Two and a Half Torches (Out of Five)
After watching Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief (a cumbersome title if ever there was one), I left the theater with this thought at the forefront of my mind: if you try too hard to be the next Harry Potter, you never will be.
Ponder this:
A young male hero, who learns of his magical identity which has been hidden from him all his life. Brought to a school where he and other children like him learn to use their powers. A wise-cracking male friend to serve as the comic relief. A know-it-all female companion whose skills outshine the boys, but if only she were more likable …
Come on.
That having been said, the movie had its strengths. Thanks to cutting-edge CGI technology, we can now behold photo-realistic creatures that up until now had to exist solely in the minds of Greek myth geeks like myself. Uma Thurman as Medusa was particularly cool — I’ve never thought of Medusa as seductive, but after this it will be hard not to.
Pierce Brosnan, who I’ve never really had any strong feelings about in the past, was perfectly cast as Chiron, the wise centaur, and I’ll go on record saying the movie has hands-down the best centaur effect I’ve ever seen. (How’s that for an accolade?)
Many of the performances were strong. Kevin McKidd, so magnetic in HBO’s Rome, made for a sympathetic Poseidon, and Sean Bean’s Zeus was a younger, leaner version of the King of the Gods than the Zeuses we’ve seen in the past.
But for all the shine and polish of the adult actors and the digital effects, the story doesn’t hold up as interesting on its own, and the three young lead actors don’t hold a candle to those other three young lead actors. You know who I’m talking about.
What made the first Harry Potter film so effective on screen is that it captured — in full, child-like wonder — what it must feel like to be at Hogwarts, to suddenly learn you can use magic, to fly on a broomstick. It had the sense of awe and splendor one would imagine goes hand in hand with entering a brave new world.
Percy Jackson (Logan Lerman), on the other hand, adjusts to his new life awfully quickly and easily, and before long he is whisked away to Camp Half-Blood, a training facility for demigods. Rather than the fully realized world of Hogwarts, Camp Half-blood is filled with teenagers dressed in jeans and casual shirts, with Grecian leather armor over their regular clothes. The effect is not mystical and awe-inspiring, but instead looks like a crowd of adolescents engaged in a complex LARP game.
I always have high hopes for fantasy movies, and it warmed my heart to see the theater filled with children and young teens who had clearly read the book and were excited about seeing the movie. I’m sure they all care very passionately about the characters and the story.
If only they knew they were eating leftovers.
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Agent 86, which villian are you referring to? If you’d read the book (which I assume because you did) Luke and Kronos’s reasons for stealing the lightning thief are (sort of) explained.
Thanks, I probably will go and read the books now, the story was intersting enough, sort of, and if the books provide more backstory it seems it might be a good read.
I quite enjoyed the books. They don’t “mature” like the Harry Potter books do as the series progresses, but as a 20 something year old, I still enjoyed them. And some of the world-building that goes into estalishing Greek gods in the modern world is interesting.
As a fan of the Xena series, I wnet in expecting a modern retelling of greek myths but was also disappointed.
I am just wondering on a few points. Why did Zeus automatically suspect Percy of being the theif? Who would Zeus be fighting in this major war that was going to happen? What happened to Chiron’s horse legs when in the real world? And why was Medusa still alive after being killed long ago by Perseus?
Maybe I just didnt pay enough attention watching the film….
Re: Percy as the “thief”. This is something that was explained in the books. Essentially, Zeus suspects that Poseidon arranged for Percy to steal the lightning bolt and provide it to Poseidon. It’s what they essentially say in the film, they just don’t provide any justification for why Zeus believed Percy was the thief.
Re: The “war of the gods”. The war was going to be between Zeus and Poseidon, because Zeus thought Poseidon stole his lightning bolt.
Re: Chiron’s leg. “Magic”. That’s how it is explained in the books. Essentially demi-gods and their beastly friends use magic to “hide” their odd appearances from mortals. For example, a cyclops would walk around with one eye, but all mortals would “see” two-eyes or just not not at the cylcops closely enough to only see one eye.
Re: Medusa. In the books, the various mythological creatures can’t be “killed”. They eventually come back to life or re-appear. Then the demigods have to kill them all over again.
None of this was really in the film. All in the book.
“Maybe I just didnt pay enough attention watching the film…”
Nope, you paid TOO MUCH attention! The movie was not made for intelligent viewers like you, unfortunately. :/
Very disappointing movie viewing experience. I really enjoyed the books, even though I’m at least 10 years older than the target demographic. The film seemed to have very little in common with the first novel, except perhaps for the overly long title and the names of the characters who managed to make it from the page to the screen.
For me, it was just particularly clunky viewing. The “acting” (although I use that term very loosely when it came to the male lead) never seemed to match up to the script and the “story” jumped all over the place. I couldn’t figure out why they needed three pearls (since I thought they’d need four) and it turns out they did in fact need four, but none of them, not even the daughter of the Goddess of Wisdom could count! The villain was particularly weak without his motivation from the books. The various “battles” were okay, but all the in-between sections were pretty terrible. Rosario Dawson continues to rock my world though.
I still miss Ray Harryhausen’s “clay” medusa…
I wonder if Uma Thurman ever gets tired of being “seductive,” since that’s pretty much all she does…
Yeah, even playing the Bride & lopping off limbs & kicking a**, she was still seductive. I guess when you’ve got it you’ve got it. :)