The Lightning Thief

[annettemarie]

'twas bad. And I was so looking forward to it.

[Breathless Wonder]

I didn't see much advance hype for it, so I was worried.

Have a hug annettemarie!

[kittywitty]

We can't see it until next week. I saw that Annabeth is a brunette. What else did they mess up?

[lotusdebi]

Oh no! I'm sorry. We're enjoying the books so much that I promised to take my 7 year old. Was it only bad from an adult's perspective? Or did your kids hate it as well?

[Monarchgrrl]

Oh no. Did you read the book first? Because I haven't and we were going to see it this weekend. Did you not like it because it didn't follow the book? Do you think it would be good without reading the book?

[Needle in the Hay]

Oh that's disappointing. I'd be interested to know more about the ways in which it sucked. We will be going to see it next week regardless though--we're really enjoying the series and we're big movie-goers. Definitely good to know it's not worth the extra expense of going to another city to see it in English.

[annettemarie]

Oh, it sucked in so many ways.

No Thalia.

No pact of the Big Three.

No Kronos.

Bad acting.

Bad script.

Weird looking (and yet at the same time, horrifyingly frightening) special effects.

They aged everyone up. They took all the innocence and intelligence out of the books.

'Twas bad.

[annettemarie]

Also, some movies based on books are good if you forget about the book (Harry Potter, for example). This one sucked (IMO) even as a stand-alone.

[kittywitty]

Dang. That's a lot of bad. I am so upset and I haven't even seen it yet. HOW can they leave those things out?????

[annettemarie]

A lot of bad just about sums it up.

I really want to talk with someone who saw it and liked it. Maybe I missed something while I was trying to write scathing notes in the dark. Michael asked if he could see my notes for my blog review and I said no, because I was pretty sure there was a fair bit of cussing in them.

I mean, we LOVE these books. We're the family that had Olympian Camp last summer. We made t-shirts.

Hollywood ruins everything.

[raksmama]

That is so disappointing to know! I read in the paper that the movie is so bad and will be such a flop that they will probably not even bother to make a movie of the second book. And we are enjoying the series so much! This is sad! We are going to see it anyway because Ds has been waiting.

[Needle in the Hay]

Wow!! Ok maybe what I'll do is not mention it and only go if DS asks! He might forget about it now that we're home and he's not seeing commercials for it anymore. Grrrr, I just can't believe they could mess it up that bad!!

[annettemarie]

My oldest just came up to me and said "It's almost as if all they had was a list of characters, the picture on the front cover, and a vague idea that it was about Greek mythology."

[kJad29]

Oh no. It's Eragon all over again. Loved the book, the movie however sucked lemons. The movie destroyed any chance of there being another movie. The best I think the franchise will do is a mini-series.

[lotusdebi]

Saw it tonight. I'm very angry. My 7 year old really liked it. He didn't mind the story differences. I think he mostly liked seeing a movie that contained themes and images that I wouldn't otherwise have exposed him to (he was only exposed because I thought this movie was supposed to be based on the book we read.) I thought there was far too much sexual suggestiveness, and some of the CGI was scary on the level of some R-rated movies I've seen (especially Hades). The movie was a completely different story than the book. Very bad writing, bad acting, bad story. And I felt like the movie was made for an older audience than the books, even taking into account that my 7 year old is a bit young for the books.

I feel like writing an angry letter.

[tinybutterfly]

Think I will wait until it comes out on DVD to watch it then. Bummer.

I haven't read the books, but the trailers looked good and dh and I both wanted to see it.

Maybe I should put the books on my summer fun reading list.

[kittywitty]

Saw it last night. You were 100% right Annettemarie. I can't even use the words on here to describe what I thought of it. It was just down right atrocious. Terrible. Good heavens, what were they thinking? They just about ruined all of my good memories about the books.

[lotusdebi]

Anyone want to talk about what they did to Grover? I really felt like this was yet another example of a black man being used for comic relief. I was very bothered by Grover's script and character in this movie. I was offended and ashamed to be watching the movie as it was playing. It was a horrible depiction of Grover, and yet another racist characterization of a black man.

[kittywitty]

Originally Posted by lotusdebi

Anyone want to talk about what they did to Grover? I really felt like this was yet another example of a black man being used for comic relief. I was very bothered by Grover's script and character in this movie. I was offended and ashamed to be watching the movie as it was playing. It was a horrible depiction of Grover, and yet another racist characterization of a black man.

I *completely* agree. While I could see Grover as being black in the book, in the movie they made him seem like a horndog and nothing else. And Holy Zeus, did they really need so many boobs and push up bras in the movie? I mean, I bf so it's not like my kids have never seen them but they were pushed in everyone's face during the movie. For KIDS.

[annettemarie]

Yeah, you really articulated something about Grover that bothered me but I wasn't able to put into words. Even my son noticed it, and he is notoriously clueless. In the books, Grover's a nature loving little hippie satyr. Why take that from his character? It was sad. And like I said, it took all the innocence out of the books.