Review of Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief (MOVIE)

What children's book fan worth their salt hasn't read Rick Riordan's Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief? I really enjoyed reading the books in the series- more than I expected to, in fact! And so when my husband asked what I'd like to do on our date last night, I quickly suggested the new movie based on The Lightning Thief! I'll be honest. My expectations were high. Really high. And while the movie was entertaining, it strayed so far from the book. Major characters were left out of the movie and extras were added. Some of the main characters didn't exactly fit the way Riordan described them in the book. But all of that didn't bother me as much as the actual plot changes. We'll have to wait to see how much the next movie (The Sea of Monsters) will need to stray from the actual story to compensate for the omissions and changes to the first. Will they have anything to do with the original series in the end? I just don't understand why any changes needed to be made in the first place. All the ingredients for a blockbuster hit were there. And film makers took those ingredients and basically turned prime rib into bologna. Disappointing! The book would receive an "A-" from me...the movie a "B-".