, other than the names of the characters.
The casting is interesting and slightly quirky. Steve Coogan as Hades? Ok. Maybe. Maybe not. I'd vote for the latter. Pierce Brosnan did his best as a centaur, but there's only so much you can do with CGI. Other monsters were better presented but there were puzzling ommissions.
Overall, it's good. Not fabulous, but good. Read the book, if you want to be entertained with good action and clever jokes. Watch the film if you simply want a bit of fun.
5.0 out of 5 stars Its just a film!
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on July 14, 2010
Havin read some of the reviews I have to say, who cares if the greek mythology is acurate! Its a film! Just enjoy it for what it is, entertainment!!! Second if you have read the books you may not like the film, because there are differences. Unfortuantely sometimes when translating a book to film they have time limits, budget limits and a need to explain things quickly, as not everyone who has seen the film has read the books! This leads to scenes and people being cut out or changed! If you are a major fan of the films that stick completely to the book I would say don't watch it! However if like me you just like to be entertained, and are flexible with plot lines then go for it!
3.0 out of 5 stars Doesn't stick to the book
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on July 1, 2013
My kids who are Percy Jackson fans are pretty scathing of this DVD. They say it lacks the humour, they don't like the characterisation of the main character, the script is weak and much of the details of the plot have been lost. However they are still interested to know what #2 will turn out like.
So why a 3*? Well, if you're not a serious fan or can't remember the plot too well it's fine and it does include some of the Greek myths. moreover, if you're teacher like me using the books for a class reader, the film is still useful as a teaching aid.
5.0 out of 5 stars Percy Jackson & the Lightning Thief
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 21, 2013
A cracking fantasy adventure story for children of all ages. Percy Jackson assumes that he is an average american boy, with an obnoxious step father, and a down trodden mother. Then he finds out that his real father is Poseidon, he is a demi-god, and he is being accused of stealing Zeus' lightning rod. Accompanied by two new friends from the demi-god school, he Sets out on a cross-country journey to recover the lightning rod, and thus prevent a war between the gods, that could destroy the world. 2 hours of adventures among the Gods, enjoy.