Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief
Everything Wrong with the movie
By Ethan Otero

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    This will be a look at the 2010 live-action adaptation film of Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Lightning Thief novel by Rick Riordan and why many of the fans of the novels and Greek mythology hate the movie. It will note several mistakes made to the characters, settings, plot, and other things. It will also explain what the film got wrong about Greek mythology, which is something the novels follow extremely closely. Now, the writer of the novels, Rick Riordan, bashes the two movie (as only the first two books of the five novel series were made) every chance he gets, which should already be a red flag. Speaking of red flags, the writer of the 2011 Green Lantern movie and the D.C television show Crisis on Infinite Earths, Marc Guggenheim, wrote for the sequel film (Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Sea of Monsters). Something that this movie did right however, was getting the director of the first two Harry Potter  films (Chris Joseph Columbus) to direct this movie. But the main reason the fanbase of Percy Jackson hates the films is because they ignored almost EVERYTHING from the books, and all advise and criticism from Rick Riordan was waved off.
    Now, without further ado, on with the show.

    The movie begins with a view above a nightly storm of thunder clouds with heavy lightning, remember that, then quickly cuts away to what I presume to be the south shore of Long Island (As evidenced by the books), when suddenly the Greek god of the sea Poseidon (played by Kevin Mckidd) rises from the water near a dock in his god form, wearing his Greek outfit and wielding his mighty trident that is about the same size as him. From the dock, an old fisherman stares in disbelief at the towering 50 foot being. When Poseidon reaches the mainland, he shapeshifts into his much smaller human form.
    This is where a few things from the novels are already completely ignored. First of all, the Olympians don’t want mortals to know about their existence, but Poseidon just pops out of the sea while being fifty feet tall and with a mortal watching him. And that is not the only problem with this scene. In the books, if a mere mortal looked at a god in their true form, they would be incinerated instantly.
    Poseidon is then seen walking the street heading to the Empire State Building to meet this godly brother Zeus (Played by Sean Bean). Once he meets Zeus on the Empire State Building roof, they greet each other and the god of lightning (who is in his human form) asks Poseidon “what do you see?” with his brother looking at the sky before replying “thunder clouds." Zeus says a moment later, “But no lightning.” which is strange as we just saw thunder clouds with lots of lightning about a minute ago.
    Zeus then accuses Poseidon of stealing his master bolt, which Poseidon, of course, promptly denies. “Omnipotence has blinded you, brother.” is the god of the sea’s next choice of words (for those wondering, omnipotence is infinite power) and Poseidon reminds him that they are forbidden from stealing each other’s powers due to ancient laws. But Zeus says that their children are not and before accusing Poseidon’s son of stealing the lightning bolt. Zeus promises that if Poseidon’s son is the thief that he will throw in him into the depths of Tartarus, which is the deepest, darkest pit in the underworld. He declares that the bolt must be handed to him in fourteen days on the summer solstice, or there will be war before blasting a secret metallic doorway open and walking through it. The wall seals itself back up.
    This entire scene does not exist in the book, though it is a much better opening for a movie and makes sense (expect for Poseidon popping out of the water). But the doorway Zeus blew open was, in the movie, the entrance to Olympus while in the novels you reach Olympus by using elevator in the Empire State Building and entering a special key card into a security slot. This would reveal a new button on the console to the 600th floor, aka Olympus. The movie way, in my opinion, is cooler and makes more sense.
    Speaking of scenes that don’t exist in the novels…
    The next scene shows our protagonist Percy Jackson (Logan Lerman) calmly sitting at the bottom of a swimming pool.
    Before we go any further, Percy does not have the same personality as the novel Percy Jackson at all. They just gave him that angsty teen type personality instead of giving his character any depth whatsoever; and they do the same thing to Annabeth Chase (who we will later see). Plus, he is supposed to be twelve at the beginning of the story, but he is seventeen in the movie. At the end of the fifth and final Percy Jackson novel he is sixteen and we never see him turn seventeen. I think they did it to better market it to teens and because teens are easier to work with.
    He later swims up to the top and his friend Grover Underwood (played by Brandon T. Jackson) who is timing how long he has been under the pool. Grover tells Percy he broke his personal record. Grover later asks Percy how he stays under the water for so long while walking to class with his crutches, Percy replies that it makes him feel calm and Grover says “Yeah right” in a tone that makes it seem like he knows something Percy doesn’t. Percy goes to Ms. Dodds’ (Maria Olsen) class in a later scene and doesn’t know the answer to the question the teacher asked him. 
    Somethings to note is that in the movie Ms. Dodds is talking about Shakespeare when she is supposed to be a pre-algebra teacher and that Percy is supposed to have no idea about his powers, but he is staying underwater for minutes at a time. He does not get a hint about his powers until he accidentally wills the water from a fountain to grab Nancy Bobofit and drag her into water the outside a museum, but that doesn’t happen as Nancy Bobofit isn’t in this movie.
    Percy then heads home to a little apartment in Manhattan near the Queensboro Bridge. He says hi to his mom Sally Jackson (Catherine Keener) and his Stepfather Gabe Ugliano (Joe Pantoliano). Gabe proceeds to threaten Percy before he leaves, and the movie continues.
    He goes on a field trip to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. As Percy walks up the steps to the museum, he hears a voice in his head that says, “Everything is about to change”, then we see Poseidon across the street in his human before he disappears behind a bus. This never happens in the books and by Poseidon spelling everything out for Percy, it prevents Percy from discover anything by himself. He walks with his class around the museum while the wheelchair-bound Latin teacher Mr. Brunner (Peirce Brosnan) teaches them about Greek mythology. There is another problem with Percy at this part. He isn’t even paying attention to what is being said! He’s wearing headphones and rolling his eyes, while the book Percy takes great interest in Greek mythology. And his interest in Greek mythology helps him along his journeys throughout the series. 
    When the class goes to another room, Percy lags behind. He then hears Ms. Dodds’ and promptly looks up to see her on the top of the scaffolding. He asks her how she go up there then she leaps off the scaffolding before transforming into her true form revealing herself to be one of the three Furies, the tormenters of the dead and servants to Hades, before attacking Percy. Mr. Brunner wheels himself into the room and threatens the Fury before it flies through a window. Okay, this Fury design does not make sense. The Furies’ main weapons are fiery whips, but how is that thing supposed to hold a whip? Secondly, Percy in the books kills the Fury (at least for a bit as the creatures in the story never truly die) after Ms. Brunner throws him a pen that transforms into a sword, but because this movie never lets Percy do anything himself, so it just runs away. This is also one of the few scenes that actually happens in the novels, just with a few changes.
    Grover randomly appears and now Ms. Brunner gives Percy the pen. Grover then tells him that they need to warn his mom so they both rush (well, rush as fast as Grover could move with crutches) to the apartment Percy and his mom live in. They bust into the apartment and Percy tells his mom Sally that they need to talk but Gabe, playing poker with his friends, interrupts him saying that he wants more beer. Percy calls him a “bald-headed freak” and Gabe goes after him with Grover ending the fight as soon as it began by hitting Gabe with his crutches repeatedly then Percy, Grover, and Sally leaving. 
    The next scene shows them driving across a bridge with Sally saying that this is about Percy’s dad after Percy raises the question of what’s going on. Then it cuts to them on a road in the woods during the night. It went from the afternoon to sundown and Percy’s mom is barely telling him about when she met his dad. Before she can say anything interesting or important, the car gets rammed by something and is flipped over. Grover takes off his pants to reveal his goat legs (as he is a satyr, a creature with the body of a human and the legs and horns of a goat) and they all get out of the car. They run towards the gate of Camp Half-Blood and while Percy and Grover make it through, Percy’s mom cannot pass as she is a mortal. Then it is revealed what the monster is, the Minotaur. 
    The Minotaur (a creature with the body of a human with the head and size of a bull) grabs Sally and she turns into a shower of gold dust right before their eyes. Percy steps out from beyond the gate and clicks the pen Mr. Brunner gave him under Grover’s instructions which transforms into a sword. Percy tries to fight the Minotaur but cannot get a hit on it and the monster charges at Percy, but he steps out of the way so the Minotaur rams into the tree that was behind Percy. When the Minotaur gets free from the tree, it losses the tip of one of its horns and Percy (somehow) pulls the horns out of the tree and stabs the Minotaur in its side. The scene ends with the Minotaur dying and Percy passing out into Grover’s arms.
    Percy then wakes up in the infirmary of Camp Half-Blood, and Grover reveals that Percy’s mom is really dead (she isn’t but people would not know that at this time) as he thought it was a dream. And Percy barely shows any grief to that fact. Grover explains how his blood is from a literal god and Percy also barely shows any emotions. Grover then shows Percy around the camp and they see Annabeth Chase (Alexandra Daddario) fighting off about six other camp members by herself with Percy asking what’s her name.
    Time to note all the things wrong with these three. Book Grover has a good heart but is always both insecure and unsure of himself as he had failed missions of trying to safely get half-bloods to the camp and wants to do the right thing but has little courage, while movie Grover is the opposite as a comic relief character without any of the problems or insecurities book Grover has. Now Annabeth in the books is the one that is taking care of Percy as he is healing up as she cares about people and is quite smart as she is the daughter of the goddess of wisdom, Athena, which makes her a great strategist. Movie Annabeth neither looks nor acts like her original version, because the writer just gave her that girl boss type personality that can beat everyone up. she does not even have her novel’s blonde hair and grey eyes, instead she has brown hair. And I already explained what is wrong with Percy.
    It is later revealed that Mr. Brunner is a centaur named Chiron, a creature with the torso of a man and the body of a horse.
    Now, in the books, the reveal of Percy being Poseidon’s son is a big twist that no one in the story (besides his mom) knew up to that point and it leads to a lot of drama and events in the plot. That is completely ruined in the movie because Percy walks into the place he will be staying, picks up a trident, and realized that his father was Poseidon. In the movie, apparently everyone knew he was a son of the god of the sea expect for him. A very anticlimactic way to reveal that fact which also uproots the plot. All these things are why ignoring the book was a huge problem.
    Mr. Brunner/Chiron then tells Percy about everything that was said during the first scene with Zeus and Poseidon and that they need his help. Percy says that this is Chiron’s problem and not his, but the book Percy wanted to help fix all these problems.
    Skip the next few scenes and it is time to play capture the flag, we then meet Luke Castellan who doesn’t have his signature scar down his left eye for some reason. He invites Percy on the blue team to face off againet Annabeth is on the red team while in the novels, they are all on the blue team and we haven’t even met Clarisse or any offspring of Ares because they aren’t in this film. 
    Percy finds the red flag and is about to take it when he gets jumped by Annabeth and she proceeds to maim him quite badly, so he falls to the floor near a small stream. He hears Poseidon’s voice who tells him to go to the water and he does, and Percy gets healed and powered-up (which is someone he discovered by himself in the book). The whole red team is for some reason, at the red flag and watch Percy get up, so they attack him one at a time (So much for daughter of the goddess of wisdom). He beats all of them and gets the red flag so the blue team wins. It would be at this point where Poseidon claims Percy as his son by making a glowing trident appear over his head. 
    Everyone gathers around a bon/campfire when suddenly Hades shows up through the flame in a very inaccurate form and tells Percy that his mother is still alive and that he will give his mother back if Percy brings Hades Zeus’ Master Bolt. Percy wants to go to the Underworld to convince Hades that he didn’t steal the bolt and get his mother back, but Chiron forbids him from going. In the novels, Percy is quested to go to the Underworld and Hades never appears in the camp, it was a hellhound that was summoned by Luke who is working with the king Titan Cronus. And Hades isn’t even the main villain in the book, its Ares the god of war, Luke, and Cronus.
    Percy later sneaks out of camp with Grover and Annabeth following him and Percy reluctantly travels with them. They all go to Luke for an idea of how to get out the Underworld and he says that they need three special pearls that will teleport them back to aboveground. Those pearl were given to Percy in one scene way later in the story but the quest to get them make up most of the screen time in this movie. Luke also says that he has never met his father Hermes, a line that is not true (he met him once in the novels) and gives Percy a pair of winged shoes that were given to him by Hermes in the novel, along with a shield and a map with the location of all three pearls.
    The map first led them to a roadside garden called Auntie Em’s Garden Emporium and split up to try and find the first pearl. In the book, they go on a bus and are attacked by all three Furies, then the bus explodes and they wander in the woods until they find Auntie Em’s Garden Gnome Emporium on the side of a road and go in because they smell food.
    While searching, a woman (played by Bonita Friedericy) runs into Annabeth who says that her husband was killed and she’s running away from someone. Meanwhile Grover finds a rock statue of a satyr and is surprised/amused how much it looks like his Uncle Ferdinand, but it couldn’t be him because he was killed by Medusa, then he realizes that it is his Uncle Ferdinand and yells to get Percy’s attention because he knows what’s in the location with them. Annabeth and the woman then meet another woman wearing a black veil on her head along with sunglasses (Uma Thurman) and Annabeth tells the hysterical woman who is with her not to look at the woman across from them. Annabeth and the old woman close their eyes as the woman takes off her hair cover and glasses off to reveal that she is, as Grover and Annabeth suspected, Medusa. 
    Wait, if Medusa had just turned this woman’s husband to stone and was hunting her down, why did Medusa put the veil and sunglasses back on? Doesn’t make much sense but okay. The old woman decides to look at Medusa and get turned to stone when they lock eyes. Percy and Grover then look at Medusa by using the reflection on the back of Percy’s phone (which half-bloods don’t usually own because monsters can track phone signals) and Percy tries to kill Medusa, but she catches him and tries to convince him to open his eyes. Annabeth proceeds to run her other with a red truck and then Percy decapitates her with his sword while she is looking at the back of his phone. Annabeth tells the other two that they should keep the head as they never know when it might come in handy and wrap it in Grover’s hoody not his jacket (that will make more sense when you watch the movie). They find the pearl and then leave the emporium.
    They later stop at a motel and Annabeth tells Percy the worst thing that the movie decided to change from the books, which is that the Olympians aren’t allowed to be with their children. That doesn’t seem so bad until you realize that the reason Luke and so many other half-bloods start working for Cronus and the other titans is because the gods can go see there their kids and claim them as theirs but don’t for an unknown reason. The gods and goddesses can visit their kids but don’t is what makes many half-bloods upset and makes them think that the Olympians don’t care about them. This one line basically destroys the entire conflict and overarching story of the entire series. Even Percy and Annabeth agree it’s stupid!
    They head to a replica of the Parthenon in search of the second pearl and try to get it after closing but must deal with the janitors, so Annabeth loads a small crossbow and shoots them all with tranquilizer bolts. They use the latter to get the pearl and are about to leave when the hydra appears out of nowhere. Now, contrary to popular belief, the hydra is not a dragon, this version of the hydra has five heads when it is supposed to have nine, it doesn’t breathe fire but does spit poison, and it is not that big. This hydra isn’t mythologically accurate in other words. Also, the hydra appears in the second novel not the first. The first book has the Chimera, which does breathe fire, but that isn’t included in the movie because the hydra is cooler and more known about than the Chimera.
    They try to fight it but can’t do much damage to it until Grover uses the head of Medusa to turn it into stone, though how the head stops the fire that the hydra isn’t supposed to breathing at them, I have no idea. 
    Then they leave.
    The last pearl is in Las Vegas, Nevada at the Lotus Hotel & Casino and I will say, this is probably the part with the best adaptation of the book, which isn’t much of an achievement compared to every other scene in this movie. They walk into the casino and are soon offered lotus flowers-shaped cookies by servers who are actually Lotus Eaters, which the trio eat, and it puts them into a trance that makes them want to stay in the Lotus Hotel & Casino. The cookies aren’t in the book but I like the change. We then get scenes of the characters dancing and playing games. Percy is about to take another bite out of a cookie when Poseidon telepathically tells him not to eat the flower, that it dulls the senses and keeps you prisoner there. But why did Poseidon tell him not to eat the flower in the first place? As we learn, the trio has been in the Lotus Casino for 5 days. This is also another example of the movie not letting Percy discover anything by himself. The books let Percy handle the situation by him meeting someone playing a pinball machine, then Percy asked what year the man thought it (because was using old slang and wearing clothes that would have been strange during the time the first Percy Jackson novel takes place) was and he said 1977, which is recreated in the movie moments later. Why didn’t they just let Percy figure it out himself? Percy wakes up the other two and beat up guards are they escape, then Percy spots the pearl being used as the pill, (or roulette ball, whichever one is fine), on a roulette wheel so he snatches it and they all run out of the location. They find out five days have passed and that they only had one day to get to Hades. 
    But now that I thought of it, shouldn’t they supposed to be looking for Zeus’ Master Lightning Bolt or did everyone just forget about that part? Because Zeus said that there will be war if the bolt wasn’t returned by the summer solstice, but they want to go to Hades to somehow prove that Percy isn’t the thief. And remember that Hades told Percy to bring him the bolt when Percy doesn’t even have it, or at least, doesn’t even know he has it.
    We then see them at the famous Hollywood sign (as that is where the entrance to the Underworld is in the movie) and they go through the entrance which should be hard to get through, but they just walk right in, and meet Charon (played by Julian Richings), not be confused with Chiron, the centaur. Charon tells them that the living are not allowed in the Underworld and tells them to die then come back. Grover tries to bribe Charon with dollar bills as they have dead people on them while Percy does the more logically thing and bribes him with golden drachmas, the currency of the Greek world, that they picked up at the rock garden with Medusa. Charon takes the drachmas and takes them to the Underworld. The entrance to Hades’ kingdom in the book is a building and an elevator takes you to the Underworld. The Underworld looks different from the book but much cooler. Percy, Grover, Annabeth, and Charon ride on a rowboat through the river of Styx, which is littered with the lost hopes and dreams of people crossing into the other side. They reach Hades’ palace and at this point you would already have met the three-headed dog Cerberus in both the book and mythology, but they aren’t in the film for some reason even though 
    You know who is there? Persephone, in the middle of June, instead of being with her mother because that is where she’s supposed to be! She (played by Rosario Dawson and in her human form) is supposed to be with Demeter during summer and spring, not in the Underworld, and she doesn’t even appear in the first book. She takes the group to meet Hades. Hades (Steve Coogan) is sitting in front of a fireplace. 
    I’d like to say how Hades as a human looks like a punk rockstar.
    Percy repeats Hades’ words at the camp when he (Hades) does that if Percy wasn’t the thief, he would give Percy his mother back. Hades says if Percy thinks he an idiot before making Sally Jackson appear out of thin air. Percy throws down his shield and runs to his mother. It is revealed that the Master Bolt was in the shield (Which Luke gave him) and Hades takes it. His plan is to overthrow the rest of his family and become ruler of the Olympians. He also decides to he’s going kill Percy, Grover, Annabeth, and Sally for no reason.
    Persephone then steals the Bolt from Hades and strikes him with it. When Percy asks why she did that, she say because he was cruel and abusive.
    This is completely wrong. Hades’ character in this whole movie is completely wrong! In mythology, Hades isn’t a bad guy and has only done around one or two really bad things; but he is nowhere nearly as bad as the other gods and goddesses, which might surprise you as he is the lord of the Underworld. In the books, the characters do think Hades is the villain who has stolen the Bolt and send the Hellhound that attacked Percy into the camp, which is why the quest is to go to the Underworld to confront him. When they confront Hades, it is revealed that he did not steal the Master Bolt and has been trying to capture Percy because the person who stole the Bolt also stole his Helm of Darkness, which is something rarely appears in the media. He was sending monsters after Percy because since the gods thought that he was the one who stole the Bolt, Hades assumes he stole this Helm too. He is not a villain in the books or mythology, but he is always depicted as one because he is an easy target as the God of the Underworld. If anything, he is the nicest Olympian. He let Heracles (or Hercules, which is the more common even though it’s the roman version of his name) take a soul out of the Underworld and let him borrow Cerberus, depending on what version of the myth you read. The one true bad thing that Hades did was kidnapping Persephone, who he dearly loves more than anything in the whole world. He is simply bitter and has a complex relationship with his family in the novels. His character in the books in very interesting but the movie just turns him into the villain the same way many others do.
    I think you can tell who my favorite god is.
    Percy then pulls out the pearls and realizes that one of them will have to stay behind because there are three pearls and four people. Grover decides to stay and let the other three (Percy and his mom along with Annabeth), use the pearls to get out of the Underworld. How did they not realize that they would need four pearls? If you traveled in a party of three and are expecting to get a fourth, you would know that you’d need to leave someone behind from the beginning. Even the daughter of the Goddess of Wisdom doesn’t realize that! And why didn’t Poseidon tell Percy about this?
    Percy, Sally, and Annabeth conveniently teleport out of the Underworld and appear on top of the Empire State Building. They are about to go into the entrance to Olympus when Luke appears flying towards him with winged shoes and they wait for him to land instead of just going through the entrance. Luke tells Percy that he wasn’t supposed to survive when he is the one who told him how to escape the Underworld! 
    Then Percy gets the winged shoes Luke gave him and uses them to help him fight Luke. Another thing wrong with Annabeth’s character this that the book version has a long and close history with Luke, so she has a hard time raising a sword to him. But this Annabeth immediately tries to slice him with a knife. Also, the fact that Luke is working for Cronus is a huge twist at the end of the book and is completely ruined here.
    Then they beat Luke and then enter Olympus.
    Percy gets to the main palace right before Zeus declares war on Poseidon. He gives Zeus his Master Bolt and then tells him that it was Luke who stole the Bolt. He then requests for Grover to be taken out of the Underworld, which Zeus fulfills.
    Later, Percy decides to live at Camp Half-Blood instead of with his mom, even though she killed out Gabe.
    Then the movie ends with Percy walking into the camp.
    There are a million of other things this movie did wrong, but I can’t fit them all in. I think it would be better if you read the book and watched the movie yourself. Hopeful the new Percy Jackson & The Olympians series being made for Disney+ will be much more accurate and loyal to the book series and mythology, which has been in the works since May 2020 and is said to air in early 2024.
    That is all I have to say, Goodbye.