But “yawn”? Really? Gee whiz… I wouldn’t “yawn” at a plumber discussing the difficulty of plumbing regulations, just because I’m not personally interested in them…

“‘Yes and no,’ Ares said, ‘It’s probably too complicated for your little mortal brain to follow, but the backpack is the master bolt’s sheath, just morphed a bit. The bolt is connected to it, sort of like that sword you got, kid. It always returns to your pockets, right?’

…

“‘Anyway,’ Ares continued, ‘I tinkered with the magic a bit, so the bolt would only return to the sheath once you reached the Underworld. You get close to Hades… Bingo, you got mail. If you died along the way – no loss. I still had the weapon.’”

And I completely agree with everything. I actually saw the movie before watching the book. It was okay, but some parts just didn’t make much sense to me. Then I read the book. Needless to say, I was very surprised.

I’m currently on the 3rd book now.

Including the Kronos meta-plot would require the studio’s to make the sequels into movies as well so that the meta-plot would be properly resolved. By leaving it out, they’re giving themselves the opportunity to just cut the franchise off if it doesn’t make the money they want it to.

If they decide the series is worth seeing through to completion, it wouldn’t be hard to lace in and tie to gether the missing strings in the second movie:

Kronos really WAS whispering sweet nothings in Luke’s ear and nurtured the hostility he already felt and Luke is now fully on his side. Thalia could show up as Grover’s newest half-blood find and the Oracle (who I’m assuming is no where on Camp Halfblood) has delivered a prophecy about the kiddies of the big 3 doin’ all sorts of damage when they turn 20 (because they already seem to be about 16…) and now some of the things that were missing in the first one are put back in… in a sort of slap-dash sort of fashion. Somewhere in there they’d have to create depth to the characters (like Annabeth wanting to be an architect, Grover searching for Pan, Hermes talking to Percy about Luke showing he really DOES care, etc) but it COULD maybe be done. Though I hope they don’t. They’ve already hurt me enough with this movie that I’d hate to have them squirt lemon onto the wound in 2-ish years.

LOVE it!

My 10 year old was pretty disappointed in the movie. That’s saying something. She even asked, “Where was Kronos? It was like ‘Star Wars’ without the Emperor where Vader was just a mean guy because he could be.”

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0814255/board/thread/157614359?p=1

One reader of this blog said that my comments don’t work for him, and that “the pearls were a good subplot to throw in”. My response:

“@ztmillers – Not sure you read the whole article. I don’t care how “alike” the film is to the book either. Anabeth is brunette instead of blonde? Don’t care. But there are certain fundamental elements of story structure (whether it’s Percy Jackson or any other film) that existed in the book that the movie removed, and didn’t replace with another element to function in that role.

“The pearls were a great subplot to throw in.” That’s a great example. In the book, the trope of the pearls weren’t a “subplot”, they were an important structural setup to the main character’s development of arc – something any important character in any story needs. It was because of the pearls (only having three) that Percy was forced to choose to trust Hades, and to trust himself (and his friends) to complete their quest (which he originally had not been committed to) to secure his mother’s freedom. It set up the “reversal”, which is fundamental to storytelling… Percy’s whole quest (in his mind) was to reach Hades and free his mother, but when he gets there he can’t do it and in fact has to choose not to do it.

Instead, in the movie, the “pearls were a great subplot to throw in” – they were reduced to a simple mechanism to drive the story from one plot point to the next, but lost the more elegant importance they had in the book. And, they weren’t replaced with anything – Percy simply has no reversal, and doesn’t have to either trust Hades or in himself to complete his quest.

Different strokes… not trying to change your mind, but trying to explain that my article is not about “simple differences between book and movie” because I understand that those have to happen. I’m writing about story choices that are bad choices (in my mind) for any movie.

But glad you went and read it. I appreciate it.

Wish more folks were leaving comments at the blog, though!

Cheers,”

So maybe I get a half-credit.

Thanks for the clarification!