Review: PERCY JACKSON & THE OLYMPIANS: THE LIGHTNING THIEF

PERCY JACKSON AND THE OLYMPIANS: THE LIGHTNING THIEF is a tolerable but low-rent attempt to capture some of that HARRY POTTER magic by strip-mining another juvenile literary fantasy franchise. While the POTTER films filled the screen with magical gadgets and mystical trinkets, PERCY JACKSON has… a pen that turns into a sword!

Still, despite its ‘been-there-done-that’ trappings, there’s a lot to like in PERCY JACKSON and I suspect the many young fans of the books by Rick Riordan (a series of five) won’t be disappointed. There’s enough CGI-enhanced spectacle to keep this rather lightweight action movie entertaining and the clever way its story is tied to trivia about Greek mythology could work as a primer for tweens the way the NATIONAL TREASURE films did with American history.

PERCY JACKSON tells the story of Percy (age 12 in the book, played here by 17 year-old Logan Lerman) who, when we meet him, is a typical teen living with his mother Sally (Catherine Keener) and abusive stepfather Gabe (Joe Pantoliano). On a class field trip Percy learns that his real dad is Poseidon, the god of the sea, which makes him a demi-god and explains his handy superteen water-driven powers. Percy is accused of stealing the lightning bolt with which his Uncle Zeus (Sean Bean) rules the world, so his other Uncle, Hades, drags Sally to the underworld, holding her hostage in exchange for the bolt. Percy teams with his young half-goat protector Grover (Brandon T. Jackson) and Annabeth (Alexandra Daddario), a beautiful demi-goddess he meets while training at ‘Camp Half-Blood’, and they set off on their otherworldly adventure to save Mom.

The gods are introduced at the beginning of PERCY JACKSON, their dynamics are established, and the story begins in a world populated by a hodge-podge of mythic beasties ranging from centaurs to satyrs. But the weak middle section of the film is an earthbound road trip with the three teens as they travel by car from New Jersey to Nashville to Las Vegas to Hollywood in a quest to find three magic pearls that will help free Percy’s Mom. Too much lame humor is squeezed from Grover’s gags about his distaste for country music and lust for Vegas showgirls.

Director Chris Columbus shows almost no real creativity: everything visual seems rote and by the book. Columbus directed the first two Harry Potter films but PERCY JACKSON has but a fraction of the depth and texture of those fantasies. Perhaps the source material wasn’t as rich but Columbus seems more determined to make a family-friendly product rather than a genuine artistic venture and the film seems infected with blandness. Part of this seems to lie in the film’s deliberate pitch to family entertainment – that nothing be regarded as too scary, that no real blood or death be shown.

I know it’s a film aimed at children, but, unlike the Potter films, no one in PERCY JACKSON ever seems in any real danger. Pacing and some dodgy CGI work aside, there is still much to recommend about PERCY JACKSON. The tying of Greek mythology to contemporary American places is clever. The fire breathing many-headed dragon in Nashville’s Parthenon and the seductive lotus flower being served at a casino are good examples and the visual design of Hades’ sanctum (Steve Coogan plays Hades as a cocky rock star), with its grand canyon of skulls and fire is ambitious and eye-popping.

The adult actors seem to be having fun, especially a well-cast Pierce Brosnan as a wise centaur. Uma Thurman vamps like a pro as Medusa, the gorgon with braids of writhing snakes and a stone-inducing hypnotic gaze. Rosario Dawson makes a funny fed-up Persephone and the three teen leads are likeable enough. The next film in the series has already been announced for next year and, as with the HARRY POTTER series, hopefully Percy Jackson will grow and mature with each entry and eventually elevate himself to the full-fledged force where Harry presently stands.

Overall Rating: 2.5 out of 5 stars