20140111: Fantasy Review--Percy Jackson 1

Percy Jackson & the Olympians: the Lightning Thief

1. Fundamentals, reception.
1. Canadian/American live action feature length film, 2010, rated PG, 118 minutes, fantasy, adventure.  Spoken word is in English.
2. IMDB: 5.9/10.0 from 97,778 audience ratings.  95 million USD.
3. Rotten Tomatoes: 49% on the meter; 54% liked it from 249,598 audience ratings.
4. I saw this on Cartoon Network.
5. Directed by: Chris Columbus.
6. Starring:  Logan Lerman as Percy Jackson, Brandon T. Jackson as Grover, Alexandra Daddario as Annabeth, Jake Abel as Luke, Sean Bean as Zeus, Pierce Brosnan as Chiron, Steve Coogan as Hades, Rosario Dawson as Persephone, Melina Kanakaredes as Athena, Catherine Keener as Sally Jackson, Kevin McKidd as Poseidon, Joe Pantoliano as Gabe Ugliano, Uma Thurman as Medusa.


2. Setup and Plot
1. Sore thumb teen Percy has a terrifically bad day.  He's pursued by a fury, then a minotaur for a lightning bolt.  Percy, not surprisingly, has no idea at first what they are talking about.  He finds his way to a camp for half-human, half-deity teenagers.  Unfortunately, his mother is captured by Hades along the way.  At the camp, he finds that one of his friends, Grover, turns out to be a satyr; one of his mentors a centaur, Chiron.  Chiron becomes his drill sergeant, Grover his brother in arms.  He meets another comrade in arms, Annabeth, daughter of Athena and a mortal man.


2. To get Percy's mother back, Annabeth, Grover, and Percy pursue certain rare jewels and try to find the lightning bolt along the way.  Some of this is not easy.  The encounter Medusa, which was risky in the extreme.  To get the second jewel, they have to fight the Hydra.  Percy makes the usual mistake, and cuts off the Hydra's heads, but redeems himself using his power over water.  To get the third, they go to Las Vegas, and encounter the Lotus Eaters.  They manager to escape, but only after losing five days of the time Hades gave them to retrieve the lightning bolt.


3. They make it to see Hades.  Rosario Dawson was wonderful as Persephone.


4. Will they make it out of the Underworld with Sally free?  Will they make it back to Zeus in time to prevent a war between Olympus and Hades?


3. Conclusions
1. One line summary: Solid teen fantasy-adventure movie, set in modern times.
2. Four stars of five.


4. Scores
1. Cinematography: 8/10 Looks good, but nothing spectacular.  The SFX were not spectacular, but were not bad either.


2. Sound: 8/10 No particular problems, except for the occasional passage where the volume of the conversation would dip badly.


3. Acting: 8/10 Better than I expected from the youngsters; good performances by the veteran actors.


4. Screenplay: 8/10 Not a bad story.  I was entertained throughout, and the story did not drag.