Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief

Percy Jackson (Lerman) appears to be a normal teenager who has been living with his mother and disgusting stepfather ever since his father left him as a baby. However, this changes when his teacher turns into a Fury and attacks him, demanding he return Zeus’s lightning bolt. Completely bemused, Percy is saved by another teacher (Brosnan) and taken to a special camp by his friend Grover (Jackson).

Here Percy discovers that his father is Poseidon (McKidd), God of water, and Zeus believes that Percy took the bolt in revenge for making Poseidon leave him. To prove his innocence, find his kidnapped mother and protect the world from a war of the gods, Percy, Grover and Annabeth (Daddario) start out on an adventure whilst myths come to life around them.

Writer Rick Riordan succeeds in the seemingly impossible task of setting Greek myths in modern times, and collates and handles the stories in a surprisingly effective manner. Unfortunately, in the transformation to film the shorter running time often means that the number of different myths at work can seem too much. That said, the direction is amazing: Columbus certainly has a talent for this genre, as proven in his Harry Potter films. This film has some superb graphic design for all the monsters involved. Lerman’s performance as Percy is far from the best in the film, but the work of the wonderful cast that includes Jackson, Coogan, Thurman and McKidd more than make up for this.

Angharad le Duc