NOTE: SPOILERS. READ AT OWN RISK.
There. I warned you.
I saw The Lightning Thief today. I had such high hopes. I was jumping in my theater seat going mildly fangirl during its past previews.
I walked out of the theater, ranting to my mother (who's not read the books) about how the movie killed the book. How the book was eight million times better. The movie was not...bad, per se. But AGH, the book had PLOTS, one self-contained within the book, and an over-arching plot that extends through all five books. Granted, I don't believe anyone signed on to do all five books as movies. I'm relatively sure they didn't, because the whole Kronos-reforming-to-take-over-the-world plot did not exist in the movie at all.
Still, given that. They cut out Ares from the movie entirely. ARES. Some of the best dialogue of the entire book! And Ares was a great character. I'll admit, I was skeptical of Alexandra Daddarios being Annabeth. While she did not portray Annabeth as in the book much at all, she did a good job. So I will grant points there. The guy who played Grover? The parts he did well, he did really well. The rest was whatever. And then they all looked like they were sixteen, instead of twelve.
A couple pros: Luke was cute. But he was supposed to be EVIL darnit, not some disgruntled teenager who wants to take over. And they drive a Maserati out of the Lotus Casino, and it sounds amazing.
Oh yeah, then my other minor beef. Hades...supposed to be one scary dude. Like black pits of eyes suck-your-soul-despair. In the movie, when he wasn't in his true-divine-fiery-dragon-monster-thing-form, he resembled some 70s rocker. Eccentric, yes, scary, only if his costume counts. I was disappointed.
That sums it up. I was just disappointed. But the books remain awesome. Rick Riordan FTW :D
