Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief

Middle school can be tough. What could make all of the changes of a ADHD and dyslexic 12 year old's life even worse? Try finding out that you are a demigod, the son of the god of the sea called Poseidon. To make things worse you find out in the same breath that said you are a demigod that you are also being blamed on stealing the most powerful weapon ever created, Zeus's Lightning bolt. From here Percy Jackson(Logan Lerman) must go on a quest to prove his innocence to the gods before Earth becomes a battleground of the gods.

The first thing I want to point out is that this is just a mythological story. Almost like a big history lesson about the greek gods. Zeus(Sean Bean), Athena(Melina Kanakaredes), Medusa (Uma Thurman), and Hades(Steve Coogan) are all included here and the gods are all shown to be selfish creatures with somewhat limited power. Percy Jackson's existence is due to gods coming down to earth and mating with humans, creating hundreds of demigods hidden on earth. A rule created by Zeus was also created that banned all contact from gods to their children.


The bad stuff is put to a limit as it is still a PG movie but does have some violence and very small sexual hints as he travels to Las Vegas as part of his journey. No language to be worried about though. There is also a lot of clean humor thrown in for fun. A funny fact that I found amusing was that Hollywood contained the earth's only passage to hell. It is also charming that the use of technology like iPods could be used to battle greek mythical creatures.


Although the movie is directed by Chris Columbus(yes that is his name) this movie is not like the Harry Potter movies. There is no "magic" in the movie, it is all just natural power used by the characters of the film. Perfect movie for the pre-teen crowd and a good alternative to the Harry Potter/Twilight movies and books. Once you can get someone hooked on the movie, you will likely be able to have read the books also (or vice-versa).