I Abject
From Slate:
With its long, colon-bedecked title, Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief (20th Century Fox) announces that it intends to be the first installment of a new and extremely profitable movie franchise. It aspires to fill the gap left by the looming end of the Harry Potter series, and the abject failure of The Golden Compass movie.
The Golden Compass failed, but was it an abject failure? Its huge budget ($180 million) and paltry domestic gross ($70 million) guarantees there'll be no sequel, but the film still made over $300 million overseas. If its domestic numbers had been commensurate, it'd be considered a blockbuster.
posted by LAGuy @ 12:30 AM
3 Comments:
I saw it in the theater and I own the DVD. I thought it was very well done and that the girl they plucked from obscurity to play the lead did a terrific job. Of course, anything with Sam Elliott in it is watchable in my book.
What, do you suppose, made it so popular in Europe but not here?
There are two generally accepted explanations:
1) The Golden Compass books are far more popular in Europe than America.
2) There was a huge campaign in America that convinced the public the movie is anti-religion.
With respect to Percy Jackson, I have to tell you this is the first film I've seen openning weekend in a long time - at the insistence of my 13-yr old daughter. She advised me that in 13-year old girl land, the order of importance in film is 1) Twilight; 2) Percy Jackson; and 3) Diary of a Wimpy Kid.
I had never even heard of the 3rd one - but was amazed to see a trailer for the upcoming film! Who says Hollywood doesn't have its ears to the ground.
As for Percy Jackson - I liked it. My daughter complained that they left too much out from the book, but not having read the book, the film seemed well structured (ie, the plot didn't seem to be taking huge leaps, which frankly is a problem in Harry Potter, imho).
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