Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief (PG-13)
Now that the Harry Potter film series is nearing its end, Hollywood is scrambling to find another series of young-adult fantasy novels to mine into movies. Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief, the first in Rick Riordan’s bestselling series of books, may not be so deep or richly imagined as J.K. Rowling’s universe of magic and Muggles, but the film is populated by likable characters, great special effects and a neat premise: Teenagers who discover they are the offspring of Greek gods who mated with mortals.
Percy (Logan Lerman), the eponymous hero, is an ordinary high-school student who starts to suspect something’s up when he begins to hear strange voices, and one of his teachers turns into a gorgon and attacks him (usually a dead giveaway that something magical is afoot). After his mother (Catherine Keener) reveals his true heritage, Percy is taken in by a gang of other kids with mythical powers — demi-gods — and is trained to do battle against the forces of evil.
Director Chris Columbus, who also directed the first two Potter pictures, gives the movie a sprightly pace and a snazzy visual design that helps all the exposition go down smoothly. He also peppers the cast with strong actors, including Pierce Brosnan as a centaur, Uma Thurman as an enjoyably wicked Medusa, Sean Bean as Zeus and Rosario Dawson as Persephone, and their presence helps keep adults as entertained as the target teen audience.
Unlike most opening installments in an intended franchise, The Lightning Thief doesn’t get bogged down in backstory, and Columbus whips up visions of Mount Olympus and Hades that actually inspire wonder and awe. In contrast to last year’s Cirque du Freak: The Vampire’s Assistant, the flop first chapter of an intended series, The Lightning Thief makes the idea of a sequel seem like an inviting proposition.
Cast: Logan Lerman, Brandon T. Jackson, Alexandra Daddario, Jake Abel, Sean Bean, Catherine Keener, Pierce Brosnan, Uma Thurman, Rosario Dawson.
Director: Chris Columbus.
Screenwriter: Craig Titley. Based on the novel by Rick Riordan.
Producers: Michael Barnathan, Mark Morgan, Guy Oseary.
A 20th Century Fox release. Running time: 119 minutes. Mild violence. Playing at area theaters.
This story was originally published February 11, 2010 at 2:02 AM.