Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief

I went to see this movie without any expectations. I haven't read the books and I only read one review in the paper.

Yes, there are parts borrowed from other movies, but what makes this movie different is that it doesn't take itself too seriously, like Harry P. It was as if most of the actors were instructed to 'Ham it up'.

I didn't look at my watch during the movie (two hours), which is a good sign that I am enjoying going along for the ride.

What I didn't like was that most of the mythology was missing. Like it was assumed knowledge. All it did was not allow me to connect to the main characters because I didn't know enough about them (from the film).

The music wasn't overbearing, but went nicely with the film. Nothing memorable except "Highway to Hell".

S/Fx were done to an acceptable level, especially Hades (the place not the God). But the Gods were too human for my liking.

Maybe the producers are hoping this film will fill in the void being left by Harry P. The hero in this movie looks about the same age as Harry in his last film.

I don't think it is a repeat watch (DVD).

If you don't think too much about how it's not true to the books, the movie is actually quite entertaining. Logan Lerman is a great actor and a great Percy, but he was definitely too old for the character.

Which is one of the first major icks. In the books the characters are kids, Percy is 12, but played by a full on adult. There's a lot of other things the movies have changed but regardless of those, I still enjoyed the movies and it's too bad they were cut short.

The premise of this movie - that Greek gods were real and have offspring in the modern world - is interesting. But the execution of this idea felt very rushed in this movie. I haven't read the book, so can't judge where the blame lies for this.

The movie is an enjoyable way to kill a couple of hours, but isn't as engrossing as other movies of this genre.

Several big stars feature in cameo roles and for anyone who knows a fair bit about who celebrities are, this tends to distract from the movie. Uma Thurman, Brosnan, etc., aren't really given the screen time to build a strong character for themselves. Perhaps the best of these is Steve Coogan playing Hades, but even here you send most of his screen time thinking "oh look, it's Steve Coogan" rather than being drawn into the movie. It could have benefited from having the minor roles played by less known actors - as it is, their appearances tend to detract from the main characters who actually do a good job with the material they have been given.

But these are minor concerns - the biggest problem with this movie is that Percy finds out he's a demigod and suddenly seems to develop gifts with no effort or training, just by virtue of knowing his past. At the start of the movie, he already demonstrated an exceptional ability to remain underwater for long periods of time. But after finding out he's a demigod, he develops strong sword fighting skills with no training or effort (the start of the fight between the red helmets and the blue helmets, before the water "thing"), and later is capable of manipulating water in a couple of scenes without being taught this skill or having any difficulty or doubts about his ability to do it. This is just preposterous. The mythical/other worldly framework is generally used to provide a context to display human failings, struggles, and virtues. Instead, in Percy Jackson, this framework is used to simply give the lead character a loose justification for overcoming other mythical creatures. He doesn't have to question how to use his powers, nor does he have to put any effort into developing these powers.

Like I say, the movie isn't so bad as to make it unwatchable, but they really missed a chance to make this movie have a strong impact by failing to give it any depth. It is all just the bells and whistles of CGI and having mythological creatures just to have some interesting looking battles and a trip to the underworld. It could have been so much more. Whether this is a failing of the movie, the books, or both, is up to those who have read the books to decide. But the movie reeks of jumping on the Harry Potter bandwagon in an attempt to get box- office success, while ignoring the fact that those movies were built on books that had some depth to them. That is what gave them their cultural poignancy. This movie lacks it completely.

Here's the deal. I read the first book, I'm currently reading the second... I loved the books, the imagination, the way it ties the mythology with the 21st century, all great. Now, the movie... the only thing I really have to say is PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE give me back the 2 hours you just unmercifully wasted in my life. I saw this flick with my fiancé on Valentine's Day, my pick. It was so bad even I nearly fell asleep. They changed major plot lines in the book, took out some of the characters that I really wanted to see, added a few that didn't exist in the book, and it was overall just kind of boring. Big effects don't do enough to keep me awake when I was really looking forward to knowing what would happen next in the movie and how it would be made. Instead I just sit there mindless, wondering if it wasn't too late to sneak into Avatar instead. If there is a movie made from the other books in the series... I'll probably download it online, but I won't spend money to see it. Huge, huge disappointment.

I recently read the book series (out of boredom), so I saw this film today with my friend. Firstly, it is quite different from the book. A major part of the storyline was completely left out (or even discarded), some parts were removed, and random parts added that did nothing for the storyline whatsoever. The beginning of the movie felt rather rushed, and hearing the 'whhaat?' from my friend confirmed the fact that they don't really explain things much in the first place. Anyone who might've recently studied Greek mythology or like to read about it as a general interest..it might make more sense to. Otherwise, it would seem a little random.

I'm never impressed when movies make changes from the books that don't greatly benefit the storyline. Unfortunately this was the case, with several things being completely different. But, if you've not read the books, you won't know any better. Still, I think keeping with the original storyline would've been fine, and definitely wouldn't have made the movie longer if done properly.

I honestly thought the acting was excellent from all of them, and there are quite a few laughs along the way.

I'm giving this a 6. It wasn't great, but it wasn't bad either. It should've been better. I doubt they'll continue to make the other books into movies, much like they've completely botched the movie versions of my favourite books (His Dark Materials), but considering a major part of the plot was removed, it doesn't really matter much.