“Percy Jackson and the Olympians” has hit streaming screens, bringing the electrifying (pun intended) story of “The Lightning Thief” to live action.
Though the new Disney+ show has its shining moments, it isn’t the masterpiece many fans were expecting.
Published in 2005, “The Lightning Thief” follows a 12-year-old Percy Jackson as he discovers that his life is not what it seems. Focusing on Greek mythology, he’s a demigod, son of Greek God of the sea Poseidon.
When Zeus’ famous Master Bolt, is stolen, the blame infamously falls on Percy and he is forced to set out to retrieve the bolt and find the true thief.
Now, almost 18 years after “The Lightning Thief” first hit the shelves, author Rick Riordan has teamed up with Disney to bring Percy’s story to life, with the goal of doing it right this time (looking at you 2010 “Lightning Thief” movie).
With all of this, some aspects were done right. The main trio of Percy (Walker Scobell), Annabeth (Leah Sava Jeffries), and Grover (Aryan Simhadri) is excellent. Their on-screen chemistry is palpable and they truly encapsulate the way Percy, Annabeth and Grover were written to be.
The pacing, on the other hand, might have been manipulated by the god of time Kronos with how haphazard it is. Percy seems to barely spend any time at Camp Half-Blood in the show, whereas the book made it clear that he had finally found a home there and made friends with those similar to him. Instead of achieving this important part of the series, the show barely recognized it.
Major fight scenes also only last a few seconds, and much of the already compact episode runtime is spent on conversations between characters.
The amount of dialogue wouldn’t ordinarily be a problem, except for how expositional it is. Though the main trio has moments where they really seem to connect, most of their conversations consist of info dumping Greek myths and character backstories on Percy and the audience.
In novels, this level of exposition dumping is fine because there’s only one way to reveal information which is text. But visual mediums such as TV open the door to other forms of relaying details to the audience: lighting, sound, body language, etc.
But the show doesn’t take enough advantage of these other forms of exposition, and it causes the series to fall flat.
Percy, Annabeth and Grover often seem to have far more awareness than they did in the books. One example is the changes made to Medusa’s scene. When Percy and his friends stumble upon her Garden Gnome Emporium, they immediately become aware of what’s going on.
The books made them let their guard down, only to be ambushed by the sudden monster. And the novel’s iconic “Crusty” scene is watered down by the lack of mystery, with Percy revealing Crusty’s identity immediately after meeting him.
Much of the scene’s tension is lost with the trio’s amount of knowledge. If the show allowed its characters to be ignorant with limited information about situations they’re thrown into, it would drive home the idea that the “heroes” are just kids.
It would demonstrate how little they know about the world despite their godly blood. They’re really just three 12 year olds up against something they have no business facing.
“Percy Jackson and the Olympians” isn’t the perfect adaptation fans wanted it to be. Despite its stellar cast, the other aspects of the show fall flat, causing the show to fail to bring the magical wonder and spark of the original books to life.
