My 12 year old sons and I had read the book together, and we were so excited to see the movie. We were then so disappointed that the movie deviated so much from the book. Other than that, we enjoyed the movie. The acting was good and most of the visual effects were good (except the minotaur scene with the mother--which was pretty cheesy). The differences between the book and the movie were so severe that the underlying reason for the book series was even omitted. One of my sons has read the entire series, and he is quite concerned that because of how this first movie was portrayed, that the rest of the books won't be able to be made into movies. It seemed as though the filmmakers could have stuck closer to the book and still stayed within a reasonable movie length. If we hadn't read the book, it would have probably been a better experience for us. We love Chris Columbus' directing, but as stated, we wish the movie would have followed the book more closely.

At roughly 2 hours, Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief(PJOTLT) is an overwrought inconsistently-paced ridiculous exercise of an attempt at box-office magic that sputtered, fizzled, and barely crackled. I read the novel 5 years ago and was underwhelmed by its ludicrously unimaginative insipid story and I refrained from reading the entire series. I share the same exact sentiment with this movie adaptation of the novel authored by Rick Riordan. The characters in the movie(and novel) lacked depth and development. A rehashing rip-off of Harry Potter's coming-of-age predicaments(the Harry Potter series shone with creativity and imagination), PJOTLT floundered like a naiad out of water and utterly devoid of true story-telling magic. Even this movie's CGI is a dismal second to the CGI in the Harry Potter movies. The cast's bland and campy acting was painful to watch as they attempt to convey a plot that made no sense. VERDICT: At best - a rental.

The books were incredible and i cant wait for the movie