The book series, “Percy Jackson and the Olympians,” by Rick Riordan, is much better than the movie and television series adaptations, mostly because the book has more in-depth character development and the storyline is more believable.
The series is about a 12-year-old boy who finds himself getting in trouble a lot and learns a secret that helps explain why: he’s the son of the Greek god, Poseidon, which makes him a demigod (offspring of a god and a human being). This revelation leads Percy and his friends to embark on a quest to save his mother and to stop a war from starting.
In 2010 there was a movie adaptation of the Percy Jackson series with 20th Century Studios. However, for many reasons, I was disappointed with the film, including that it went off course from the book’s storyline and the cast was much older than I expected.
A Disney+ series, with each book having its own season, came out at the end of last year and stands apart from the 2010 film partly due to the fact that Riordan was very much involved with creating it, including casting choices, the script writing and directive calls while shooting.
The first season is based on “The Lightning Thief” and has eight episodes. Overall, season one includes the most important moments from the books and follows the storyline. Also, unlike the film, the casting is more in line with the book. In the early books, Percy is portrayed as an awkward and silly character, which is played very well by actor Walker Scobell. The series also allows fans to truly feel as though they traveled back in time to the very start of the book.
However, even though the first season is better than the 2010 film, it’s underwhelming compared to the book. One reason is that in the book, the battles between Percy and the antagonists are explicit and long and include specific details about how the fighting and battle play out. The series, on the other hand, shortens the fight scenes and makes the battle an easy win for Percy, which is hard to believe because of his inexperience.
Though the books are definitely better than both the movie and series, I was happy with the outcome of the film and am excited to see what happens with season two, “Sea of Monsters.”And now that summer’s here, it’s the perfect time for students to read the books and then watch the movie and first season of the series.
