Who stole my lightning?

We missed this one in the theatre, but thanks to technology, I recently watching this flick. I had reservations about seeing it in the theatre. The kid looked like a punk, I thought they would cheese up the Greek mythology by having it in present day America, and I was skeptical about the amount of Greek Mythology was in the movie.

I was the wrong. Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief (and yes, I think the title is too long, even though it's based on the book, fine, then the BOOK'S TITLE is too long!) is a blast.

Percy didn't turn out to be quite so bad. I wasn't super-dying to follow him around personally (I was more interested in the Greek mythology...duh...), I also didn't want to punch his lights out, either. At least, not after the original 15 minutes. Percy's sidekick, the satyr (sp?), the half-goat, half-human protector of him, can be somewhat annoying (stereotypical black smart-aleck sidekick, anyone?), but hey, at least he was interesting, visually. The other companion, the daughter of Athena, was pretty pumped. At least they mentioned that Athena was a master battle strategist (which plays in an unimportant, but somewhat entertaining scene).

This is all well and good, but here's the meat of it: yes, there are creatures and myths and stuff from Greek Mythology. A LOT of it. Maybe too much? Maybe they tried to pack too much in? You can be the judge of that, but hey, at least we got it. They go to the Underworld, they go to Mount Olympus, Percy has Zeus' thunderbolt at one point (and it is an awesome weapon), Percy himself has powers, all to do with water, which makes sense, considering he's Poseidon's son, there's a quest, there's monsters to destroy, there's centaurs, a minotaur, lions, and tigers, and bears, oh my! There's just a lot happening in this film.

I liked the little things too, though. I liked Percy is dyslexic, because he can only read ancient Greek, because that's what his brain is wired to read. I like the flying shoes. I like all that stuff. I am glad that they really took the legends, and tried to make them cool, and not make fun of them. I liked the whole quest. I just really liked this movie, period, and if you're at all interested in the myths of ancient Greece (I got tired of saying Greek Mythology, all the time), then check this movie out. You won't be disappointed.

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars.

I bid thee a fond Greek Mythology

- Stephenstein