I feel I should start this review by stating a simple fact: I love movies. I've been going to movie theaters since I was three and have yet to find myself wholly disappointed with any movie I've seen. I just love movies, even 'based on book' movies. Most people I know have trouble separating the movie from its source material to enjoy it, but I find myself quite easily able to do it. I will say that I also understand in these kinds of movies, some things may have to be removed from the story for time constraints (Tom Bombadil of The Lord of the Rings for instance). So I review this movie on its own with little to no connection to the original book it was "based" upon.
That being said, I believe this is the first movie out of twenty years that I have found myself completely and utterly disappointed by. It had the setup for a great movie: fantastic cast, wonderful composer, good director, well-loved source material. So I'm not entirely sure how the script writers of this movie managed to let a good idea be executed so badly.
I enjoyed the cast chosen for the film. I hadn't done my usual investigating and was surprised to find Sean Bean, Uma Thurman, and Pierce Brosnan were in the movie. The main cast ensemble (the quest trio) seemed to fit the roles well, particularly Logan as Percy himself. Unfortunately, the characters were not as fleshed out as they could have been. Grover seems to be the only character with ....well, character in the movie's entirety. Percy has only his love of being in the water, dyslexia and ADHD, and love for his mother going for him throughout the movie. Note: I mean to say they are the only things. When Grover asks him why he, "can't be a hero," Percy responds telling him he's dyslexic with ADHD. As if those are the only flaws he has. Or, perhaps, those are the only things Percy sees wrong with himself. We get a minute and a half introduction to Annabeth before she takes an interest in Percy (claiming she isn't sure if it's positive or negative just yet) and a few hours later, the three are on their way to the Underworld.
Other characters are decent enough, if you want a caricature of who they are. Chiron gets maybe four major conversations in the movie (1 as Mr. Brunner at the museum, 2 when he greets Percy at Camp, 3 when he tells Percy his father is Poseidon, and 4 when Percy returns to Camp at the end). We get two glimpses of Smelly Gabe and a third on the TV news report. Sally Jackson (Percy's mother) seems to have one of the only stable characterizations throughout the film which is protect Percy. Poseidon, Zeus, and Hades themselves are barely touched upon, mostly with glimpses of the characters we remember from childhood mythology while the other gods are not even touched upon. We get a mention of Hermes from Luke, but beyond that? Don't expect to see or hear anything from them.
The story was definitely something that needed more work. It did not lend itself well to the adaptation of the sequels and did not leave me wanting to see more. It was very basic, predictable, and overdone. On top of those factors, it was not executed well. The beginning was incredibly rushed in such a way that you didn't get to really know the main characters outside of a few brief glimpses. Each time the trio got to a "milestone" in their journey, it was as if the writers weren't sure how to transition their exit, so they put in an iconic battle from the books and had them escape to make the scene change for them. The last battle and ending seemed to be the only scenes the writers gave serious thought to as they were well thought out, but too little too late for this viewer. And some things just were never cleared up or mentioned at the end, such as how they handled Percy's being a fugitive (the news report about he and Sally going missing and Gabe saying he was a delinquent into drugs and alcohol). Or stating whether or not Percy would stay at Camp year-round; it's implied that he will, but it's more or less left up to viewer interpretation.
There were a lot of unneeded things in this movie, ranging from jokes to certain lines to entire scenes. I believe the entire Lotus Casino scene was the worst scene in the entire movie and was used solely as an excuse to include current pop songs onto the soundtrack and sell music from those particular groups/singers. I was almost at the point of getting up to walk around the theater until the plot point was over it was so bad. I would have rather not had the Lotus Casino at all than have had what we were given.
All in all: this was a movie that had great potential that was not executed well and had only its visuals and graphics going for it. I do not recommend anyone to see this movie if they're expecting any resemblance to its book counterpart.
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