The Lightning Thief Review

It's Sunday morning, I've just gotten out of church, and I'm watching The Sandlot. This movie brings back many childhood memories. I've watched it over and over throughout the years, and I never grow weary of it. My absolute favorite line from the movie is when they're in the treehouse, telling ghost stories, and Squints says, "For-ev-ver, for-ev-er, for-ev-er." Man, great memories.

I'm pretty frustrated with my blog layout. It looks like a gigantic mess. The pictures are oversized and the text is a-jumble. My wife hasn't got around to fixing it for me yet. Until she does, a mess it shall remain. I know nothing of this stuff, and have to get her to do it for me. "Learn yourself," you say? No. If I could find a way to resize the pictures it wouldn't be so bad. But I can't.

Anyway, yesterday my wife, and a couple friend of ours, went to see Percy Jackson and They Olympians: The Lightning Thief. I read the book a few months ago, and though it was nothing that would cause a literary revolutionary, I found it to be quite enjoyable. Percy is a boy that I could relate to. Who hasn't enjoyed Greek mythology at some time or another. The movie, however, I can't say the same for. Don't get me wrong it was enjoyable. I would have enjoyed the movie more if I hadn't read the book. Though I'm no fanboy of Percy I guess I'm having somewhat of a similar reaction.

I can see why it would be difficult to transition from book to film, though. The book is in all first person. I think communicating a first person story in third person would be quite difficult. The problems don't end there. Some of the acting is pretty cheesy. To me that breaks the fourth wall. All believability goes out the window. Besides that, it was choppy. I think it was a problem with the editing. The scenes didn't transition very smoothly for my liking.

The best thing about the movie is the action. You can tell the kids put in a lot of hard work. The sword fighting look natural and skillful. It made me wish that I could have been at Camp Half-Blood as a teenager.

Out of four stars I give it two and a three-quarters. That means it's good enough for a dvd, but not worth a matinee, or taking an evening to pay $8 or more. Tonight, for V-Day, my wife and I will be seeing Valentine's Day. Let y'all know how that is tomorrow.