Is “Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightening Thief” supposed to fill the void left by the soon-to-be-ending Harry Potter series? One of the amazing aspects of Harry Potter is the young age of the actors in the first film, obviously paralleling the age of the characters in the book. From the little that I know about the novel by Rick Riordan, Percy is supposed to be about 12. So why is he 17-ish in the movie? And Chris Columbus, who helmed the first two Harry Potter movies, was pulled in to direct ‘Percy Jackson.’ Maybe the distributor, Fox 2000 Pictures, wasn’t sure if there would be a follow-up film and wanted an older central character to expand the audience demographic. Based on the first week’s box office, maybe there won’t be another Percy movie. However, I enjoyed this blend of special effects and updating of Greek mythology. But, then, I’m also looking forward to the remake of “Clash of the Titans.”
Percy (Logan Lerman) has a human mother (Catherine Keener), the Greek god Poseidon (Kevin McKidd) for a father and a pretty nasty stepfather. Percy’s best friend is Grover (Brandon T. Jackson), who is assigned to watch over him and his teacher is Mr. Brunner (Pierce Brosnan), who is really the centaur Chiron. Zeus (Sean Bean) believes that Percy has stolen his lightening bolt, the most powerful weapon every made. To prove his innocence and save his mother, Percy, Grover and Annabeth (Alexandra Daddario) set off on a quest first, to rescue his mother from Hades (Steve Coogan) and then to find the lightening bolt. “Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightening Thief,” an awkward title at best, isn’t going to challenge Harry Potter, but it’s definitely light-hearted entertainment and not too scary for boys seven and up. 2/14/10
1 comment:
This film was a lot of fun to watch and even more fun for the teeny-boppers. Lots of action and mythical monsters for Percy to battle and a nice little romance mixed in. I think I'll take my grandson to see it.
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