Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

My son talked me into reading these books with him, and we loved them. When we went to see the new Harry Potter movie, scenes for it came on during the trailers. He recognized the story the second the preview started. He was thrilled, and so was I. What potential this unique and fun series had for a movie--or movies...I mean, they advertised that it was being brought to us by the people who make the Harry Potter movies. The Potter movies stay so true to the book--taking care to absolutely keep things in the screenplay that are necessary to the plot line. I wish I could say the same for this movie. When it finally came out, we went to a movie theater in NJ that was right across the river from NYC. We could see the Empire State building from the theater parking lot, and took it as a sign that the movie was going to rock. We were so psyched to see it. When we left the theater, I thought my son was going to cry, and I couldn't un-scrunch my eyebrows--huh?? I felt so bad for him, for me, for Rick Riordan... We understand that it's impossible to make a movie exactly like a book-- but this was a travesty. Every important aspect of the story was by-passed for the sake of special effects. It's almost as if the screenwriter had been given a verbal summary of what the book was about, and took it from there. So many important plot points were left out or down right changed to the point that it would be impossible to even think about a sequel. It's such a shame. These stories have the "book made to movie" potential of the Potter series, or dare I say, a kids "Lord of the Rings". If someone with vision had just read the books, the money used to make it could have been so much better spent. It could have been knocked out of the park, but, alas, the ball was dropped and we all lost.