This review was made possible by attending a fan screening of Percy Jackson and the Olympians located in Chicago.
I had the opportunity to watch the first two episodes of the Disney+ original series Percy Jackson and the Olympians, which I have been eagerly waiting to see since its announcement in 2020. I have lots of thoughts, hopefully answering questions many of you may have about the series as well without giving out any spoilers.
Percy Jackson follows twelve-year-old Percy, who finds out he is half-god half-mortal, traveling on adventures to save the world. In the first novel, The Lightning Thief, Percy must find Zeus’ stolen lightning bolt or risk the end of the world.
He teams up with his best friend Grover (who is a satyr) and Annabeth (daughter of Athena); together they work as a team to travel across America to complete their quest. The books, authored by Rick Riordan, are considered one of the world’s most popular young adult books ever—selling 180 million copies worldwide.
This isn’t the first time an attempt at adapting Percy Jackson for the screen has been made. In 2010, Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief was released in theaters, starring Logan Lerman, Alexandra Daddario, and Brandon T. Jackson. Despite receiving mixed reception, a sequel adapting the second novel in the series, Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters, was made—performing worse than its predecessor.
The string of poorly performed films left Riordan unhappy with Hollywood, and he swore off future adaptations; not until 2020, did Riordan announce a live-action show to be produced by Disney, which brings us to now.
Percy Jackson and the Olympians is an excellent adaptation of the first novel The Lightning Thief, but it falls into the territory of how the Harry Potter movies adapted their books: taking plot lines and cutting them together to fit the visual medium, even if it’s not exactly how it happened in the text. The action choreography is top-tier and lots of fun, and the CGI has next to no issues.
I was surprised to see excellent usage of The Volume as it’s rare to see that in the media that utilizes it, even though you can tell it was used. Additionally, even though it came off slightly clickbait-y, Olivia Rodrigo’s “logical” was an interesting addition to the soundtrack of the show.
I’ve seen Walker Scobell (Percy Jackson) and Aryan Simhadri (Grover Underwood) in previous films, The Adam Project and Spin respectively, and they’ve improved massively; defining their versatility in their acting capabilities. While we only get a taste of Annabeth, Leah Sava Jeffries shines in her minimal role and embodies her character effectively.
The series is flawed when it comes to James Bobin’s direction as well as the show’s screenwriting. The script, written by Rick Riordan and Jonathan E. Steinberg, suffers from the juvenile writing style of the books (which are written from the perspectives of the characters), whereas in this show, we as viewers are essentially looking in on an event without the thought process behind the characters.
The direction is even worse as characters rarely give a beat in their dialogue, give no opportunity to focus on any cinematic scenes (and there was tons of potential for really gorgeous shots), and on top of it gives us a total of nine cuts to black across the two episodes.
I presume the cut to blacks is a creative choice to pay homage to the end of chapters, but it’s a horrible decision and is completely unnecessary 90% of the time. I hope for future seasons that they look for a new set of directors, someone who can work with the actors well (it feels like they were given nothing to work with) as well as making the show the best it can be.
I can understand why they split the first two episodes into two episodes, and I’m glad that they chose to premiere the first two episodes together, but this show seems so binge-worthy that I can understand why critics were given the first four episodes to watch.
I’m not content that this show is going to finish airing in February because focusing on only 4 to 5 10-page chapters per episode gives barely any substance, and an episode released weekly may have damaged the show’s viewership if a massive fanbase wasn’t attached to the source material.
I just hope that the upcoming Harry Potter series can be better than this, as I will admit these episodes dry themselves thin by formatting the story for TV—but I’m excited to see Walker, Leah, and Aryan carry my next 7 weeks with their charisma.
It makes me excited to go back home and finish re-reading The Lightning Thief tonight! Please watch the two-episode premiere of Percy Jackson and the Olympians on Disney+ on December 19th and form your own opinion.
Percy Jackson and the Olympians is directed by James Bobin, Anders Engström, and Jet Wilkinson. The series stars Walker Scobell (Percy Jackson), Aryan Simhadri (Grover Underwood), and Leah Sava Jeffries (Annabeth Chase). The show streams weekly on Disney+ starting December 19th. All images used are courtesy of Disney.
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