Movie Review: Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief

Wave goodbye, vampires.

The next big thing coming out of Hollywood is Greek. As in Zeus, Athena, Poseidon, Ares, and Hades. And their kids. The Greek/Roman pantheon of gods comes to life today in a new movie with a long name: "Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief."

Based on the Percy Jackson novels, wildly popular among the tween set, the movie tells the story of Percy, a dyslexic, hyperactive troublemaker who is about to fail out of his latest school. His dad is long gone and his mother has married a grating, selfish, and stinky man. Plus, he's pretty sure his teacher, Ms. Dodds, is out to get him.

Turns out he's right, more right than he knows. On a trip to view ancient artifacts at a museum, Ms. Dodds, without the simple courtesy of a warning, turns into a huge sharp-toothed, long-clawed, bat-like Fury with bad skin. As she's attacking the baffled boy, his crippled friend and wheelchair bound teacher rush to protect him. Both of them turn out to be more than they seem.

As does Percy.

His problems point to one inevitable fact. He's the son of a god, an important god from Mt. Olympus. The Greek/Roman gods never faded away, even as the empires they inspired did. They relocated Olympus to the top of the Empire State Building and kept up their internal bickering and dalliances with mortals.

Now the eternal arguments of the gods is threatening to turn into war that would boil over into the mortal world. Someone has stolen Zeus's lightning bolt and Percy (Logan Lerman) is suspect number one. He teams up with a satyr named Grover (Brandon T. Jackson) and a half-mortal daughter of Athena (Alexandra Daddario) to convince the gods of his innocence and to rescue his mother from the underworld.

Fans of the books should be prepared. Some plot lines are simplified and a few characters missing. If you're looking to see your favorite quip on the big screen, you'll likely be disappointed. Still, the movie neatly translates the fun and humor of the books into celluloid, keeping the spirit of the books if not the letter of them.

Most of the fun comes from the merger of Greek myths with modern times. When Medusa meets iPod, you have a fresh take on the ancient stories.

The stories, honed over centuries of telling, still resonate today. The three friends are lured into Odysseus' den of lotus eaters, here portrayed as a Las Vegas casino and arcade. The warning against living for pleasure alone, and even against drug use, is as clear as it was to children hearing Homer's Odyssey recited around hearthfires before the time of Christ. Persephone is still to be pitied in her gilded imprisonment in Hades' fine palace. And nymphs are still notorious flirts.

One more thing remains the same. Children, even children of the gods, long to be noticed and loved by their parents. Their parents' absence, however necessary, hurts. The gods, true to the legends, act out of their various personalities, but always in their own interest. It takes human beings, or at least part human beings, to teach them something higher: selflessness.

Don't be surprised if your children become conversant in Greek and Roman mythology and correct you, as mine did, on the difference between Harpies and Furies. This can only be a good thing for civilization because to know the stories is to know a slice of wisdom. This Greek thing is a trend I can get behind.

Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief is rated PG for action violence and peril, some scary images and suggestive material, and mild language. Some of the battle sequences are too intense for younger viewers, but enjoyable for tweens and teens. The film has very little objectionable content, it's along the lines of a few uses of a word that can also mean donkey and some giggling daughters of Aphrodite.