For a set of kid/teen books I have really enjoyed this series thus far. I’m a sucker for a rich world and a defined “rule set” which Rick Riordan has given us. I’m not going to go into a full review here but if you are at all a fan of hero stories and/or mythology in general I highly recommend the Olympian series. Obviously lighter reading than most since it is targeted at a younger audience. When my kids are old enough to read at that level this will most likely be the first series I put in their hands. Harry Potter will come shortly thereafter but it is another level up the skill tree imo where reading comprehension and ability are concerned.
The movie was different. Recently I have came to understand that I MUST judge a book and its screenplay adaptation as two separate entities. It is my natural instinct to critique a screenplay/movie on how closely it matches the book (or series) it is based on. I know believe that is not the right approach, they should be treated individually. I’m probably only saying this because if I didn’t make myself believe, I would hate nearly every movie adaptation ever done.
That being said, The Lightning Thief movie is pretty good. It gets the point across without dragging the movie out past two hours. Has great graphics and a descent script. This movie is packed full of big time actors including Pierce Brosnan, Uma Thurman, Sean Bean, Rosario Dawson and Catherine Keener (who I think is one of the most underrated actresses in Hollywood). Quite a ridiculous cast if you ask me. The actor playing Grover (Brandon T. Jackson) pretty much stole the movie and I wouldn’t be surprised if we didn’t start seeing a lot more of Alexandra Daddario (Annabeth) and Logan Lerman (Percy). I would def recommend pre-teens/teens/adults who were fans of the book to catch the movie but you may want to hold back on the little ones as it does have a few more “bad words” than I would have imagined in it.
