# Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief



## Surgat (Feb 14, 2010)

I have a few issues with it. Spoilers follow.

The main thing was the assumption that the status quo needs to be preserved. The son of Mercury steals the lightening weapon thing to get the gods to destroy each other. Why exactly is that a bad thing? I mean, it was implied that the gods would duke it out on Earth, but the movie didn't make it seem like preventing that was the protagonist's goal. 

These beings are supposed to have started bloody wars for bullshit reasons. In _The Iliad_, it's implied that Zeus engineered the war to kill off all the demigods, since they might possibly pose a future threat to his power. The goddesses Athena and Hera were willing to sacrifice the cities they patronized to destroy Troy, just to spite Aphrodite and Paris, all because they lost a contest.  

Then there was _The Aeneid_. Hera basically coerces Turnus into starting a war, there's a lot of dicking around with superpowers and unnecessary killing, she abandons him to be killed by Aeneas after the war is over, and Jupiter/Zeus is basically just trying engineer the future creation of a corrupt, colonial terrorist state (Rome). Seriously, if Rome got too much resistance from a city it was trying to take, when it fell they'd kill every living thing in it. Hera also ended up causing the Punic Wars because of what she did to Dido.

Why is would it be a good thing for them to be in charge? I don't know of a single time in Greco-Roman mythology that they make any decisions deliberately serving higher principles, pro-social motivations, or even mutual benefit. They're completely selfish, and recognize only force as authority.


This brings me to the my next point: the portrayal of the gods' personalities wasn't faithful to the original mythos, to the detriment of the film. 

I don't know where people get the idea that the Greco-Roman gods were calm, stately, or reasonable. I'm guessing it might be portrayals of the Christian god. 

Zeus is a vindictive, egotistical megalomaniac. It's implied in _The Iliad_ that he's delusional: in one part, he said that if he had a tug of war with all the other gods, with him up in heaven and them down on Earth, he'd pull them all up along with the whole planet. In another, when Posideon is threatening him, he said that if they fought, they'd both break a sweat. 

He says things to his daughter Athena like â€œgo on, be angry! If you disobey, I'll send you to Tartarus forever, even though you're my daughter.â€ A little later he's like â€œoh, I'd never do that.â€  

Thetis gets Zeus to cause a bunch of pointless violence and killing, they felt no obligation to keep their word unless they promised on some fountain or something, etc. 

Elsewhere, to prevent people from thinking he was being vindictive with Prometheus/Forethought when he tied him up to have a vulture eat his liver over and over, he made up a story to justify his punishment. 

They were supposed to be crazy, violent, anti-social, and unable to learn anything. They're more trouble than they're worth. The protagonist never had any contact with them anyways, so he had little reason to sympathize with them either.

To stay true to the original mythos, Zeus would have to have given Percy a _legendary punishment_, even after saving him. If evidence turned up proving his innocence, he'd make something up, like â€œoh he, slept with Hera.â€ An ending like this would have fit in a bit better with the original myths, and suggested that sometimes the powers that be really suck, and you don't always have to take shit from them. 


Aesthetically, Tartarus wasn't like the Christian hell. In the Aeneid it was pretty much just a place where ghosts hung out for eternity. Some torturing when on, but not in all of it. Hades wasn't that different than the other gods, either. 

There use of ancient weaponry was also kind of silly, but I guess maybe it can be forgiven considering that it's a movie geared towards young adults.


Anyone else see it? What did you think?


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## Marietta (Feb 14, 2010)

What?! I thought it didn't come out until tomorrow?
I ignored most of that, for fear of spoilers.

I swear it's supposed to come out tomorrow though.


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## Sharpguard (Feb 14, 2010)

I haven't seen but by the commercials it looks fucking retarded. Like some kind of Disney Channel Show only it goes on for two fucking hours straight.


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## Surgat (Feb 14, 2010)

And another thing: the protagonist shouldn't have been the offspring of one of the major gods. As it is, it sends the message that power and your potential as a person is hereditary. 



Sharpguard said:


> I haven't seen but by the commercials it looks fucking retarded. Like some kind of Disney Channel Show only it goes on for two fucking hours straight.



Yeah, it kind of was, but I didn't have much better to do. 

There were a number of notable actors in it, but a good number of the sets and props looked cheap as hell.


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## Torrijos-sama (Feb 14, 2010)

I nailed every major plot turning point in the film.
Because I like the Greeks (although I don't necessarily agree with any ancient Greek philosophical school other than the Cynics and the Gnostics) and have read much mythology.

And because the structure of many popular films with a dramatic plot have not progressed much since the days of Homer.


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## Wolf-Bone (Feb 14, 2010)

I can't believe you actually went to watch that. You had to realize just from the trailers alone that this was just some crap thrown together to fill the void left by Harry Potter. You were expecting them to actually do their homework, or if they did, to actually be at all faithful to the tradition if it contradicted whatever their own biases/agendas were? See, shit like this is why even though you are certainly a better writer and more avid reader than most, with a good memory to boot, I have to seriously question your intelligence sometimes.


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## Torrijos-sama (Feb 15, 2010)

Wolf-Bone said:


> I can't believe you actually went to watch that. You had to realize just from the trailers alone that this was just some crap thrown together to fill the void left by Harry Potter. You were expecting them to actually do their homework, or if they did, to actually be at all faithful to the tradition if it contradicted whatever their own biases/agendas were? See, shit like this is why even though you are certainly a better writer and more avid reader than most, with a good memory to boot, I have to seriously question your intelligence sometimes.


 
I definately didn't buy the ticket. 
If it were up to me, I would wait a few years until they show it on ABC family or FX.


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## Wolf-Bone (Feb 15, 2010)

JesusFish said:


> I definately didn't buy the ticket.
> If it were up to me, I would wait a few years until they show it on ABC family or FX.



that was actually directed at OP, but ok, I guess you count too


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## Torrijos-sama (Feb 15, 2010)

Wolf-Bone said:


> that was actually directed at OP, but ok, I guess you count too


 
Your post was immediately under my own, and you failed to specifically address the OP in your original post, so I took it that you were responding to my own post, since the majority of responses you have made to posts fail to use quotes or the bracketed 





> QUOTE


 function in this forum's script for that matter.


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## Wolf-Bone (Feb 15, 2010)

JesusFish said:


> Your post was immediately under my own, and you failed to specifically address the OP in your original post, so I took it that you were responding to my own post, since the majority of responses you have made to posts fail to use quotes or the bracketed  function in this forum's script for that matter.



there, i quoted you
now stop pretending the world revolves around you


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## CryoScales (Feb 15, 2010)

Wolf-Bone said:


> I can't believe you actually went to watch that. You had to realize just from the trailers alone that this was just some crap thrown together to fill the void left by Harry Potter. You were expecting them to actually do their homework, or if they did, to actually be at all faithful to the tradition if it contradicted whatever their own biases/agendas were? See, shit like this is why even though you are certainly a better writer and more avid reader than most, with a good memory to boot, I have to seriously question your intelligence sometimes.



I have to agree with Wolf-Bone here. Specifically this was a film that reminded me of that DragonBall movie. When I first heard about it, I knew that it was going to be a pile of shit just hearing it's idea. Then it comes out and what do you know? It's a pile of shit.

Honestly Greek and Roman myths taken literally? That was cool, back in Greek and Roman times. Now it's better to read Homer's stuff and just imagine your own little fantasy's on drunk benders. At least then it's better written.


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## NerdyMunk (Feb 15, 2010)

I had no choice to like it. I was waiting for six months along with another three hours due to "snow problems" on the roof of the theater.
Snow is becoming a problem in my hobbies
Snow needs to gtfo and get up to Vancouver
It probably was better for me to see this than that-gone-to-shit Wolfman movie everyone wanted to see.


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## Surgat (Feb 15, 2010)

The more I think of it, the worse the movie seems. There are too many contrivances and unnecessary things in this film's plot to go into. 



Wolf-Bone said:


> I can't believe you actually went to watch that. You had to realize just from the trailers alone that this was just some crap thrown together to fill the void left by Harry Potter. You were expecting them to actually do their homework, or if they did, to actually be at all faithful to the tradition if it contradicted whatever their own biases/agendas were? See, shit like this is why even though you are certainly a better writer and more avid reader than most, with a good memory to boot, I have to seriously question your intelligence sometimes.



I tried to ignore the trailers when I saw them, when I went to other movies before this. I only thought about seeing it yesterday. I expected it to be mediocre, but there's still no excuse this crap. It's like someone made a Superman movie, only he had no weakness to kryptonite, and it was kind of authoritarian propaganda too.


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## Marietta (Feb 21, 2010)

I went to go see it.
I actually thought it was cute.


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## Lukar (Feb 21, 2010)

Tagged along with a friend last night and saw it, and I liked it. They rushed the beginning, but after that, it got smoother.


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## Ariosto (Feb 21, 2010)

I agree on that they rushed at the beggining.
Some stuff didn't make sense, like you said, but some their re-inventing of the greek myths was quite interesting. Like demi-gods being absurdly abundant.

But in the end, it was forgetable, probably because of the tepid acting and the somewaht cheesy screenplay.


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