Summary
- The Percy Jackson movies deviate significantly from the source material, sacrificing true character development and well-paced reveals for over-the-top action sequences and artificial stakes.
- The aging up of Percy Jackson’s character in the films undermines the coming-of-age narrative of the books, where he navigates discoveries about his identity and the world around him.
- The movies cut out important elements of Percy’s character, such as his struggles with controlling his demi-god powers and his representation of dyslexia and ADHD, which were very significant in the books.
While all book-to-movie adaptations are subject to plot and character alterations, the Percy Jackson movies take massive liberties when it comes to their source material. Based on Rick Riordan’s young adult fantasy series Percy Jackson & the Olympians, 2010’s The Lightning Thief and its 2013 sequel Sea of Monsters make significant changes to the author’s beloved characters and their thrilling adventures. More often than not, these changes aren’t for the better.
Sometimes, novel-to-screen adaptations need to make changes that best suit the medium at hand. The Percy Jackson movies, however, don’t play to the film’s strengths in a way that justifies the stark departures from Riordan’s books. Instead of staying true to the source material or making minor medium-appropriate adjustments, the Percy Jackson movies trade well-paced reveals and true character development for artificially inflated stakes and meant-to-be-cool action sequences. Ultimately, these massive changes are the franchise’s Achilles’ heel.
10 Logan Lerman’s Percy Jackson Is Older Than He Should Be
It’s no secret that Hollywood loves casting 20-somethings as teenagers. For some series, it works out just fine, but that’s not quite the case with the Percy Jackson and the Olympians movies. A fundamental component of Rick Riordan’s first book, The Lightning Thief, is Percy’s age. The demi-god middle schooler is 12 years old when the series begins. For the film adaptation, Percy (Logan Lerman) is aged up to better align with Lerman’s then-age.
That said, Percy makes the leap to 16-year-old high schooler. While that doesn’t seem like a huge issue, it undermines the particular coming-of-age narrative Riordan’s books tell. The younger on-the-page Percy doesn’t just navigate discoveries about his own identity but about the world at large. By the end of the five-book series, he’s a full-fledged adult, making for a compelling arc.
9 Everyone Already Knows Percy Is Poseidon’s Son
In the movie version of The Lightning Thief, Percy and his mother, Sally (Catherine Keener), are rushed to Camp Half-Blood after the teen is attacked by the Fury Alecto (Maria Olsen) on a field trip. Upon arriving at the secluded location, Percy fights (and handily defeats) a minotaur, only to wake three days later in the camp. When he comes to, his Latin teacher, Mr. Brunner (Pierce Brosnan), reveals quite a bit: not only is Brunner a centaur, but Percy’s best pal, Grover (Brandon T. Jackson), is a satyr.
Moreover, the leaders of Camp Half-Blood are quick to inform Percy Jackson that he’s the son of Poseidon — one of the “big three” Olympians — and the other campers immediately treat him like a prophetic hero. In Riordan’s books, Percy doesn’t know the truth about his parentage until the “claiming” — a process by which a deity confirms who their demi-god child is by sending a symbol of their power. Thankfully, Disney’s Percy Jackson season 2 plans to avoid an adaptation problem that plagued the films by letting the story unfold naturally instead of shoehorning everything into season 1.
8 Percy Doesn’t Struggle To Control His Demi-God Powers
After his son was diagnosed with ADHD and dyslexia, author Rick Riordan invented the Percy Jackson character to provide sorely needed representation for his child. Soon enough, the character transitioned from the hero of Riordan’s bedtime tales to the protagonist of an ultra-successful franchise. While The Lightning Thief film also centers on a character living with dyslexia and ADHD, it drops these elements of Percy’s character rather quickly, cutting much-needed representation. Moreover, movie-Percy excels at swordplay and manipulating water rather quickly. However, this change undermines what sets Riordan’s hero apart; book-Percy struggles to control his demi-god powers in the books, making for a more relatable story.
7 Luke’s Reveal Happens Much Earlier
The Lightning Thief movie almost immediately positions Luke Castellan (Jake Abel), the demi-god son of Hermes (Dylan Neal), as Percy Jackson’s rival. While Percy is still blamed for the theft of Zeus’ (Sean Bean) lightning bolt, it’s clear from the jump that Luke isn’t just a rival but a key antagonist. This differs drastically from the more slow-burn Luke reveal in the first book. When Percy embarks on his quest, Luke provides him with his flying sneakers — a nod to Hermes’ winged shoes — and seems like an ally, even if the two have a rivalry on the side.
After Percy is wrongly accused of stealing not just the lightning bolt but Hades’ Helm of Darkness, it seems like the whole scheme was cooked up by Ares, God of War, in an attempt to get the “big three” — Zeus, Hades, and Poseidon — to fight. In the aftermath of World War II, the “big three” vowed to put down arms against one another and not father any demi-god children. In the book’s final pages, a disillusioned Luke reveals himself to be the real thief, working alongside the powerful Titan Kronos, who is the father of the “big three” Olympians.
6 The God Of War Is Cut From The Movie
In Riordan’s book, Percy and his pals, Annabeth and Grover, make their way to Los Angeles to visit the realm of Hades. Given the God of the Underworld’s long-standing feud with his brother Zeus, he’s the prime suspect in the stolen lightning bolt caper. After weathering attacks from the Furies, Medusa, and other mythological beasts, the trio helps Ares out. In return, the God of War gifts them a backpack full of much-needed supplies and helps them on their California-bound quest.
When Percy finally arrives in Hades’ realm, the god accuses him of stealing not just the lightning bolt, but his own Helm of Darkness. After Hades threatens to kill Percy’s mother, the young hero discovers Zeus’ lightning bolt inside the pack Ares gave him. Realizing Ares has manipulated everyone, Percy goes toe-to-toe with the God of War. After defeating Ares, Percy returns to Camp Half-Blood as a hero. The film cuts Ares completely, making it all the more obvious that Luke is the true thief and master manipulator. Hopefully, Disney’s Percy Jackson TV show will introduce characters earlier to avoid this issue.
5 Percy And Luke’s Rivalry Plays Out Much Differently
In the books, Percy and Luke are still rivals in a few different ways. There is, of course, the natural competition that comes with being young and powerful demi-gods. Later, the two are something of romantic rivals; although the middle school-aged Percy and Annabeth start out as friends, that blossoms into something more over the course of the five-book series. Annabeth’s relationship with Luke certainly complicates the whole dynamic. In the films, Percy and Luke are pretty immediately at odds, both on the battlefield and outside of it.
The biggest change revolving around Luke and Percy, however, comes at the story’s conclusion. In the book, Percy thinks he’s saved the day by defeating Ares. Later, Luke takes him into the woods surrounding Camp Half-Blood and reveals that he stole Zeus and Hades’ prized items under the instruction of the Titan Kronos, who, in turn, had manipulated Ares into joining the plot. Thinking the Olympians are irresponsible rulers in need of replacement, Luke offers Percy a chance to join him and Kronos. While the film has Percy and Luke duking it out in Manhattan, the book sees Luke trying to poison Percy with a scorpion.
4 Percy’s Quest To The Underworld Is Totally Different
While both the book and movie versions of The Lightning Thief see Percy, Annabeth, and Grover squaring off with creatures like the Gorgon Medusa (Uma Thurman) on their quest to Hades’ Los Angeles-based realm, the film adds in some new complications. Luke provides the trio with a map that leads to the location of three pearls; the magical gems belong to Persephone and have the power to teleport them out of the realm. It’s a pretty needless addition to the plot, especially since Hades isn’t really the story’s antagonist in the end. However, by cutting Ares, the film needed to pack the story with a few other twists and turns before Percy and Luke’s face-off.
3 Sea of Monsters Merges Several Books
Instead of adapting Riordan’s second book, 2013’s Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Sea of Monsters pulls unnecessarily from several of the author’s sequels. For starters, Percy learns of the Great Prophecy pretty quickly in the film, even though his book counterpart isn’t clued in until the saga’s fifth and final installment, The Last Olympian. It’s a strange departure, especially given the studios’ initial intention to make a third film. Instead of setting up a climatic series, Sea of Monsters dives straight into the most epic elements of the later Percy Jackson books.
Moreover, since The Lightning Thief didn’t set up characters and plot points that are crucial to the saga — and the sequel book, specifically — Sea of Monsters cuts key threads and rushes through Percy’s story. For example, Clarisse (Leven Rambin), the demi-god daughter of Ares, isn’t introduced in the first film, which makes her second-movie rivalry with Percy all the more random. Frustratingly, Sea of Monsters also completely misuses the series’ big bad, Kronos (Robert Knepper), which made it pretty impossible for the movie franchise to move forward, hence why Percy Jackson 3 didn’t happen.
2 Annabeth And Grover Are Nothing Like Their Book Counterparts
Percy Jackson’s best friends, Grover Underwood and Annabeth Chase (Alexandra Daddario), round out the franchise’s core trio. However, the movies take some massive liberties with the on-screen counterparts of Percy’s pals. Percy’s long-time friend Grover is still a satyr in the movies, but, unlike his book self, Grover isn’t as much of an empath. Riordan’s more sensitive Grover has a strong bond with nature and excels at sensing emotions, though he’s not very confident at the outset. This characterization gives him a chance to grow. The movie Grover is a bit more boisterous and daring, and the film generally relegates him to the role of comic-relief sidekick.
The film does an even bigger disservice to Annabeth Chase, the demi-god daughter of Athena. Like her mother, Annabeth is meant to be an excellent battle tactician; while the first movie gives viewers the vague impression of her being a strategist, this isn’t carried on throughout the film. Instead, she ends up being somewhat helpless, while Percy solves the trio’s problems and defeats their enemies. Book Annabeth isn’t just nerdy and intelligent, but outspoken. Moreover, the film doesn’t delve into her backstory or dynamic with Luke at all. When the son of Hermes reveals himself to be the villain, the film Annabeth has almost no reaction, as opposed to her book counterpart’s understandable outrage.
1 Kronos Is Hardly A Threat In The Film
At the end of Riordan’s Lightning Thief, Luke reveals that he’s working with Kronos to usurp the Olympians, who he believes have misused their powers and acted irresponsibly. It’s a compelling setup, especially given that Kronos, a pre-Olympic gods Titan, is the father of Zeus and his siblings. While Percy and his friends face all sorts of threats throughout Riordan’s initial five-book saga, the looming threat of Kronos is what the series culminates in. Everything wrong with the Percy Jackson movies can be boiled down to the films’ utter misunderstanding of what makes Kronos such an imposing threat.
Luke spends half a decade resurrecting Kronos, who was chopped into bits and tossed into Tartarus, the Underworld’s deepest reaches. With each of Riordan’s installments, Percy finds a way to stand in Luke’s way, thus delaying Kronos’ return. By the third act of Sea of Monsters the movie, however, Luke brings Kronos back. The book version of this comeback sees Kronos possessing Luke’s body, which complicates Percy and Annabeth’s efforts to kill the reborn Titan. Not only does Kronos’ on-screen appearance trade possession for a giant CGI fire monster, but it takes Percy a few minutes to slay him, completely undermining the stakes of the whole Percy Jackson saga.
#Biggest #Percy #Jackson #Movies #Rick #Riordans #Original #Books
