Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Lightning Thief

Just got back from taking my niece (hereby dubbed for the purposes of this blog as....um, The Niece) and Frodo from Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Lightning Thief (gotta be the longest title of a movie since that one where Casey Affleck took 13 hours to work up the nerve to shoot Brad Pitt). Not Chris Columbus' finest, nor was it a fantastic adaptation, but all in all a good flick.

If I gave him the platform (btw, son, consider this an invite), Frodo could rattle off all the discrepancies from the novel and complain about them. There were many, I should say, but most of them served the film and prevented it from being a 4-hour epic. But they stayed true to the spirit of the book, and got the big things right--which is all one should really ask (a lot of what they did was far less grievous than the things most forgave Peter Jackson of).

The Niece noted that they got the look perfectly, Camp Half Blood, Olympus, Hades..."it was like looking at my mind when I read it, freaked me out."

I was surprised at some of the casting choices, and who actually agreed to be in the movie--but have no complaints about any of them. I guess it's sort of like the number of people whose résumés are too impressive to be in a Harry Potter movie, yet take the gig anyway. Some of the performances were a little hammy, but most of them settled into the roles as the movie went on. Logan Lerman did a fine job, but I'm not crazy about the rumors of him as Peter Parker. Brandon T. Jackson was a hoot--proving that Tropic Thunder wasn't a fluke. Catherine Keener and Joe Pantoliano were great (but when isn't Joey Pants?). Pierce Bronson was as good as he can be outside of a jacket and tie. Alexandra Daddario made me understand why White Collar's Neil Caffrey would break out of prison for her.^*

I'm not chomping at the bit for it, but I'm ready to buy my tickets for Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Sea of Monsters Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire or whatever it is.


^* not a good sign that the White Collar folks have failed to deliver on that