Claire Kunzier, Editor 

During the early to mid 2010’s, fantasy teen books controlled the underbelly of popular culture among the late elementary, middle school and early high school years. With people obsessing over various fantasy book series and their film adaptations, film studios were riding the success of the “Harry Potter” series and “Twilight Saga” wave. A book series that is amazing, but has major flops for movies is sadly the beloved “Percy Jackson” series. 

*and so we enter the section where I expose all of the knowledge I have about this book series as well as how much I still care that this remake is good*

Fitting into the “Harry Potter” “I’m so cool look at my powers” and chosen boy route, the books detail the life of Halfblood (half human and half Greek god), children neglected by half of their parents, hitting puberty, and fighting monsters all at once *gasp.* The main character, Percy Jackson, is the son of Poseidon and is the child of the prophecy who will either save or end the Olympians and their rule over humanity. Homie has a bestfriend who is half goat as well as the classic enemies to lovers story line that a middle aged white guy wrote about twelve to eighteen year olds. The books, like I mentioned, are great, a 10/10 read — the movies: not so much. 

The first film came out in 2010 and scored a solid 49 percent on Rotten Tomatoes, but overall wasn’t the worst. Like most book-to-screen adaptations, there were parts missing and added to make the film seem more appealing overall. The worst changes were that the characters were sixteen instead of twelve, which made everything less impressive and much more moody. They didn’t fit some of the most important details in, and idk I just feel like it could’ve been better. 

There is no saving the second film that came out in 2013. All of the semi-redeeming qualities of the first one cannot be found within the second one and I think the 42 percent Rotten Tomatoes score was generous. 

Now, ten years later they’re trying again and actually making the characters the correct ages. They just casted Percy and people don’t hate him, even though Logan Lerman was a great cast the first time, he was old. Idk I just hope it’s good. But, let’s not get our hopes up so the let down isn’t as severe.