Percy Jackson & The Lightning Thief

Review by Sean Lynch

Move over Harry Potter, there is a new kid in town and he is a little bit cooler and has no trouble with his eye sight.

Gone are the spectacles that "ground" Harry Potter in the nerd world, in their place are a sparkling pair of blue eyes, an iPhone and some "cool" references to the Global Financial crisis. 

Yes, it seems Percy Jackson is a lightning thief... and possibly a "intellectual property" thief too.

Replacing Wizards for Greek Gods, Percy Jackson & The Lightning Thief hits the ground running as 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.

And, of course, they are none too pleased!

Why? Well, it seems that Zeus' lightning bolt has been stolen (it's always in the last place you look - he should really just retrace his steps instead of kicking up a fuss), and Percy (for some unexplained reason) is the prime suspect. 

Even more troubling is the sudden disappearance of Percy's mother (she turns into dust after a battle with a Minotaur... you know, the usual). 

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.

3.5 out of 5

Percy Jackson & The Lightning Thief
Australian release: 21st January, 2010
Official Site: Percy Jackson & The Lightning Thief
Cast: Logan Lerman, Uma Thurman, Rosario Dawson, Pierce Brosnan, Sean Bean
Director: Chris Columbus