Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Lightning Thief | Review
‘Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Lightning Thief’ (Wow, that was a doozy) is a very enjoyable film, surprisingly. It never takes itself too seriously, yet also never takes itself as too much as a joke – the film has a nice blend of seriousness and humor.
Percy Jackson (Logan Lerman) is a teenage boy with dyslexia and ADHD. He can breathe underwater for about 7 minutes – it helps him think. Oh, and he’s a demi-god. Percy is the son of Poseidon, thought he doesn’t find that out until now. Why did Poseidon abandon Percy and his mother? We find that out later in the film, thankfully. In the present-day, Percy has been framed for stealing Zeus’ lightning bolt (we’re never told as to how that assumption came about), which allows Percy to learn of his real background and lead him on the film’s adventure.
The film does a good job at mixing the mythological world with the modern world. The Gods are shown to have human attributes, too – they have faults. The Demi-God training camp is like a stereotypical high school of sorts. The training session was a pretty interesting and cool concept. The scene with the Daughters of Aphrodite was funny, though very sensual. Which reminds me, the film has quite a few sensual jokes and scenes, which I really didn’t expect, but they were funny. The humorous side to the film is what I like the most. The drugged cookies were hilarious, Persephone and Hades’ short scenes were fun, and Percy Jackson’s protector and best friend, Grover (Brandon T. Jackson), is just super funny and hilarious. I actually didn’t even know Jackson was in the film until the very beginning. I’m glad he is, though, because he brought a lot of joy and humor (“Ba-a-a-a”) to the film, and does a great job at portraying Grover.
The cast of this film was enjoyable. I like how the main characters weren’t really well-known actors and actresses, while the more famous celebrities had smaller parts (Pierce Brosnan, Steve Coogan, Uma Thurman). This allows the leads to shine and show how well they can truly act. The cast of ‘Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Lightning Thief’ is very strong.
I’m glad that the film wasn’t the typical “beat-em-up” or “Boss-of-the-Week” formula. When the main characters were told that they had to locate three pearls, each in a different area, I immediately assumed there would be some kind of big, mythological boss waiting at each location. I’m happy to be wrong. I’m glad that aspect of the film wasn’t cliched.
Even though I enjoyed the film a lot, it did also have many problems. How the heck did the kids get into the casino? They’re underaged! Why does the model car work? And even if it isn’t just a model, why would the keys be sitting inside of it? And when the main characters were told that the lightning bolt had to be returned by midnight of whatever day, which time zone did they mean? I guess all of these small problems are just part of the “suspension-of-disbelief” aspects of the film, just like how Percy Jackson got framed for stealing the lightning bolt.