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Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief (2010)

Director: Chris Columbus

Time Out rating

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18 reviews

Movie review

From Time Out London

Following a disastrous incursion into bubblegum high-school romance territory (‘I Love You, Beth Cooper’), Chris Columbus, director of the first two ‘Harry Potters’, returns to his comfort zone for this episodic and mirthless fantasy saga based on the first of a series of fantasy books by US writer Rick Riordan.

Mulching together the angsty teen intrigue of ‘Harry Potter’ and the frigid-and-proud flagwaving of ‘Twilight’, the film sees Zac Efron lookalike Logan Lerman (‘Gamer’) playing an underachiever who turns out to be a sword-swinging demigod when he discovers his birth was the result of the god Poseidon (Kevin McKidd) having a quick fling with dowdy New York housewife Catherine Keener. When his mother is kidnapped by Hades (Steve Coogan in full ‘Saxondale’ mode) as a bargaining chip for Zeus’s lost lightning bolt, Percy is charged with finding a number of trinkets dotted across North America in order to avert a crisis on Mount Olympus (located just above the New York cloud cover, who knew?) and save mom from eternal damnation.

That Percy risks life and limb to preserve the family unit is typical Columbus, and the film works best when playing on the idea that no amount of bravado is enough to mask our desire for parental love. Yet it’s not enough to compensate for the computer-game-style plotting, which is largely based on us picking up narrative nuggets that mechanically slot into place later on. Problematic, too, is the product placement: witness the scene in which Percy battles Medusa (Uma Thurman) and avoids her deathly gaze by craftily using the shiny back of his iPod as a mirror.

Author: David Jenkins

Time Out London Issue 2060: 11-17 February, 2009

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User reviews of this film

Ben said...

Posted on Oct 31 2010 19:32 In the toilet scene, clasier (Child of ares,) and Percy get in a fight in the camp toilets. Percy uses his powers to make the water shoot out of the toilet and hit classier so she gives up.

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Christian said...

Posted on Oct 09 2010 01:32 The movie was O.K, IF you didn't read the books. the movie took away a lot of good parts and added a lot of bull*&%#

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janie said...

Posted on Aug 18 2010 01:13 I thought the film was AMAZING!! Logan Lerman is SOOOOOO CUTE!!!!! :-) But I do think that they missed a lot of exciting bits from the book, I mean I would have loved to see the ares fight and the toilet scene. I would have loved to see who would have played Clarisse, Ares(god of war) Mr D(Dionysus-god of wine) I also would love to see the tunnel of love scene with the cupid cams and the awkweirdness between Percy and Annabeth(that would av been entertaining. Anyway brilliant film, perfectly timed yet I do think they should have added ares and Dionysus, I would loved to see who played them. Anyway I do think that this film has the makings of being the next Harry Potter, can't wait to see the sequel! Percy battles giant cannibals! and has a friend whos a cyclopes(well a half brother) anyway can't wait!

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janie said...

Posted on Aug 18 2010 00:56 I thought the film was AMAZING! Logan Lerman is SOOOOO CUTE! But I did think they missed out a lot of interesting stuff. I would love to see who would play Clarisse and Mr D(god of wine) But any way I loved the film but I don't think that it compared to the book. I would av loved to see the tunnel of love sequence with the cupid cams and the awkweirdness between Percy and Annabeth. Any way brilliant film not half as good as the book. But I think it has the makings of being the next Harry Potter can't wait to see the sequel!

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sam said...

Posted on Mar 20 2010 12:13 good film, good story line, great actors overall good film for all the family

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Annabeth said...

Posted on Mar 19 2010 00:51 I love these books. The movie was aswome but they changed it alot from the Book

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jordan_b123 said...

Posted on Mar 14 2010 11:01 i thought the film was amazing. although im surprised its a pg. i am still wandering what the toilet scene is

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Caitlin M said...

Posted on Mar 13 2010 16:34 Logan Lerman is sooo fit! I love him! I think the film is ace and even though they missed out some bits it would've made it too long, I have read the books and love them. I especially love the scene in vegas its soo cool. Grover shaking some booty, and Logan. SO FIT!!!and he has no boyfriend. Luv u

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HAS said...

Posted on Mar 05 2010 22:07 I'm reading the books and iI'm on the 4th book.I thought the movie was great but you can't compare it to the book.No Clarisse.No Toilet.Left out too much but still an awesome movie

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sue said...

Posted on Feb 27 2010 14:48 great film but slow to get started

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loretta said...

Posted on Feb 24 2010 20:24 i waqtched the film not so long ago and i havent read the books but i thought the film was good. in some of the other comments i have noticted that some people have mentioned about how much they have left out of the books bu8t this may be because they might make a couple more.

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Claire said...

Posted on Feb 23 2010 15:31 I am a fan of the books and the film does remove some unnessisary aspects of the book. The idea of Percy Jackson has been altered in obvious ways for the readers of the books to make the film better in some ways than the book. It's not been turned into some pointless romance like Twlight was.

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Ben said...

Posted on Feb 20 2010 18:43 RUBBISH! Don't get me wrong, I'm a Percy Jackson fan and have read all the books but the reason I hate the film is because it has missed around 50 items from the book. Some of these include not including ares or Classire, Kronos isn't mentioned, no big ares fight, helm of darkness not mentioned, doesn't fight ares cabin, no Mr. D! no tunnel of love sequence, no arch fight, doesn't explain reason why everyone thinks he's the lightning thief, no oracle, no world war 2 big three explenation and no toilet scene. I hope that this is changed in the second film (Released in 2012)

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sophie said...

Posted on Feb 20 2010 13:42 whoever plays percy jackson is cute . as a teen i loved the flim and show a diffrent side to the way ancient gods lived . even my dad was exited.

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horton said...

Posted on Feb 20 2010 10:16 A brief guide to greek mythology, suitable for younger children. My son really enjoyed the fact the Percy suffered from ADHD ( although it was brief.)

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