There is nothing more disheartening than seeing your favorite book series get turned into a disappointing movie franchise that wasted all of its potential.
Everyone remembers that week in 6th grade when they learned about the Greek gods, making a poster of their favorite god with fun facts and popular myths. It was a fun time, Greek mythology is adventurous, heroic and heavenly. The “Percy Jackson” series is “Harry Potter” but with Greek mythology, and the film franchise should’ve been just as big — it wasn’t. Instead it felt like a cheap knock off, missing everything that made the books special.
What is it about “Percy Jackson?”
To put it simply it’s about a group of young kids going on mythological quests to save their camp, friends and the world. The main hero is a normal kid who finds out he’s actually a demigod; he quickly gets thrown into this mythical world where he grows to be a selfless hero.
Alongside him is a fierce and smart young girl and an aspiring protector willing to lay his life down to do his duty.
All the characters are different, because they are children of gods they have powers and characteristics that align with their parents. This makes them stand out in their own way. The series was heartfelt, bold and dangerous, perfect for the big screen and somehow it didn’t work.
What went wrong?
The movies were not what they should’ve been. What was supposed to be this grand mythical quest full of self-discovery and danger turned out to be a typical Hollywood quest movie lacking the unique qualities of “Percy Jackson”.
Ares was never involved in the first film despite having a big role in the first book’s third act. Percy never receives the quest that sets the whole first book in motion. Annabeth Chase became less of the strong and wise daughter of Athena and more of Percy’s love interest who happens to be the daughter of Athena.
In more simpler terms, the film series was a flop.
Rick Riordan, author of the “Percy Jackson” series, wrote a blog post where he stated he was given no creative control of the movies.
The choice to age up the characters ruined any chance of a franchise because the story revolves around Percy growing older and, as the prophecy says, making a life or death decision when he turns 16, Riordan wrote to producers.
“The script as a whole is terrible,” Riordan said. “I don’t simply mean that it deviates from the book, though certainly it does that to the point of being almost unrecognizable as the same story.”
They wanted to make a franchise out of “Percy Jackson”, but left out everything from the books that built up a larger story that would’ve made it the franchise they wanted. It would’ve made it a better movie.
Riordan went on to write more spin-off series that connected to the original series. Had “Percy Jackson” been done right not only would they have an amazing franchise, but a great spin off material to make into another film series. It’s sad to see a great story get ruined by people who didn’t care to put the effort in to do it justice.
Fortunately on May 14 , Riordan announced that a new “Percy Jackson” TV series is in development for Disney+. Fans quickly took to Twitter to express their excitement and gratitude that the series will be getting another chance.
Riordan says he will be more involved in this project, so hopefully “Percy Jackson” will finally get the adaptation it deserves.
