Review of Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief (2010) by Cbeers2513 — 27 Dec 2013

I really want to like Percy Jackson. I really do. But not only is nothing that I enjoyed in the books in the movie, the film also is an embarrassment to the literary saga. The complex characters I remember have been replaced by bland, dense fantasy archetypes. The acting, especially Lerman as the lead, is awful. Every character has been dumbed down and even Grover, who served as a major emotional support and friend to Percy, has been transformed into a typical comic relief who sprays one-liners and pop culture references without any thought or effort. Even the action sequences are marred by miserable CGI and the sheer lack of drama accompanying them. For a clear Harry Potter clone, it forgets to copy the drama and suspense that made the later Potter films so engaging. Instead, the viewer feels no concern for the characters as they are thrust into "perilous" situations. In the end, Percy Jackson feels wrong. Every scene, character dialogue, and CGI backdrop is a disgrace to the books that got teenage readers addicted to the fantasy genre and Greek mythology. It's just another child-pleasing action flick instead of an adaptation that fully conveys the ingenuity of its source material.

3.5/10.

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