Percy gets a bit of splash back.
I was just asking for trouble by going to see a ridiculously titled film called Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief.
First of all, the title just screams “Harry Potter rip-off”. Then there’s the “Lightning Thief” part, which let’s face it here – sounds a bit crap. But worst of all the main character is obviously called “Percy”, which just sounds comical, conjuring images of famous Percy’s gone before: Percy Sugden, Percy the Small Engine (of Thomas the Tank Engine fame) and a nickname you might give to your knob – “I’ve gotta go point Percy at the porcelain…”.
But anyway. The basic plot is that Percy discovers that he’s a demigod, son of Poseidon. There’s a bunch of Greek gods and when Zeus’ lightning bolt gets stolen, the Gods become angry and Percy is prime suspect for pinching the positive protons of power.
After watching Percy Jackson, it’s quite clear that it IS indeed a Harry Potter rip-off. Harry, Ron and Hermione and swapped out for Percy, Grover and Annabeth. Broomsticks are substituted for flying shoes, magic becomes special Godly powers, Hogwarts is “Camp Half Blood” etc. Heck, even the director is the same as the first two Harry Potter films.
On the plus side, some of the effects are quite good, but that’s where any good points about this film end.
The main problem with Percy Jackson is that the characters are all so two dimensional. For instance, Percy sees his mother ‘die’ early on in the film. He looked like he couldn’t have cared less. The dialogue is poor. Steve Coogan is badly cast as Hades. And all the while you can’t help but make comparisons in your head to Harry Potter “Oooh, there’s Pierce Brosnan… playing Dumbledore”. If it wasn’t all so blatant, perhaps it might’ve worked, but instead it just looks like a cheap knock-off.
Who’s looking forward to the next film in the series then? I hear Uranus has lost his ring.
3/10.
The phrase “two hours of my life I’ll never get back” has never been more appropriate, but to add insult to injury, the evening ended up costing me a bit more than usual…
You see at some point in my short excursion out, it seems I also mislaid my parking ticket. So instead of the usual two quid to get out of the car park at that time of night, my car was held for ransom until I paid for a full days parking charge – a whopping £21.
Highway robbery, eh. Not impressed. :-(
Yeah ok so it did suck, though I still rather enjoyed on some level.
Plus the girl in it was hot, you can’t beat the leather breast plate and tight jeans combo, and the casting of Sean Bean and Kevin McKidd as Zeus and Poseidon was nothing short of inspired as far as I am concerned. Pity the film wasn’t about them as that would have rocked.
For my money they make for better Gods than Liam Neeson and Danny Huston who are playing the same roles in the new Clash of the Titans remake.
OMG
£21 for a night of Potter ripping (sounds like some gay Harry potter Porn movie)…
That nearly beats my £20 for 2 burgers from the van outside B&Q! but not quite.
£20 for two burgers? Was it made from Golden Eagles or something?
[...] I could be doing with another take on Greek mythology quite so soon after seeing the piss poor Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief. It’s perhaps unfortunate timing that Clash of the Titans came along hot on the heels of that [...]