Review of Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief (2010) by Ryan K — 03 Aug 2013

This is a pretty good movie but its existence is likely because Harry Potter was so hugely successful. Of course that's not to say Harry Potter is completely unique as it borrows from a lot of established series.

Regardless, I found this to be entertaining if wholly uneventful fair. If there's one thing Potter has that this movie hasn't is that Potter, while the books had self-contained stories detailing a year in the life of Harry at Hogwarts, they also had a hint of long-term with Voldemort being the main villain in all books/movies.

This film doesn't have that, it is simply an isolated experience. An entertaining isolated experience nonetheless. And I don't have a problem with that really, but it doesn't set up sequels, and we're getting one this year, well.

Regardless of that, I enjoyed this movie. It doesn't pretend to be anything more than what it is, even if they simply Greek mythology so it's easy to digest for its intended audience. But it makes up for its simplification of it by making it entertaining and fun to watch.

And if it gets people to go out and research actual Greek mythology, then this film more than accomplished its purpose. The cast is also solid, so no problems there either. I don't really have much to say as the movie is pretty straightforward, there's nothing to really analyze or debate about.

Even if it is good, there's no real reason why you need to watch this movie. There's nothing in this that is completely unique to this movie, it does borrow from other films but that doesn't make it any less entertaining.

Solid popcorn fare here.