Okay, so, I knew going into this that there would be some differences in story elements from the book and the movie - but "some" turned into "a whole lot!" While I did not dislike the movie, (in fact it did entertain me many times!), it just wasn't the book that I grew to entirely enjoy. In fact while I was viewing it midway, I thought to myself, "If I was Rick Riordan, I would be outraged!" What were his feelings toward something that created an entirely different interpretation on his novel? And what were writer Craig Titley's thoughts about how to create movies based on such a popular young fiction series?
As I came up with these questions, I found a blog by Riordan and an interview with Titley.
http://blog.scholastic.com/ink_splot_26/2009/11/percy-jackson-movie-vs-book.html
While in an interview with writer Craig Titley, he states, " it is sort of walking that fine line of…you know, you get two hours to make a movie, and if you put everything that is in the book into the movie, you would have a 4 ½ hour movie. So it’s the age old problem that goes all the way back to, you know, the Wizard of Oz up through Lord of the Rings. It’s: What do you keep? What do you take out? How do you make it feel like the book even though it is its own thing and you are going to have to… you know, when you start pulling things out because of the constraints of a two hour movie, there are sort of holes that have to be filled with original material. And it is sort of like half a creative challenge and half a logistical challenge of trying to keep sort of the spirit and the characters true to the source material as much as possible so that it still feels like the source material. You don’t want to, like reinvent the wheel and invent new characters at the sake of other changes and personalities or anything like that.
So it is quite challenging. And it is more challenging with a book like this that has such a huge fan page. You can start imagining all the hate mail that is going to come, like, “Why did you take out this scene?” But there is no way around it. Somebody’s favorite scene is probably not going to be in the movie.
Both Riordan and Titley created two different versions about what they envisioned for Percy Jackson and his adventure; while I can state so many differences between the elements in characters, main events, problems, point of view, setting, etc.. between both, I feel that what's most important of what I learned from this experience is that a book and a movie should be treated as completely different entities. Let's face it - both the author and the movie writers want to make money, and they are going to do their best to sell both of their products. Their products, as I learned with Percy Jackson, can even be geared to different audiences based on character development, content, and dialogue.
I will still uphold the standard to read a book before viewing the movie and I will try to take Riordan's advice from now on and not be so sensitive when comparing books and their movies - and just let the books be the books, and the movies be the movies!
As I came up with these questions, I found a blog by Riordan and an interview with Titley.
In Riordan's blog on Scholastic's website. Riordan states, "Will the movie be exactly like the book? Well to start with, I have never seen a movie that was exactly like the book it came from, so I think it's safe to say no. Movies are a totally different medium. What you'll be seeing is not The Lightning Thief book copied page for page onto the screen. What you'll be seeing is Chris Columbus' interpretation of The Lightning Thief story. . . Let the movie be the movie, and the books be the books, and try to enjoy the story without getting too worked up about any differences.
And that's what I did - I got too worked up about the differences. While there are way too many differences to list, I understand what Riordan is saying here - the movie isn't meant to emulate the book, and vice versa.
http://blog.scholastic.com/ink_splot_26/2009/11/percy-jackson-movie-vs-book.html
While in an interview with writer Craig Titley, he states, " it is sort of walking that fine line of…you know, you get two hours to make a movie, and if you put everything that is in the book into the movie, you would have a 4 ½ hour movie. So it’s the age old problem that goes all the way back to, you know, the Wizard of Oz up through Lord of the Rings. It’s: What do you keep? What do you take out? How do you make it feel like the book even though it is its own thing and you are going to have to… you know, when you start pulling things out because of the constraints of a two hour movie, there are sort of holes that have to be filled with original material. And it is sort of like half a creative challenge and half a logistical challenge of trying to keep sort of the spirit and the characters true to the source material as much as possible so that it still feels like the source material. You don’t want to, like reinvent the wheel and invent new characters at the sake of other changes and personalities or anything like that.
So it is quite challenging. And it is more challenging with a book like this that has such a huge fan page. You can start imagining all the hate mail that is going to come, like, “Why did you take out this scene?” But there is no way around it. Somebody’s favorite scene is probably not going to be in the movie.
Both Riordan and Titley created two different versions about what they envisioned for Percy Jackson and his adventure; while I can state so many differences between the elements in characters, main events, problems, point of view, setting, etc.. between both, I feel that what's most important of what I learned from this experience is that a book and a movie should be treated as completely different entities. Let's face it - both the author and the movie writers want to make money, and they are going to do their best to sell both of their products. Their products, as I learned with Percy Jackson, can even be geared to different audiences based on character development, content, and dialogue.
I will still uphold the standard to read a book before viewing the movie and I will try to take Riordan's advice from now on and not be so sensitive when comparing books and their movies - and just let the books be the books, and the movies be the movies!
Amy, I completely agree. I, too, was glad that I had read the book first. However, while watching the movie, I was very critical of every finite difference between the book and the movie. I realized going into the movie that they would not be identical stories, but yet was upset when so much of the book's events were altered (or sometimes new ones added). I should have been more open-minded and less critical. You are right, both Riordan and Titley are businessmen - which ultimately drives their decision making. It is our "job" to promote and enjoy literature, while also exloring other's perspectives/interpretations.
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