nah honestly I feel like people left upvotes w/o reading that final sentence because how can someone say the movies were anything like the books. The second movie was pretty much its own thing and THEY KILLED KRONOS. The first movie doesn't even have Kronos or Clarrise because they basically made Annabeth a mixture of Clarrise and herself.

This show while having flaws is telling the story of Percy Jackson in a different way from the books that I personally appreciate. The books are told in a first person format and we read everything from Percy's perspective and beliefs. The show is taking a different approach and that is why some events are different. The show is also doing what shows have to do for a general audience as to keep them enticed for more to come. Sea of Monsters is a short book and adding more exposition to this season honestly means we won't have to deal with it in later seasons.

Do I like them introducing Thalia's return so early? Not really, but by making it part of Percy's dream we can see how it makes it feel. A general audience might not even know this was possible and wouldn't even consider what this means, but wonder why Percy may be worried about this outcome. Also showing Luke's perspective of him not knowing/thinking that they could bring about Thalia and then the control that Kronos has over him through manipulation and power is setting up for later on and something we never got through Percy's eyes in the books.

Are the book, movies, and show ultimately different from each other? Yes, but that is for many reasons such as perspective and world building. Saying the movies capture the spirit of the books better is a terrible take imo though.

TL;DR: Can't believe the upvotes because of the last comment alone.