#140RVW
Lightning doesn’t strike twice for Columbus. Haven’t read books so there was no letdown. Never takes itself seriously enough. Poor casting.
What’s more:
Many people love these books, including my wife and daughter. I haven’t read them yet, and after seeing how disappointed they were in the movie version, I don’t think I’ll be reading these until all the movies are done. Just seems that these types of fantasy movies are always better if you haven’t read the source material.
The effects are pretty good, and it’s really cool to see many of these classic creatures like the Hydra & Minotaur come to life. It’s a great premise for a movie & book series, and that makes up for a lot. Not for Uma Thurman as Medusa, but a lot.
The issue I had with the movie more than anything is that it just doesn’t seem to take itself seriously; the characters always seem to be smirking or making flip jokes. There’s tons of action, but there never seems to be any real peril. Partly this is the young actors lack of experience, but mostly it’s the direction and/or script.
The characters mainly seem under-developed. Percy has absolutely no character arc. The Annabeth character doesn’t really have much to do. Don’t know if the character of Grover in the book is given the job of being the wise-cracking sidekick with the stereotypical black character lines, but the filmmakers clearly were looking to fill a certain need.
Maybe I’m just not the right audience for this. If this came out when I was a teen I probably would have loved it like I loved the old Clash of the Titans. (I haven’t had the courage to watch the remake.)
I really love the fact that the main character’s dyslexia & ADHD are actually products of his demigod status and gifts; it’s a nice touch and empowering message for kids dealing with these learning disorders.
Some really awful casting decisions here. Joey Pants? Rosario Dawson as Persephone? Steve Coogan is like the paring knife of actors – absolutely perfect for certain things, but if you try to use it for anything else it just doesn’t quite feel right. Sean Bean is at his Sean Beaniest (this is a good thing). Catherine Keener is a wonderful actress but somewhat underused here.
Surprised that this earned the right to a sequel; heard that it did well overseas. Let’s see if #2 is better…
Moira’s take:
Hydra-horrible film. So many important characters from the book left out or reduced. Didn’t even touch on 2 of the major parts of the story.
Poster:
