The Percy Jackson Movies

The first two Percy Jackson books were adapted into movies.

Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief, 2010

Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters, 2013

I've always heard how bad the movies are and that they are just terrible.  For that reason, I've never been interested in watching them.  I continued to feel that way during the last couple weeks as I followed the current Percy Jackson meltdown on Reddit.  

On January 2, I said to myself, What are you doing?  Why are you just believing these people that the movies are bad?  You usually enjoy adaptations.

On Wednesday, January 3, I watched the first Percy Jackson movie.  I watched the second movie on Thursday, January 4.

The first Percy Jackson movie isn't bad at all.  I enjoyed most of it.  My favorite moment is near the beginning when Percy is attacked at the museum (follow the link to see it).  I find Percy's reaction right after the attack to be great.  It's exactly how I imagine someone with ADHD might react after being attacked by a supernatural monster for the first time.  I love it.

I don't like Grover in the movies anywhere near as much as Grover in the Disney+ show.  Grover in the show is quite likeable and what I would want Percy to have in a best friend.  I also like Luke in the show better than Luke in the movies.

The second Percy Jackson movie isn't as good as the first.  The relationship between Percy and Tyson is quite endearing in the book, and the movie loses all of that.  In the book, Tyson is a homeless kid who is much larger than the other students.  He's a charity case, and Percy watches out for him.  Percy is Tyson's only friend.  I really enjoy the first part of the second book.

In the movie, Tyson just shows up at Camp Half-Blood one day.  I had no reason to care.  Even worse, "spray mist" is used by Tyson so that he appears to have two eyes during most of the movie.  Tyson also uses sunglasses at times.  Not only is this a lame way to avoid the cost of special efforts, it just makes Tyson look normal instead of a cyclops.  It takes away from the impact.

The second movie is not interesting at all, and I don't think I enjoyed a single scene in the entire movie.  The movie fell quite flat.

I'm glad that I did check out both movies, since I liked the first one.  Fans online act like both movies are awful.  The first one is fine.  It may not be an ideal adaptation, but it is entertaining.