Overall Rating: C+
Filmmaking/Artistic: B+
Storytelling: C−
MPAA Rating: PG (Mild language, indirect discussion of adult relationships)
The pitch
OK, how can we milk the Harry Potter machine some more? I know… make Harry look like Zac Efron, make that pasty redhead into a streetwise African American kid, and have the smart girl like better looking… and a ninja! And add Greek mythology! There’s no copyright on those monsters!
Overview
As a fan of the Harry Potter series, Your Movie Monkey found this to be really, really close. The filmmaking is good, but the story feels a little familiar. The movie style feels a little like the Hercules or Xena tv shows, but without the humorous self-awareness. Still, kids will undoubtedly like it, and although it’s not great for adults, it’s not Space Chimps, either.
Review
Hmmm. So, there’s this kid who finds out that he really belongs to a secret group people with special powers, which explains some of the strange happenings up until now in his life. Up until now he’s been a loser in his life, but he finds out that he’s a hero in the new world. He goes to a school for other kids with these special powers, and there learns from a very wise teacher. He meets two other kids who will become his best friends and travel companions, a world-wise guy and a very smart girl. He goes on a series of adventures to find magical objects that will allow him to fulfill a quest, which appears to be his destiny. He has a famous father well known in this secret world. Some of the kids at the school are on the side of good, and some evil. Oh yes, and the kid can fly using a traditional fairytale instrument of flight. Feel familiar, anyone?
Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief is based on a children’s book of the same name. Your Movie Monkey’s older daughter Drama has read the book (and, in fact, most of the car trip back from the theater was spent discussing how the movie was not like the book, Dad). Percy is played by Zac Efron look-alike Logan Lerman, who pulls off the role very well.
The movie doesn’t begin with Percy, however, and instead starts off at the top of a skyscraper at 123 Backstory Lane, Zeus (uber-pasty uber-villain Sean Bean) tells Poseidon (Kevin McKidd) that his lightning bolt’s been stolen (given Mr. Bean’s age, Your Commissioner was concerned that somehow Viagra was having a product placement). We learn that Greek gods cannot steal each other’s powers, but their children can, and Zeus believes that Percy has stolen it. Zeus threatens all out war if the lightning bolt is not returned by midnight in two weeks.
Percy, meanwhile, is a high school student with a strange form of dyslexia, where English words rearrange themselves into ancient Greek (and vice versa). The only thing unusual about him is that he can sit underwater for periods of 7 minutes or more and feel refreshed. Percy’s best buddy is Grover, a kid with crutches. On a field trip, a substitute teacher calls Percy aside and, in an isolate room, turns into a monster and demands the lightning bolt. Percy says basically “what?” but then Grove and his other teacher (a wheelchair-bound Pierce Brosnan) come in and kind of yell mythically at the creature who flies out the window.
Turns out, Grover is a satyr and Pierce Brosnan is a centaur, and Percy is the son of Poseidon. They take Percy to a camp (although his mom is catpured by a minotaur along the way), where Percy will learn how to be a rockin’ demi-god. Percy and Grover meet up with Annabeth, the butt-kicking ninja daughter of Athena.
The kids then set out on an adventure to get back Percy’s mom from Hades, and along the way meet all kinds of obstacles, including Uma Thurman’s wonderful Medusa, and some other famous characters from myths.
The movie feels a bit as if Hercules or Xena would feel if they didn’t laugh at themselves. It has a serious tone, (except for Brandon T. Jackson as Grover, doing his best Chris Tucker impersonation… cracking streetwise, slightly effiminate, yet liking the ladies). Chris Columbus, who directed the first two installments of the Harry Potter series, does a fine job implementing the story, but the material seems far inferior to Potter. This seems like his skill… implementation.
Both Lerman and Alexandra Daddario as Annabeth do great jobs as these characters. It’s also good to see Catherine Keener in a kind of bread-and-butter role as Percy’s mom. But overall, the story feels so familiar that there’s nothing really fresh and new. Oh yes, and by the time we finally see the stolen lightning bolt, it has a kind of eco-friendly quality that doesn’t really fit with the story (like a smallish flourescent bulb).
Overall, it’s probably worth taking the kids. There are a few references to adult relationships (in Greek mythology, the gods often “hooked up”, as the movie says, with mortals.) There is a little bit of mild swearing. And there is definite violence, per the myths. The scariness factor may make it inappropriate for kids under 10. Also, Percy’s mom has a kind of lout of a husband, who isn’t positive, but still the family interaction isn’t great. Still, it’s better than many, and the effects are quite good.
