Jason King20th Century Fox Ruined Another Movie Franchise: Percy Jackson and The Lightning Thief 3/10
February 11th 2010 09:01
:
Please Fire the Head of Fox
Category: No Category
Yet again I have to get devastated by an anihilation from the lovely people at 20th Century Fox. Who is running the studio at the moment? The same guy running Toyota or the world finances?
I have been so excited to see Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief since reading the book and seeing the first trailer. But OMG - what a disappointment this film turned out to be. It was dubbed to be the replacement for Harry Potter and follows a similar story line although instead of magic it follows demigod children. The children who are half human and half god created from the mating of the Olympian gods who occasionally came to earth to "hit the sack" with some humans. All of the demigods have special powers and the story is saturated with mythology and all the characters you know and love. Zeus, Poseidon, Medusa, Athena and the list of people goes on. Percy Jackson is the son of Poseidon and only discovers he is a demi god when his subsititute teacher turns into an evil monster and tries to kill him on an excursion.
Tipped to replace the Harry Potter franchise they brought in a cast that was impressive as it was HUGE. Logan Lerman as Percy Jackson, Brandon T Jackson (Alpa Chino from Tropic Thunder) as Grover, Pierce Brosnan, Rosario Dawson, Uma Thurman, Sean Bean, Steve Coogan, Catherine Keener, Joe Pantoliano and many more to lead out all the parts. They even got Chris Columbus to direct who, with his amazing attention to detail produced the most accurate Harry Potter's in the series, being the first two. They kept all the character names, they even kept a basic story outline and then they hacked the entire story to pieces, made the kids 18 instead of 12, removed a few characters and major plot points and produced something they did a couple of years ago - the totally shit Eragon - this time Percy styled.
Some of the biggest scenes in the book gone, and then more important things omitted or added without an explanation as to its purpose. It was Zena the Princess Percy on a bigger budget. OK - there was one thing they placed in the movie I actually enjoyed, the fact that Percy got to weild the Lightning bolt - something that annoyed me in the book. But Percy's entire battle with Hades, just removed and Hades made into a joker of a character.
OK - I should start by pointing out some good points about the film. Logan Lerman is great - I was especially watching him because he has been tipped as the new Peter Parker in the next Spiderman and I wanted to see if he could do it. And my answer is a BIG YES. The guy is HOT, can definatelty act and has built up a resume since being a very young kid to something bordering on succesful. He was Mel's youngest kid in The Patriot playing alongside Mel and Heath Ledger. He was the kid in What Women Want, he played a young Ashton in Butterfly Effect, was in The Number 23, 3:10 to Yuma as the son and most recently in Gamer. I think he is on the rise and he has my vote for Spidey. One annoying thing about his Percy - when your mother dies you need to be a lot sadder, but they kept the film so short and lacking of depth that there was no time to have a large sad moment.
The special effects are great, the CGI Hades in devil form looks amazing and the impressions of entering Dante's Hell, while atrocious compared to what they could have done, looked acceptable. But this is another lost film moment of momemtous proportions - in the book they actually enter Dante's Hell, it is basically all explained as Dante's and they missed the poetry of it, the renaissance of it and the utter sheer depsair of it. The use of CGI water was impressive although it was meant to happen way more times throughout the story. Where was Percy battling Hades and making the entire ocean come to his aid?
Rosario Dawson is amazing!! Absoultely stunning, and while you only hear of her in the book, and never actually meet her she is so good in this I was glad she was in it. Although it was very brief. Brandon T Jackson is also impressive and I did find Sean Bean a good Zeus, although not as scary as I would have liked.
That's about it - and now for the bad parts.
1) Pierce Brosnan is appalling - I mean I cringed while watching him - he is so out of place it is an embarrasment
2) Uma Thurman is even worse - I felt like I was watching a B grade pantomine. She looks amazing, as always, but she is shocking
3) Steve Coogan - I have no idea why he was Hades - they were trying to make the ruler of the underworld to be a stand up comedian - idiots. This happened in Stormbreaker - making the head of the secret service a bumbling idiot worthy of morning cartoons
4) The story was too far gone for it to be passable - I accept (although grudgingly) that many books can not get every part into the movie, but moving the story's point of view off Percy and to a team effort, removing many important characters and flashing over so many important scenes is like ripping your soul out and making you be acceptable to the world - it is NOT!
5) This is the first film I have ever seen Catherine Keener in where I thought she was horrible - I love this woman and she is one of my favourite actors and in this I think she knew it was shit so is just not get into it
6) Alexandra Daddario is wooden and appears lacking in a thing called emotion onscreen - I did cringe with a few of her line deliveries, her role is so strong in the book that she needed to be much better for this role
7) Why not get the original writer to sign off on the story? It works so well with Twilight and when left to a screenwriter they lose the plot, literally. Not always but seriously when trying to create a HUGE franchise you need the support of the fans
8) In the book they can't use phones as the monsters after them can track them but due to shameless product placement Percy must have an IPhone to use the silver backing as a mirror while fighting Medusa
The story of Percy Jackson is something magical and wonderous and this unthought out splicing of good looking scenes has neither. Chris Columbus brought us both of these with Harry Potter and surely he must know this is what was needed for Percy. I therefor blame 20th Century Fox who have produced a lot of rubbish recently. OK - they have just released the biggest film of all time - a) this does not cover up the crap they have brought out. b) If you look at the films they have brought out before and after Avatar you will get my drift - The Tooth Fairy, The Day the Earth Stood Still, Australia (OK - I liked this one), The X Files Movie, Max Payne, Meet Dave, Babylon AD, The City of Ember (another franchise destroyed) and there are more. Sigourney was even keen for another Alien film - they said NO - are you kidding me? If it wasn't for Avatar Fox would go broke this year.
Sadly Percy Jackson will tank at the box office within two weeks and sadly there will be no replacement franchise to match up with Twilight and take over from Harry Potter. Shame - out today and worth 3/10.
I have been so excited to see Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief since reading the book and seeing the first trailer. But OMG - what a disappointment this film turned out to be. It was dubbed to be the replacement for Harry Potter and follows a similar story line although instead of magic it follows demigod children. The children who are half human and half god created from the mating of the Olympian gods who occasionally came to earth to "hit the sack" with some humans. All of the demigods have special powers and the story is saturated with mythology and all the characters you know and love. Zeus, Poseidon, Medusa, Athena and the list of people goes on. Percy Jackson is the son of Poseidon and only discovers he is a demi god when his subsititute teacher turns into an evil monster and tries to kill him on an excursion.
Tipped to replace the Harry Potter franchise they brought in a cast that was impressive as it was HUGE. Logan Lerman as Percy Jackson, Brandon T Jackson (Alpa Chino from Tropic Thunder) as Grover, Pierce Brosnan, Rosario Dawson, Uma Thurman, Sean Bean, Steve Coogan, Catherine Keener, Joe Pantoliano and many more to lead out all the parts. They even got Chris Columbus to direct who, with his amazing attention to detail produced the most accurate Harry Potter's in the series, being the first two. They kept all the character names, they even kept a basic story outline and then they hacked the entire story to pieces, made the kids 18 instead of 12, removed a few characters and major plot points and produced something they did a couple of years ago - the totally shit Eragon - this time Percy styled.
Some of the biggest scenes in the book gone, and then more important things omitted or added without an explanation as to its purpose. It was Zena the Princess Percy on a bigger budget. OK - there was one thing they placed in the movie I actually enjoyed, the fact that Percy got to weild the Lightning bolt - something that annoyed me in the book. But Percy's entire battle with Hades, just removed and Hades made into a joker of a character.
OK - I should start by pointing out some good points about the film. Logan Lerman is great - I was especially watching him because he has been tipped as the new Peter Parker in the next Spiderman and I wanted to see if he could do it. And my answer is a BIG YES. The guy is HOT, can definatelty act and has built up a resume since being a very young kid to something bordering on succesful. He was Mel's youngest kid in The Patriot playing alongside Mel and Heath Ledger. He was the kid in What Women Want, he played a young Ashton in Butterfly Effect, was in The Number 23, 3:10 to Yuma as the son and most recently in Gamer. I think he is on the rise and he has my vote for Spidey. One annoying thing about his Percy - when your mother dies you need to be a lot sadder, but they kept the film so short and lacking of depth that there was no time to have a large sad moment.
The special effects are great, the CGI Hades in devil form looks amazing and the impressions of entering Dante's Hell, while atrocious compared to what they could have done, looked acceptable. But this is another lost film moment of momemtous proportions - in the book they actually enter Dante's Hell, it is basically all explained as Dante's and they missed the poetry of it, the renaissance of it and the utter sheer depsair of it. The use of CGI water was impressive although it was meant to happen way more times throughout the story. Where was Percy battling Hades and making the entire ocean come to his aid?
Rosario Dawson is amazing!! Absoultely stunning, and while you only hear of her in the book, and never actually meet her she is so good in this I was glad she was in it. Although it was very brief. Brandon T Jackson is also impressive and I did find Sean Bean a good Zeus, although not as scary as I would have liked.
That's about it - and now for the bad parts.
1) Pierce Brosnan is appalling - I mean I cringed while watching him - he is so out of place it is an embarrasment
2) Uma Thurman is even worse - I felt like I was watching a B grade pantomine. She looks amazing, as always, but she is shocking
3) Steve Coogan - I have no idea why he was Hades - they were trying to make the ruler of the underworld to be a stand up comedian - idiots. This happened in Stormbreaker - making the head of the secret service a bumbling idiot worthy of morning cartoons
4) The story was too far gone for it to be passable - I accept (although grudgingly) that many books can not get every part into the movie, but moving the story's point of view off Percy and to a team effort, removing many important characters and flashing over so many important scenes is like ripping your soul out and making you be acceptable to the world - it is NOT!
5) This is the first film I have ever seen Catherine Keener in where I thought she was horrible - I love this woman and she is one of my favourite actors and in this I think she knew it was shit so is just not get into it
6) Alexandra Daddario is wooden and appears lacking in a thing called emotion onscreen - I did cringe with a few of her line deliveries, her role is so strong in the book that she needed to be much better for this role
7) Why not get the original writer to sign off on the story? It works so well with Twilight and when left to a screenwriter they lose the plot, literally. Not always but seriously when trying to create a HUGE franchise you need the support of the fans
8) In the book they can't use phones as the monsters after them can track them but due to shameless product placement Percy must have an IPhone to use the silver backing as a mirror while fighting Medusa
The story of Percy Jackson is something magical and wonderous and this unthought out splicing of good looking scenes has neither. Chris Columbus brought us both of these with Harry Potter and surely he must know this is what was needed for Percy. I therefor blame 20th Century Fox who have produced a lot of rubbish recently. OK - they have just released the biggest film of all time - a) this does not cover up the crap they have brought out. b) If you look at the films they have brought out before and after Avatar you will get my drift - The Tooth Fairy, The Day the Earth Stood Still, Australia (OK - I liked this one), The X Files Movie, Max Payne, Meet Dave, Babylon AD, The City of Ember (another franchise destroyed) and there are more. Sigourney was even keen for another Alien film - they said NO - are you kidding me? If it wasn't for Avatar Fox would go broke this year.
Sadly Percy Jackson will tank at the box office within two weeks and sadly there will be no replacement franchise to match up with Twilight and take over from Harry Potter. Shame - out today and worth 3/10.
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Comment by Tommy Pacialeo
Comment by Jason King
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Fox sucks!!
I am way more surprised you actually liked it. Our movie tastes are definately getting further apart
You disappoint young padiwan hahaha
Comment by Rix
ps: classic JK line in the article "are you kidding me"
hahahaha
Comment by Jason King
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Comment by Dave Longo
I haven't read the book, but I was embarrassed to be in the theater tonight... The film was irredeemable.
I wanted to walk out, but glad I didn't because the Vegas sequence with "poker face" was so bad, I can now use it to judge all other bad films against.
It was basically a cheap rip off of clash of the titans. The ending of this film was almost exactly the same.
Do you think if I read the book, the movie would ruin it for me?
ps. I read about four reviews of the movie before coming here, yours was the best. Have you read Harry knowles' write up? It's atrocious Journalism.
Comment by Jason King
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I don't find it a rip off to the extreme of Clash of the Titans - it just has the same characters in it and Clash is really just a rip off of Greek mythology. The book is so far removed from the film, it is written for teens though and there were a couple of things I think the movie did better but not many - the book allows imagination to create better sets than the cheapness of 20th Century Fox. Can bring in the first book and lend to you if you want.