Replacing Wizards for Greek Gods, Percy Jackson
& The Lightning Thief hits the ground running as the gods of Mount
Olympus and other assorted CGI monsters walk out of the pages of high
school student Percy Jackson's Greek mythology texts and into his life.
Of course, they are not too pleased with that!
Why?
Well, it seems that Zeus' lightning bolt has been stolen (it's always
in the last place you look isn't it?), and Percy (for some unexplained
reason) is the prime suspect.
Even more troubling is the
sudden disappearance of Percy Jackson's mother (she turns into dust
after a battle with a Minotaur... of course).
Add to that the
fact that Percy must quickly adapt to his newly discovered status as a
demi-god (his father is Poseidon, God of Water), he finds himself
caught between the battling titans of Mt. Olympus.
So, what
follows is a cross-country adventure to rescue mummy dearest and... you
know... stop the war of Gods that he has been blamed for starting.
While
consistently entertaining (if not slightly dumbed down) and amazingly
slick throughout it's near two hour running time (think of it as the
National Treasure to Harry Potter's Indiana Jones), there is something
"pre-packaged" and "soul-less" about this one.
While it's
unfair to compare to Harry Potter and it's depths of character study
and back-story info - by copying the formula (and characters) so
blatantly, Percy is really unable to complain.
That said, Percy
Jackson & The Lightning Thief does cram in quite a lot of
interesting historic and mythological information (they've essentially
bypassed making two movie and crammed all the exposition in any scene
which doesn't involve a CGI creature) and sticks fairly closely to the
video game format of : Challenge Set, Challenge Embarked and End Boss
battle.
The cast is fairly strong, with newcomers Logan Lerman
and Alexandra Daddario keeping proceedings quite grounded (with some of
the most impressive eyes you are ever likely to see on screen) while
the "big name draw cards" in Uma Thurman (in "Poison Ivy" mode),
Rosario Dawson (pretty damn sexy), Pierce Brosnan (doing his best
"Goldmember" impression) and Steve Coogan ham it up a little bit more
than is actually needed.
A fairly solid effort for the first
burst out of the franchise blocks, but if the series is going to
survive Percy Jackson and his pals need to focus less on delivering
what they think audiences want to see and deliver what they want the
audience to see. DVD Special Features
While by no means an utter failure (the flick cost about $95M to make, and took in over $226M worldwide) Percy Jackson
hardly captured the pop culture mindset like his wizarding pal.
Therefore, you can't expect too much from the Extras department.
Depending
on what version you get (Blu Ray, DVD or Special Edition DVD) Special
Features can include : Five Extended and Deleted Scenes, a "Discover
Your Powers" Quiz, a featurette The Book Comes to Life and a bit more.
But nothing much more than the average.
Conclusion:
Movie 70% Extras: 65%
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