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.

Book to Movie: My Sister's Keeper

First let me explain I don't usually go for this type of story normally. I hate the tear jerker make you cry in a corner type of book normally. I loved "My Sister's Keeper". It was well written and the characters made sense. They worked. Anna, the younger sister, had really good reasons outside of "I just don't want to do this anymore". She was into hockey and they were asking her to give up a vital organ, albeit one she had an extra of, but one that still is vital. One of the problems with that would be she could no longer be in contact sports, which rules out hockey, big time. All that lovely drama of "why are you trying to kill your sister" could easily be shoved onto "because it'll ruin my life!" Yes that is a bit selfish, but she is also a little girl. It is rare to be altruistic to fault at that age.