Movie:
Trailer: (from Youtube)
Wow. I was blown away by the special effects. It was clever how they managed to enlarge the size of the gods, and the flying scenes were made of awesome. I have to admit, Logan Lerman was quite hot! Kinda reminds me of Aaron Johnson in Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging.
Jake Abel was cute too...and did you know that the actress who played Annabeth was twenty-three?! She's very young and pretty though, kinda like an older version of Selena Gomez.
It wasn't Avatar, or Harry Potter for that matter, but the CG was pretty amazing. The special effects pulled off the lightning, The actors were quite good - I was expecting inexperienced kid actors, but the leads actors (as they generally are), were in the late teens to early twenties, and boy, they could act!
The scene with Medusa was vair vair scary - the use of film music (and I love film music - just had to add that) added to the dramatic, suspenseful scene, and gave it that extra special something.
On a side note: have you ever watched a dramatic moment in a film without the sound on? It looks absolutely nuts, (and kinda ruins the moment) so try it.
And then, there was the fight scene! I loved that it was on top of the Empire State building. They were flying in the sky, shooting lightning blots at each other, demolishing stone balconies - it was epic, fantastic stuff.
Some great screen-shots:
Book:
Title: Percy Jackson and the Lightning ThiefSeries: Percy Jackson and the Olympians
Author: Rick Riordan
Genre: Fantasy, Adventure
Blurb (from Puffin):
"The gods of Olympus are alive in the 21st Century. They still fall in love with mortals and have children who might become great heroes, but most of these children meet horrible fates at the hands of monsters by the age of twelve. Only a few learn the truth of their identity and make it to Half Blood Hill, a Long Island summer camp dedicated to training young demigods. Such is the revelation that launches young Percy Jackson on a quest to help his real father, Poseidon, avert a war among the gods.
With the help of Grover the satyr and Annabeth the daughter of Athena, Percy must journey across the United States to catch a thief who has stolen the original weapon of mass destruction - Zeus' master bolt. Along the way, they face a host of mythological enemies determined to stop them. Most of all, Percy must come to terms with a father he has never known, and an Oracle that has warned him of betrayal by a friend."
The books were awesome too! (Otherwise they wouldn't have been made into a movie - d'oh!)
I was surprised that in the books, Percy was twelve, yet in the movies, they moved his age up to sixteen - I suppose it was to allow the movies to appeal to a wider age group, as the books are what I would classify as middle grade to early adolescent. The writing was clear, understandable, and the sense of adventure would appeal to a lot of young and reluctant boys.
The later books go into a lot of depth about the Greek Gods (Rick Riordan did his research well), and while they are usually of the same basic essence, the adventures are still fresh and exciting.
(Percy blows up a school, goes to Camp Half-Blood, sent off to a dangerous, life-risking adventure, survives against the odds by killing a couple of monsters/outsmarting the gods, goes back to camp all happy, and is packed home again. And repeat.)
A few parts of the movie were changed for dramatic effect, but I still felt that it stayed in essence, true to the book. The book was an easy but addictive read. I'd absolutely recommend it to lovers of adventure novels.
The verdict?
Both! (Or maybe the movie a little more...*winks*)
I actually liked the movie very much. It was clever how they managed to squeeze so many adventures into one movie, yet still maintained that sense of time. It flowed well, and didn't feel rushed at all.
Overall, it was a great book to movie adaptation, and while the book provided more details and background story, the movie's special effects took my breath away.
So if you haven't yet, absolutely go get the movie on DVD and watch it! And borrow out some books from the library and settle in for an epic read.
Lol (lots of love),
Tina.
4 comments:
I haven't read the book but I loved the movie. It was something I was really looking forward to and I wasn't sure if it would hold up to my expectations but it did! Glad you liked it too. Thanks for the dual review!
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I enjoyed both the movie and book too. But I much preferred the book. :-)
I enjoy both book and movie. The book give me the details and the original story. The movie give visual to the story. And a little bit of excitement during the fight scene where Percy control the water.
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