Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief

Note: This review contains spoilers for Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief.

Whether or not you’re familiar with middle grade fiction, there’s a good chance you’ve heard of Percy Jackson & the Olympians, a novel series by Rick Riordan about a young demigod named Percy Jackson. The series proved popular enough that a film based on the first book, Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief (The Lightning Thief), was released in 2010. The film, directed by Chris Columbus, did well at the box office, but was criticized, even by the author, for the way it deviated from the source material. It was actually around when the film released that I first became aware of Percy Jackson, although I didn’t do anything with that knowledge at the time because both the Harry Potter and A Series of Unfortunate Events series had reached their end around that time and I thought I had outgrown middle grade fiction. As an adult, however, when I rediscovered the joy of reading middle grade fiction, I finally dipped my toe into Percy Jackson and read the first book in time for the Disney+ adaptation, which I enjoyed. Afterwards, I decided to try watching the film just to see how badly it had apparently handled the same material. By the end, I realized that my past self was right in not watching it.

Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days (2012)

Note: This review contains spoilers for Diary of a Wimpy Kid (2010), Rodrick Rules and Dog Days.

With the success of Diary of a Wimpy Kid (2010) and Rodrick Rules, a third installment was inevitable. This third film, Dog Days, released in 2012, meaning the entire original trilogy came out within the span of only three years. While impressive in its own right, this release schedule also runs the risk of diluting the end product for the sake of meeting such tight deadlines. Unfortunately, for all of its charm, Dog Days’ quick turnaround results in the least focused of the original live-action trilogy, as though they had rushed it out so they could keep the same cast before they got too old.

Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules (2011)

Note: This review contains spoilers for Diary of a Wimpy Kid (2010) and Rodrick Rules.

As the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series by Jeff Kinney proved to be popular, so did its 2010 film adaptation, leading to an annual sequel based on the second book, Rodrick Rules. Although I have not actually read any of the books, the first film turned out to be a lot better than I had expected after I watched it to see what the fuss was about, which got me interested in seeing the sequel. After having done so, I feel Rodrick Rules improves on the original enough to make it possibly the best of the original trilogy.

Diary of a Wimpy Kid (2010)

If you were around in the mid-2000s, there was a chance you had heard of Diary of a Wimpy Kid, a series of still-ongoing children’s novels written and illustrated by Jeff Kinney. If not that, you may have heard of the series of live-action films based on the books, with the first one, Diary of a Wimpy Kid, released in 2010. I had some awareness of both, though for whatever reason it never really caught my interest. Fast forward to 2021 and Disney+ released a new adaptation of the original book, also titled Diary of a Wimpy Kid, though I noticed more fans of the series compare it unfavorably to the original adaptation. This finally motivated me to try and see what all the fuss was about and although I went in with no expectations about its quality, I was pleasantly surprised by the amount of heart in the writing and the honestly great life lesson it can impart on its target audience.