Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief (2010)

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  February 14, 2010

  jmanard52

  Harry Potter meets Clash of the Titans and this book translation does pretty good for itself. My daughter and I laughed cringed and enjoyed it all the way through. I then made sure to tell my daughter its a book and she is already to read it!

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  January 21, 2013

  emilkakko

  I was positively surprised by this fresh and energetic fantasy adventure from the director Chris Columbus. Even if it cannot bring anything new into fantasy genre it still manages to be thrilling, visually spectacular and quite suspenseful journey between three friends who happen... read more to be demi-gods with different kind of magical powers.
  Director Columbus has improved very much since the beginning of his career. It is hard to believe that this film is coming from the same man who brought us films like Home Alone 1 & 2, Nine Months and Mrs. Doubtfire. Thankfully he later in his career went to direct two first Harry Potter films which were okay as an films but were quite flawed also. Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Lightning Thief is his best film to date but it is not without it's problems too.
  There are moments when more comedic moments does not fit together with pure fantasy or more serious material. There are also one extremely annoying sequence which takes place in Las Vegas and that whole scene feels totally pointless and makes an fatal use of horrible pop music in completely wrong place. On the positive side there is much more to appreciate still. Stephen Goldblatt's cinematography is stunning to look at and Christophe Beck's music is thunderous and fits perfectly to a film like this. I also liked the actors who were perfectly casted in their roles. Logan Lerman is a promising and good find as a title hero and there are talented names like Pierce Brosnan, Catherine Keener, Sean Bean, Uma Thurman and Steve Coogan in supporting roles. All of them give important nuances to this film and its story.
  Graig Titley's screenplay which is based on Rick Riordan's novel is fascinating and rich adventure that also opens doors to a interesting Greek mythology with all the gods and their powers. It also works as an character study and a story about finding your place in world. Christopher Columbus and his crew create many outstanding set pieces and especially the final thunderous showdown between two major characters in the story is entertaining as its suspenseful to watch.
  I am very interested to see sequel for this film if they ever end up in making a one. Percy Jackson is one of the better fantasy films of recent years and deserves to be seen. Especially by everyone who like adventure or fantasy or both of them together.

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• 
  
  July 24, 2012

  kiriyamakazou

  After jumping from the Harry Potter series, Chris Columbus decides to take on yet another young hero magical fantasy series. This time the Greek gods are being twisted into a hopeful series. The film is what an Americanised Harry Potter would have been like. We get a sassy black ... read morecompanion, a hip cool soundtrack, and product placements galore. See Percy fight Medusa, not with a reflective shield, but using the back of his iPod. Hermes flying shoes are now Converse. I kid you not. These made me laugh rather than cringe as luckily the story had kind of sucked me in by then. It has a computer game plot, take this item, collect these items, fight these bosses etc. But it mostly works. Logan Lerman is an acceptable hero, even though he seems to get to grips with his powers all too quickly. The supporting cast is huge with some great casting decisions. I really enjoyed Coogan as Hades, trying to be a bit more approachable than normal. Rosario Dawson looked incredible and was having a lot of fun. The action scenes are rather exciting, but it's all too obvious that the source material has been corrupted for a wider audience. It did enough to make me want to read the books and actually look forward to the sequel.

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  April 23, 2012

  ironclad1609

  Even though I am unfamiliar with the source material, it is pretty obvious that someone has been trying to create the next Harry Potter. The idea of taking Greek mythology and bringing it into our world for a teenage audience may even work, giving the right ingredients. Sadly, th... read moree film has very few of these. Its main problem is having a protagonist who is extremely unlikable. Lerman may cause a few teenage hearts to beat faster but he seems like an arrogant prick and doesn't exactly have many expressions in store. Even though the film does not take itself too seriously, the humor does hardly ever work as planned, is neither cool nor fresh, just trying way too hard to address its young audience. The plot does not make all that much sense, the heroes' quest is unrelated and just happens to push them in the right direction. Maybe the book works much better, but here it is far from a coherent script. Some of the special effects are quite decent, but that's about it when it comes to positive aspects of this. One has to wonder what actors like Bean, Brosnan and McKidd were thinking when they signed up for this. All that being said, kids between 10 and 12 may enjoy this, everyone older should be intelligent enough to be insulted by its simplicity and collection of stereotypes. The good news is: the planned sequel can only get better.

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• 
  
  August 19, 2011

  fb100000212943704

  A very predictable film. A bit of nonsense by Chris Columbus, like a parallel of Harry Potter. Good for kid's especially under 11 year olds and under. A lot of fantasy battles and a bit of comedy mixed in. It has some big stars playing minor roles but there is great acting by the... read more Actor's playing the kid's, although many of them have acted before. Overall, not good, but great for children, I also spy a possible sequel.
  ** 2 Star

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• 
  
  March 20, 2011

  DreamExtractor

  A cheesy and not worthy of the books, but a promising new list of young actors, its not even worthy of looking in the direction of the Potter films.

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  February 17, 2011

  deano

  A fantasy film based on a best-selling book series. Chris Columbus directing the first in a possible franchise. Dewy-eyed young stars surrounded by more famous and respected faces. Haven't we been here before?
  The differences between Percy Jacson and Harry Potter,... read more however, are as marked as the similarities.
  Part of the fun is to see how other notable names in the casting list get to play up their gods and demon status. Uma Thurman stars as Medusa, spruced up by special effects snakes adorned on her head, which at certain points looked quite CG-ed for its own good. Or having Rosario Dawson star as Persephone in quite fed-up manner, and the lists goes on.
  The plot races, Columbus mixing monsters, comic relief and emotional beats with a light touch. Seems Potter might finally have a worthy successor.

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• 
  
  February 10, 2011

  paulsandberg

  Finalist in the longest title division, Percy Jackson & The Olypians: the Lightning Thief, is all about track star Usain Bolt's escapades at the Olympics... well perhaps it should have been.
  
  Anyway, what we have here is total escapist fare - one of those "park your brain at th... read moree door" entertainments that, if you're in the mood to simply be entertained and not have to think at all, period, works on a certain level. We're not re-inventing the wheel here, for in Greek mythology the invention of the wheel wasn't all that long ago.
  
  We begin the film with that red headed doctor from Grey's Anatomy walking up out of the sea, two stories tall, with a trident tatoo (and I'm wondering, how does a god get a tatoo... quiet brain, just sit back and relax). I have to say, I look at the Grey's MD and instinctively DON'T LIKE HIM. Don't know what it is - perhaps some bearded red head betrayed my Scottish ancestors or something, but for whatever reason I dislike this guy on sight - which makes it kind of hard to really root for him or his spawn... but I digress.
  
  Red beard then wanders through New York (after shrinking down to normal size and forgoing his armor for, in what I thought was a subtle touch, a navy pea coat). He finally arrives at the Empire State Building (which the credits will inform you, is part of the ESB Corp, all rights reserved, etc.) to meet with his brother Zeus (see, the ESB is the gateway to Olympus - damn, why didn't the guide tell me that when I went there!!!). I'm thinking to myself - hmmm, if Zeus wanted a meeting with his bro, why not rent a boat - but I guess if you're the head honcho, you make bro come to you.
  
  Zeus points to the sky and asks red riding no hood what he sees. Suspecting that this is some kind of intelligence test amongst the gods, Poseidon answers "lots of storm clouds"..Hmm, storm clouds on the horizon - portents of bad things to come or some such drivel.
  "Yes, storm clouds, but no lightning" booms Zeus, "and do you know why?"... here I'm thinking that Zeus would make an excellent 3rd grade teacher... but before Poseidon can answer, Zeus spills the big secret: somebody stole his lightning bolt!!!!!!!!!!!!
  
  Now, I know what you're thinking, but really, I suppose he might have just misplaced it, after all, since he's immortal he must have accumulated lots of junk - probably has mini storage spaces all over the place - and perhaps he just can't remember where he stored his bolt. But NO!!!! Zeus is convinced that somebody stole the darned thing - and... if he doesn't get it back in two weeks (conveniently the date of the summer solstace), somebody is going to pay!!! (he might just release the Kraken... oops, wrong film).
  
  Good ol Zuey goes on to imply that Poseidon or his agents (or demi gods sired by the big wet one) are responsible. Poseidon, I suspect, thinks that big bro has lost his marbles (as well as his lightning bolt), but cuts him some slack - after all, we're only 5 minutes into the film, and it wouldn't do for the two bros to get into a hissy fit before the main charactors are even introduced.
  
  So there's the set-up. From here we meet Percy, who hint hint, likes to spend his time in the water. He has no idea that he's the son of a god (which, when you think of it, aren't we all???). The film does a pretty good job of giving Percy a regular guy persona. Yeah, the teen has real problems, including some form of dyslexia (which later gets explained that his brain is wired for reading Greek).
  
  Percy's best friend is an African American cripple (who is just jive enough to get all the funny lines later in the film). There is a field trip to a Greek and Roman Mythology Museum (just in case anyone watching hasn't been introduced to the basics), where crippled teacher (hmm, a theme here) Pierce Brosnan (yes, James Bond is now a cripple, but wait, there's more, so hold onto your hats!!!!), tells the story of the Gods (using the polite vernacular)creating demi gods (or as the film has one of the students state "they got it on with us humans").
  
  Ok, so far so good. From here it is revealed that Percy is in fact a demi-god (instead of Demi Moore) - and then we discover that James Bond is a Centaur and Percy's crippled buddy is a Satyr (half man, half goat if you're not up on such things) who is sworn to protect Percy.
  
  They head out to Camp It's All Greek To Me (or something) where the demi-gods train to be all they can be (the few, the proud and we get to wear funny hats). Percy swoons over a daughter of Athena who easily bests him in battle (after all, Athena is, amongst other things, the goddess of military strategy; plus she's needed in the script to keep the interest of any testosterone teens who may be in the audience).
  
  As the group is celebrating with roasted pigs on a spit and such (getting back to their roots perhaps), there is a surprise visit from Bro #3 - y'know, that underworld dude Hades. Wow, he really knows how to make an entrance! Of course Hades has heard that Percy has stolen the lightning bolt and figures that if he could get his (Literally)hot lil hands on it, then he'd be able to take vacations in a much more temperate clime. Percy once again tells yet another god that he DID NOT STEAL THE BOLT - why won't these gods ever listen??? Hades ups the ante by showing Percy that he is holding his mother hostage in Hell, so he'd better show up with the goods.
  
  OK kiddies - pretty solid fare so far. Percy decides (against the advice of James Bond) to go to Hell (again literally) and bargain with Hades - his friends decide to come along - the girly girl perhaps to work on her sun tan??. But then they are faced with a dilemma - how the hell do you get to hell? (I mean, other than watching Clash of The Titans). They decide to ask one of the other kids at Camp I Come From A Broken Family - who was sired by Hermes (you know, the FTD mascot). Makes sense since Hermes is messenger to the gods, and as such has been to Hell many a time. Hermes Jr. says he's never seen his da (and gee, don't we all have abandonment issues - a nice touch acknowleged by the film), but has heard it through the grapevine (perhaps Baccus/Dionysis works as a lineman for the phone company in real life...) that it's easy to get to Hell (amen to that brother!) but much harder to escape (so true). He knows however that Persephone (and here you kind of have to know a bit of mythological lore) brings in paramours but they can only escape by stomping on some special blue pearls that act like the Star Trek transporter device. She has planted 3 such pearls in and around the US (and I'm wondering why she just doesn't give her lovers the pearls when they get there... ah shut up brain!). So the three heroes go off searching for the pearls, using a special map that Hermes Jr has given to them. Hermes Jr, in a loving gesture, also gives Percy a special shield. Oh boy, I'm sure that a 2,000 year old piece of armor will stop an uzzi... just saying.
  
  From here the film morphs into a kind of road trip film, but that's ok, as the first stop, unbeknownst to the heroes is Medusa's lair. Here they meet up with The Bride, who goes all kung foo on them... wait, wrong movie. Uma is totally cool as Ms.Snakehair, and gets off one of the film's best lines, telling Percy "I used to date your father". Sad to say, it's all downhill from here. The quests get successively more rote and there's a totally implausable scene where the heroes, under a time constraint, decide to DRIVE from Nashville to Vegas. Huh??? I'm sure there were faster modes of transport than a beat up pick up truck.
  
  There's the obligatory shock and awe scenes with the rubes gawking at the Vegas lights, and then a mildly funny dance sequence with Goat Boy, followed by a harrowing (or at least meant to be harrowing) escape from the casino of the damned in a Maserati (ooh, nice product placement, but I'm still pissed at the film for the earlier trashing of a chevy SuperSport). I'm also wondering if anyone else noticed that the emblem for Maserati is.... wait for it... a trident!
  
  The scenes with Hades and Persephone could have used some more juice, and the final confrontation with the true Lightning Thief was pretty lame as well (and don't even get me started about the scenes in Olympus where all the various gods get 20 seconds face time for no discernable reason whatsoever. The final scenes, with the fade out, were superflous and totally bizarre, saved only by, who else, James Bond. Pretty ridiculous that after all Percy and Athena Jr had gone through they act like some juveniles playing puppy love. ARRRGh, makes my teeth hurt. A smootch would have been so much better than a badly choreographed sword fight.
  
  The final analysis (if I've managed to keep you awake thus far) - the film has a nice feel, not taking itself too seriously, yet telling a decent story where you can, to a degree, have some investment in what happens to Percy and his crew. Comparing this to the overblown mess of Titans, you can readily tell the difference. Not great by any means, but entertaining enough, at least for the first 2/3.

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  January 8, 2011

  mrbungle7821

  If you're looking for a pristine example of mediocrity, then let Percy Jackson serve as the new definition. From the acting to the special effects to the story, this movie barely registers anything other than a disinterested shrug. Based on a series of young adult books, clearly ... read morethe producers were eyeing a potential lucrative franchise, which may explain why they hire Chris "No Style" Columbus as director. The modern-day scions of ancient Greek gods is an intriguing starting point, until you realize that the film is just going to become one big, dumb retread through Greek mythology without a hint of wit. It's Greek mythology turned into a kid's book report who never read deeply into the source material. The film's best asset is its collection of adult actors (Pierce Brosnan, Uma Thurman, Steve Coogan, Catherine Keener, Rosario Dawson), which take your mind off the fairly bland teen actors in the lead. Percy Jackson would be a more forgivable drag if it presented any moments of wonder that didn't feel trite. The plot has the maddening habit of making characters stupid for plot reasons (hey Lightning Thief who wants to start a God-on-God war, when you have Zeus's lightning bolt, thus sealing an impending war, don't stop and monologue!). Yet the film has enough going on that you can follow it with ease and a minimal commitment. Consider putting on Percy Jackson when you need to do some household chores; it deserves that kind of attention.
  
  Nate's Grade: C

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• 
  
  January 7, 2011

  fb100000257973100

  Before I start reviewing this film, I want to take this time to look back on director Chris Columbus' film history. Two films that will catch your eye is the first two Harry Potter films. Now, being adapted for the screen, they were shockingly very good for being an adaption. All... read more I have to ask in terms of direction for this film is: What happened? From beginning to end, this film is a bland, generic teen adventure that does nothing fresh, nothing worthwhile, and is only suppose to sell to everyone whom the media declares as being the next few heartthrobs. In terms of acting, this film disappoints. Mostly with Uma Thurman (Kill Bill) and Jake Abel (Angel Of Death). Both of them give beyond lazy performance, The only half way decent actor is Perice Brosnan who is in the film for about ten minutes or less. The score, like this film, is idiotic and beyond laughable. Some of the songs they played threw out this film shocked me because lyrically, they do not fit the scene. Sure, with titles like 'Highway To Hell' and 'Poker Face' they seem like they would fit this film in certain scenes. But, alas, they fail. The script was, while having a few hilarious moments, has dialog that is reminiscent of the book, just turned down to make it worse and elementary than the books already were. To end this review, I say only watch it if you and some of your friends are having a bad movies night for this film fits that description perfectly.

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• Logan Lerman as Percy Jackson
• Brandon T. Jackson as Grover
• Alexandra Daddario as Annabeth
• Jake Abel as Luke
• Sean Bean as Zeus
• Pierce Brosnan as Mr. Brunner/Chiron
• Steve Coogan as Hades
• Rosario Dawson as Persephone
• Melina Kanakaredes as Athena

Click a thumb to vote on that suggestion, or add your own suggestions.

• 
  Clash of the Titans (94%)
• 
  The Sorcerer's Apprentice (93%)
• 
  I Am Number Four (94%)
• 
  Dr Seuss' The Lorax (86%)

• • Gabe Ugliano: Woman!
  • Sally Jackson: Hi Gabe.
  • Gabe Ugliano: Where's my beer?
  • Sally Jackson: It's in the fridge.
  • Gabe Ugliano: So it's suppposed to magically float from the ice box and into my hand?
• • Luke: Wow...that's a sword, that's a sword.
• • Mr. Brunner/Chiron: Take this, it is a powerful weapon.
  • Percy Jackson: This is a pen.
  • Percy Jackson: WOW.
• • Zeus: What do you see?
  • Poseidon: Thunderclouds.
  • Zeus: With no lightning. Stolen.
• • Grover: Hey baby!
• • Mr. Brunner/Chiron: Percy take this, it's a powerful weapon.
  • Percy Jackson: This is a pen?

• "I definitely have strong feelings for you. I just haven't decided whether they are positive or negative yet."  Answer »
• In Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief who played Percy's mum?  Answer »

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