From Page to Screen: The Lightning Thief

From Page to Screen

A review of “The Lightning Thief” movie compared to the book.

A few years ago, my best friend took me to the theaters, to see a movie based on a book he had read. Normally, I’m sceptical about this, because most of the time I see a movie based on something I have read, I’m the one in the theater shouting about how wrong it is. I’m nitpicky and all my friends know it. I had to promise to behave myself when I went to my family to see the last two “Harry Potter” movies.

As we’re there in the theater watching the movie, I notice my friend is shaking with a quiet rage. He’s normally not the type to get pissed about things like this, so I’m a bit concerned. Afterwards, he bought a copy of the book and gave it to me. “Here! You’ll like this better than that crap!” And he was right! I instantly fell in love the the Percy Jackson series, and have read the entire series.

While another contributor to this site is doing her own book vs. movies, mine will be different. I’ll be going in depth, comparing how the characters are portrayed and the plot.

WARNING WARNING! THIS WILL CONTAIN SPOILERS! IF YOU WISH TO READ THE BOOKS FIRST, (which I highly suggest. They are funny, well written and Mr. Riordan knows his mythology. I also recommend his other series and the continuation series to the Percy Jackson series), DO SO BEFORE DIVING IN! Also please note, this is mostly my opinion. Especially towards the end.


First, the characters. I’m going to dive in with the big one. Percy.

Percy, in the first book, is a confused twelve year old boy. He lives with his mother and ugly step-father in New York, while attending a private middle school for ‘problem’ children. He has been diagnosed with dyslexia and ADHD. These were traits Riordan gave to his character because of his own son. The history behind this is well known to fans of the series. Nothing seems to go right for him, and has been the cause of several mishaps on school field trips. In the intro to the book, this trend continues. In the books, Percy is a loyal friend, a caring son, and in the beginning has no idea how important he will become. Even after finding out who he is, he doesn’t see himself as special, which helps make him a bit more relatable in the long run.

In the movie, he is seventeen. I will explain why this is a problem when we get to the plot. He has his mind on more teenage stuff, and already has an idea as to why he is special. In the introduction of the movie, we find him at the bottom of a pool, just sitting there. He acts very arrogantly, especially when he finds out who his real father is. He does still care for his mother, which I am thankful for. However, aging him disconnects him from the original audience of the book, and the way he is portrayed makes him unsympathetic in a way. I will again touch more on this when I discuss plot.

Next, Percy’s best friend, and resident satyr, Grover Underwood.
In the book, he is introduced to us as a lame twelve year old boy, having a leg condition that excuses him from P.E. (Percy mentions not to let this fool you, he’s fast when its enchilada day). He is Percy’s roommate and best friend at school, and is the subject of much teasing from the other kids. However, after Percy returns home from school, he is revealed not only to be Percy’s watcher, and was suppose to take him to Camp, but also a satyr. For those of you asking, what’s a Satyr, I’ll answer. Half-man, half goat, they are creatures out of Greek mythology. Friendly and fun loving, they are usually the company of either the god Pan or Dionysus. In this universe, many of them reside at Camp Half-Blood, and are guides to other Demigods in bringing them to camp. His goal in the book is to be allowed to go on a journey to find the great lost god, Pan.

In the movie... he is depicted as being an african-american seventeen year old. Normally, I don’t mind racial changes in characters, however... Grover acts like a stereotypical african-american teenager, being into the ‘honeys’ (I didn’t make this up, he used that term in the movie), and acts very unlike the Grover from the book. There’s not much more there I can say... aside from, WHY!?

Next up, our clever daughter of Athena, Annabeth.

In the book, Annabeth is the first person Percy meets after waking up at Camp Half-Blood. Not knowing who Percy’s godly parent is at first, she is openly friendly and leads him around the camp, introducing him to the campers, and helping him settle in. Once it is found out who Percy’s dad is, she is hesitant, since Athena and Poseidon have a rivalry dating back to the founding of Athens. She is also very loyal to her friends, and very clever and smart. She is also a brilliant architect, many of these traits attributed to who her mother is. As it is with all demigods, she is also dyslexic and has ADHD.

In the movie, they seemed to smash Annabeth and another character from the book, Clarisse La Rue, who was a minor antagonist in the first book. Clarisse hated Percy for showering her and her friends in toilet water, long story, and took it as an insult, and being a child of Ares, does not take kindly to being insulted. Annabeth in the movie openly dislikes Percy at first, even more so since in the movie it is well known who Percy’s godly parent is. She however, rather begrugingly at first, goes on Percy’s quest with him, and seems to soften up a bit towards the end. This change did alienate many fans, who were angry to see the two fight against each other when they were friends in the book.

Last of the major players, since I’m not going into the minor ones for the purpose of this review, is Luke Castellan, our major antagonist through most of the series, but who starts out being a friend.

In the book, Luke is depicted as a handsome young man, being 19 in the first book. He is a son of Hermes, the traveling god, but seems to dislike his father for a reason relating to the scar on his cheek. We learn in the last book that Luke has more reasons to dislike his father then we are given in the first book. We do not see much of him in the first book beyond his interactions with Percy at Camp, since we only see him again for  a brief moment while Percy is traveling, and then again almost at the end of the book.  He is very talented, much like his father. A jack of all trades, but true master of none, except fighting.

In the movie, we don’t see much of Luke, however he is shown with a cabin full of technology, which is a big no-no for demigods since it tends to call monsters to them. Much like his book counterpart, he is bitter towards the gods, and wishes the demigods to rise up and take their ‘rightful’ place at the top.

Now that that’s done, let’s move on to the plot. I could copy and paste the wiki entries here, but that wouldn’t be right now. I’m going to go over it in segments, starting where all things do, the beginning.

We are introduced to two of our main characters, Percy and Grover, at school, getting ready for a fieldtrip to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, in New York. This is the same in both the book and the movie, however, as I have mentioned before in the movie they chose to age up the both of the characters. In the movie they did keep the aspect of Percy having ADHD and dyslexia, which I will give them credit for.  At the museum, the algebra teacher, a woman named Mrs. Dodds, starts accusing Percy of having stole something of great importance, again this is the same in both. In the book is isn’t defined what she is accusing him of stealing, however in the movie, she demands the lightning bolt be given to her. After she says this she transforms into one of the Furies, this remains the same in both. Percy is confused by, even more so at the appearance of his disabled Latin teacher, Mr. Brunner. In the book, Mr. Brunner throws Percy a pen, which turns into a sword and he uses it to dispatch the fury, who disappears into a poof of shadowy ash. In the movie, Mr. Brunner and Grover show up and frighten off the fury. After which, Mr. Brunner gives Percy the pen, and tells him it is very important. In the book, Percy goes to return the pen, with Mr. Brunner acting like nothing has happened.

After this introductory scene,  the book and movie start to go down their own separate paths. The book continues on with Percy and the rest of his sixth grade year, while the movie does something different. At the end of the school year, while getting ready for his final tests, he goes to Mr. Brunner, wishing for help with his Latin. When he reaches the office however, he overhears Mr. Brunner and Grover talking, about him! Concerned for him and talking about things that Percy didn’t quite understand. Before he leaves, he thinks he hears hoofbeats on the ground, but tells himself it’s impossible. After this scene in the book, he returns back to his apartment in New York, after a rather tension filled bus ride with Grover. On the ride home, the bus breaks down and across the road is a fruit stand with three old ladies knitting. One is pulling the thread, one is knitting, and the other is snipping. Grover gets very worried at the sight and tells Percy to stay in the bus. Once they reach the bus station, Percy high-tails it away from his friend, who had asked him to wait for him, just to get home to his mother, as well as his awful stepfather, Gabe Ugliano, nicknamed Smelly- Gabe .

In the movie, after the attack, Mr. Brunner tells Grover to go back with Percy, and have his mother Sally, drive them to Camp Half-Blood. We are briefly introduced to Gabe here, but he doesn’t play too much of a role in the movie. Sally does drive them to the camp, knowing full well what will happen to Percy if he isn’t brought somewhere where he’ll be protected.

In the book, after Percy ditches his friend, he and his mother go to Long Island for a three day trip, just the two of them, after being yelled at by Gabe, who demands his car be returned in one piece, but does not seem to care about Percy or Sally. When they reach Long Island, after spending the day together, Percy, as always, asks his mother about his father. She tells him that he looks like her and that they met on the very beach where Percy and his mother are staying. He is fascinated by this, never having heard that part of the story before. However, that night, Grover appears, without his pants, but seems to be wearing something very fuzzy, and demands that they leave the cabin and head to Camp. Sally, knowing full well from Percy’s father what to do now, packs them both up in the car and starts driving. In the car, Percy is stunned to find out that his best friend has goat legs, and also little goat horns growing from his head. However, his thoughts on that are disturbed when they realized they are being followed.

At this point, the book and movie meet up again, since the creature following the car turns out to be the Minotaur, from the labyrinth on Crete. They are attacked, and manage to get out of the car before it is destroyed. Grover tries to lead Percy to camp, however Percy refuses to follow, not wanting to leave his mother behind. The minotaur attacks Sally and she dissolves into a gold shower. However, after this point, they deviate again. Book: Percy picks up the broken horn of the minotaur and stabs him with it, causing him to dissolve into a pile of shadowy ash. Movie: Grover tells Percy to use the pen, and when a confused Percy uncaps it, it becomes a bronze sword, and while he uses it to no avail to kill the creature, it cuts off his horn and like the book, he kills the minotaur with it. After the fight, Percy passes out, right in front of a bunch of trees, while trying to enter the camp.

After the fight with the minotaur, the book and movie go in FAR opposite directions, and this was the point where my friend started to silently fume. I’ll try to keep it brief, I have got a long ways to go... In the book Percy wakes up to meet Annabeth, who is feeing him ambrosia, and has been taking care of him for the past three days. He is also reintroduced to Mr. Brunner, who turns out to be the legendary Chiron, trainer of demigods such as Theseus and Heracles, who is more commonly known by his Roman name Hercules.  Annabeth, along with Chiron and the Camp Director, who turns out to be the Greek god Dionysus, but he asks to be called Mr. D, saying names have powers in them and not to use them lightly, and processed to explain to Percy that Percy is a demigod, half mortal, half immortal. Percy doesn’t buy it at first, considering that he has been told that his mother, the only true parent he has known, is dead. Since they do not know who is his godly parent, he is put into the Hermes cabin, which is the traveler’s cabin, and happily takes in those who godly parent is unknown. The cabin leader is Luke Castellan, son of Hermes, but before meeting him, Percy meets, and then dumps toilet water on Clarisse La Rue, daughter of Ares and leader of the Ares cabin. About a week goes by, with Percy being introduced to more and more of Camp Half-blood, learning more about what goes on there, why the camp is a safe haven for half-bloods, and also participating in many camp activities while trying to find out who his godly parent is. At this time, he learns about the Great Prophecy, the promise the Big Three made, and also about Thalia (I will be doing a full indepth review of the book and will explain more there). At the end of the first week, they play their weekly game of capture the flag, in which the camp divides in half and tries to capture the other teams flag. Sounds fun right? However, these are all dangerous kids, who wield spears, swords and other weapons. Percy notices something odd happens when he steps into the water, however after the game is finished, the camp is attacked by a hellhound and Percy takes the brunt of the attack. Annabeth tells Percy to get in the water again, and not only does his wounds heal, but the symbol of Poseidon appears over his head, claiming him as the son of the water god.

In the movie... Percy is met by Grover and EVERYONE and their mother seems to know that Percy is a son of Poseidon, saying that the cabin at camp has been made for him and he resides there happily. Annabeth, instead of being his friend is openly hostile against him, and is his enemy, instead of Clarisse, in the capture the flag game. However, it is that night, at the campfire, that the lord of the underworld, Hades, demands that the lightning bolt that has been stolen from his brother, Zeus, be given to him in exchange for Sally Jackson, by Percy. Percy, having no knowledge of this, is determined to go, but Chiron forbids him from going. He defies the wishes of Chiron, and asks Grover to go with him. Annabeth overhears and demands to go with, saying she hasn’t left the camp since she was seven.

Back to the book, after the hellhound attack, and being declared the son of Poseidon, Percy starts having odd dreams, which isn’t too odd for him. He tells Annabeth and Chiron, and Chiron says he has been given the quest to find the lightning bolt, since he has been accused of stealing it, and goes to get his prophecy from the oracle. Once that is done, he is given the quest to go to the Underworld and try to get the lightning bolt from Hades, who everyone thinks stole it, and is given the option of inviting two others to go with him. He picks Grover and Annabeth, since the latter hasn’t left the camp since she was seven, and has said it has been her dream to go on a quest, but they have been denied to the campers since Luke failed his a few years ago.

I’m going to skip over a lot of what happens in the book, since as I mentioned I will be doing a full indepth review, so what you need to know is this: They travel along by land, since Percy, being a son of Poseidon, can not travel by air to Hollywood, which is where the Underworld is located, since his father and Zeus have always had a bit of a rivalry and Zeus also thinks that Percy stole his lightning bolt. They get attacked by the three furies, Medusa, Mother Echidna, whom is the mother of all monsters, and the Chimera, meet up with Ares, god of War, get conned into getting back his shield which has been booby-trapped by Hephaestus, who is jealous of the War god’s relationship with his wife, then get trapped in Casino where they lose a week of their travels, and finally in Hollywood, Percy has to talk to a smelly old man, who is a seer and also meets a watery cousin, who gives him three pearls and tells him that ‘what belongs to the sea will return to the sea.’ Also, when they meet Ares, he tells Percy that his mother is alive.

In the movie... Since Percy and crew are going to sneak out of the camp, they first pay a visit to Luke, to get some supplies. He tells them that to get out of the Underworld, they will need three pearls of Persephone, the wife of Hades, who leaves them for her various ‘visitors’, so they can use them in the Underworld to escape back to the surface. He also gives them a shield, some winged shoes, which Percy takes. This is in contrast to what the book states. As explained above, Percy decides that, in the book, flying would be dangerous being a child of the sea, and gives them to Grover, who wears them throughout the trip across the country. In addition to these gifts, in the movie Luke also gives them the map showing where the pearls are.

Their first stop is a garden shop in New Jersey, where they come upon some frightful life sized stone statues of people. There they meet Auntie M, who seems to be a nice old lady, who keeps her eyes covered. Annabeth soon realizes that it’s Medusa and a fight breaks out. Using the shield, Percy manages to find Medusa and behead her and they take her head along, as well as the first of the three pearls.

The next stop is the replica of the Parthenon in Nashville, where the second pearl is located on a statue of Athena. Percy uses the shoes to easily retrieve it, but afterwards they are confronted by the hydra, which had posed as a few janitors before issuing a warning and then changing into the monstrous beast. The battle goes poorly until Grover pulls out the head of Medusa and petrifies the creature.

The third stop, which is the the second stop to correlate with the book, (after the garden shop and Medusa), is the Lotus Casino in Las Vegas. Once there, they have a scene which I can only describe as a major drug trip. I wish I was making this up, but there is a drug trip scene in a ‘childrens’ movie. They go around the casino, eating these lotus pastries, and losing track of reality and their priorities. Percy hears his father speak to him, which snaps him out of it. Realizing what is going on, he steals the pearl, gets Annabeth and Grover out of the casino and hightails it to Hollywood.

In the book, after speaking with the ocean nymph, they make their way to the Underworld, through a record store, which is the cover, and speak with Charon, the ferryman to the Underworld. After paying him off, they go to Hades’ castle hoping to bargain. However, on the way, the shoes that Grover is wearing activate and start dragging him off to Tartrus, the deepest pit of the Underworld, where the worst were sent to suffer forever. After struggling, the three get the shoes off and continue to make their way to Hades. Percy realizes the backpack given to him by Ares is getting heavy, but thinks nothing of it. Once at the Castle, Hades demands back his Helm of Darkness, which was stolen the same day as the Lightning Bolt. Hades says that he mentioned nothing of the theft to his brothers because they have never gotten along. He blames Percy and offers him back Sally, his mother, in exchange. Percy denies it, but when he opens the backpack, he finds the Lightning Bolt. Hades changes his deal, offering Sally in exchange for it. Percy realizes the true hero’s path, and apologizes to his mother, before handing the other two pearls to Annabeth and Grover, and the three stomp on them, ending up in the Pacific Ocean where Percy had been given the pearls, with Ares waiting for them.

Meanwhile, in the movie, they go to the portal which is behind the Hollywood sign, and make their way to the Underworld, where they are greeted by Hades and Persephone, in the middle of Summer. Hades demands the bolt in exchange for Percy’s mother, who has been saved at the moment of death. Percy denies having the bolt, but Hades finds it on the shield Luke gave them, revealing Luke to be the thief. Realizing they have been tricked, they almost give in, but Persephone knocks out Hades for imprisoning her, and gives the bolt to Percy. However, since they only have three pearls with which to escape, Grover offers to stay behind, after a bit of flirting with Persephone. So, Percy, Annabeth, and Sally escape the Underworld and end up at the Empire State Building, where Olympus is located on the 600th floor. They are greeted by Luke, and he and Percy have a fight across New York building rooftops. Luke tells Percy that he is tired of the Demigods being looked down upon and that they should bring down the gods and take their places in Olympus. Percy rejects him, and defeats him. He then returns the Lightning Bolt to Zeus, who thanks him, but says he’ll be keeping an eye on him. Percy and Poseidon, meet for the first time, have a brief conversation before Percy leaves with his mother and Annabeth. When returning his mother to their apartment, Percy leaves the head of Medusa, and a note on the fridge telling Gabe not to open it. Percy and Annabeth return to camp, to find Grover there, who has been made a senior protector, and that is where the film ends.

To sum up the end of the book, Percy fights Ares, who is revealed to have the Helm of Darkness, but is not the true thief. He had gotten the real thief a few months ago, but the thief had offered the Helm and Lightning bolt to Ares, as well as some ideas. Percy, being near the sea, uses it to his advantage and defeats Ares. He gives the Helm to the furies, who had been watching the fight, telling him that he returns it to his rightful owner, and the furies nod, promising to relay what they had heard and seen to their Lord. The three come together with a plan, having Percy tearfully going to the media to get the funds to return to his step-father in New York. After raising the money, they fly to New York, trying to meet the deadline of the Summer Solstice. Once there, they have an easy ride up to the 600th floor of the Empire State Building, Olympus. Percy returns the Lightning Bolt to Zeus, who is a bit mad at Percy’s existence, but thanks him, but also warns Percy not to find himself in the realm of the Sky again. Percy has a brief conversation with his father, and then departs, being told something is waiting for him at home. Once he returns to his apartment, he finds his mother there, saying Hades had returned her since ‘The lord of the Underworld honors his debts.’ While there, he notices a familiar package on the table, the head of Medusa, he had sent to his father in Olympus. He tells his mother what it is, and the two share a look as Gabe yells at Sally. Percy, Annabeth and Grover return to Camp, and all is going well. Sally tells Percy of her first and only statue sale, the Ugly Poker Player, which has given her money to start their lives afresh a bit. However, towards the end of Camp, after finding Luke in the forest drinking Coke, which is a bit of a shock since mortal products like Coke have been banned from camp, and it is obvious Luke has smuggled it in.  Percy joins him and the two talk for a moment. Luke then reveals himself to be the thief, much to Percy’s surprise. However, Luke goes on to reveal his is working for Kronos, the father of the Gods, the king of the Titans, who has been whispering in Luke’s ears for a while, and enticed him to steal the Bolt and Helm. Luke says he can not let Percy live, which is why he gave him the shoes to drag him down to Tartus, along with the Lightning Bolt, but Percy foiled that by giving them to Grover. Luke then summons a deadly Pit scorpion, and releases it on Percy while he escapes the camp. Percy kills it, but is stung and nearly dies, but is rescued by the tree nymphs and Chiron. When he recovers, he reveals Luke’s treachery to Chiron and Annabeth, the latter who doesn’t believe it, seeing Luke as an older brother. However, they cannot deny what has happened, and make plans. Both Annabeth and Percy return to their families instead of staying at the camp, and start a new school year.

Overall... My final thoughts? The movie is a mockery of the books and what they stand for. Percy learns no lessons about being a true hero, especially at the moment it mattered the most. Making him older, and well aware of his true heritage in the beginning makes him arrogant and unrelatable. Turning Annabeth into a minor antagonist at the beginning doesn’t make us sympathetic to her plight to wish to leave camp, and the way she inserts herself into the group seems awkward and makes her out to be a bit of a bully.  While translating this from book to movie they removed many plot elements and characters that made the books unique and interesting to read and in doing so, they removed all the reasons for the sequel book to be made into a movie, since they addressed  nothing that will come up in “The Sea of Monsters.”  They left out two of the most important characters central to the “The Sea of Monsters,” which makes making a sequel more complicated since you would have to hastily introduce them. One quote I came about while researching this goes as follows: “On BBC Radio 5, Mark Kermode criticized the similarity of the film to director Chris Columbus's Harry Potter films, comparing it to a Harry Potter parody book and dubbing it Benjamin Sniddlegrass and the Cauldron of Penguins. This comment later sparked a satirical fan creation with precisely that title.”

The book itself is a magical journey, and Mr. Riordan knows his mythology and keeps much of how the mythological characters act true to the original source material. As I’ve mentioned, I will do a more indepth review of the book at a later time, but I’ll tell you this: Read the book. It isn’t just meant for young adults, but the magic in it is for children and mythology buffs of all ages.