Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief, now, I know what you’re thinking, that title is a friggin’ mouthful, well, you’re right. Now that we have that out of the way, lets talk about the movie, and just so I’m clear, I’ve never read the books, I’m just going to talk about the movie. Percy Jackson is a Harry Potter clone directed by the same director, Chris Columbus, who directed the first two Harry Potters. While the premise was quite intriguing, and the movie was quite action-packed, the film had less depth than Harry Potter.
Percy Jackson is just a normal guy, in a normal world until Zeus and Poseidon meet to discuss the fact that Zeus’s famed weapon, the lightning bolt was stolen, and everyone is blaming it on Poseidon’s son, Percy. And, unless Zeus’s bolt is returned to him, things would get bad. So, Percy discovers he’s a demigod and must go to a training camp run by Pierce Brosnan’s Cemitaur (half man, half horse) for other demigods, where he is joined by his protector, a satyr (half man, half goat) and meets a variety of other demigods (apparently, the Gods like to get busy), but none as powerful as he. One demigod in particular is the daughter of Athena, named Annabeth.
After Hades demandes the lightning bolt in exchange for Percy’s mom, Percy leaves the camp with Annabeth and the goat-guy in tow in a series of big adventures involving Medusa, expertly played by Uma Thurman, a Hydra (3 headed dragon) and a lotus patch before reaching the underworld to bargain for his moms soul, ending in a semi-climactic battle at the top of the Empire State Building. Whew.
As I said, this is clearly an attempt to adapt a series to get kids into theaters as Harry Potter rides off into the sunset on a horse of gold. While this movie had more action than the first Harry did, it lacked the depth and awe-inspiring world of the Potter movies. I love Greek mythology, so seeing old tales of Gods quarreling, and chicks who can turn people to stone was a welcome return. The movie, overall, seemed to start off slow, before simply jumping from big set-piece to big set-piece before ending at a rather boring scene on Mt. Olympus, which I thought would be more…epic.
Overall, I think this movie will entice kids to pickup the books, which is a great thing, and will give some entertaining moments to adults as well (like how the gate to hell is underneath the Hollywood sign). While it isn’t as rich of a start as Harry, it has loads of potential in additional sequels, but stands well enough on its own. Percy Jackson was quite a good hero, as were his sidekicks, but the best parts were that of the bit parts of Pierce Brosnan, Joey Pantiliano, and Rosario Dawson.
Overall, a 6.5 out of 10.
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