Percy Jackson & The Lightning Thief (**½)

Directed by: Chris Columbus

Starring: Logan Lerman, Alexandra Daddario, Brandon T. Jackson, Pierce Brosnan, Uma Thurman, Catherine Keener, Joe Pantoliano, Sean Bean, Kevin McKidd, Steve Coogan, Melina Kanakaredes, Rosario Dawson, Jake Abel

Seen: March 7^th 2010

**½ Out of ****

Standing on a New York pier, a fisherman sees a giant dressed in ancient Greek war attire emerging from the water, who, as he walks on, turns into swirling water, reduces in size, and turns back into a regular sized man dressed for today. Pretty cool so far. On the roof of the Empire State Building he meets another man, and the two call each other by name: Zeus (Bean) and Poseidon (McKidd). Zeus blames Poseidon’s son for the theft of his lightning bolt as he gestures towards a cloudy sky without lightning, and Zeus sets a 14 day ultimatum for the return of his bolt, or else the gods will go to war.

Percy Jackson (Lerman) and his cripple friend Grover Underwood (Jackson) spend a lot of time at the school swimming pool, since Percy is very much at home in water. On a school trip to a museum where they tour through the Greek mythology section, Percy’s teacher asks to talk to him in private. Something unexpected happens as she turns into a Fury, attacks him and asks about the bolt. To the rescue comes Mr. Brunner (Brosnan), who later turns out to be Chiron, a centaur charged with training demigods, the children of one mortal parent and one god. Percy soon enough finds out that he’s Poseidon’s son, and this helps in his training. On the way to Camp Half-Blood, the summer camp location of the demigods, his mother is seemingly killed by a Minotaur in what is a pretty damn cool and tense battle/chase sequence.

I have to admit at the mention of training I was filled with dread at the prospect of a 5 minute musical montage of Percy doing push-ups and sword-swinging – but this didn’t happen; instead Percy saw the girl, heard she was bad-ass, and pretty much charged into a training battle not like training at all: a kids’ version of a Gladiator style battle, as demigods can survive pretty much everything. The girl, Annabeth Chase (Daddario), daughter of Athena, nearly defeats Percy, but with his father’s help he rises up as a hero. He finds that his mother was only abducted and Hades (Coogan) holds her prisoner in the Underworld with her ransom being the bolt. So Percy, Annabeth and Grover set of to save his mother by going to the Underworld to tell Hades that Percy didn’t steal the bolt, and by that logic he must simply let his mother go (?).

They are assisted by Luke (Abel), son of Hermes, messenger of the gods, who tells them it is easy to get into the Underworld, but not out of it. There are “pearls” hidden across the world, three in America, by Persephone (Dawson) for those who visit her to get out of the Underworld again. The quest to find these pearls takes up the biggest part of the movie, and on the way they make acquaintance with Medusa (Thurman), the Hydra, and the Lotus Eaters. Once that is done all seems simple, but is it really? Will Hades simply let his mother go because he is not the Lightning Thief?

The story can be quite entertaining for kids, teenagers and even adults, but as someone who wants a bit more from his movies, this one felt a bit immature. It was surely fun and some of the visuals are very good to look at. This movie is made by Chris Columbus, the director of the first two Harry Potter movies, and it shows – this is an adventure for kids. For a more serious version of this story I’ll rather wait for Clash of the Titans later this year, but Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief certainly is a good way to spend an afternoon.