|
An awful lot of people have very, very high expectations for Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief (2010). There are the millions of readers of the Rick Riordan youth fantasy novels on which the film is based. There are fantasy aficionados hoping and praying that someone -- after the failures of Eragon (2006), City of Ember (2008), The Golden Compass (2007), etc. -- will finally whip up movie magic of Harry Potter proportions. And then there's 20th Century Fox, which very obviously poured tens of millions of dollars into the production and not only hopes to make a nice return on its investment, but clearly has its eye on the far bigger picture: a hit equals a sequel and sequels equal a franchise. So make no mistake, there's a great deal riding on the February 12 release.
But let's not get too far ahead of ourselves. For those unfamiliar with The Lightning Thief, it's the first tale in the adventures of Percy Jackson (Logan Lerman), a boy -- actually, he's a boy in the books, but aged up into a teenager for the films; a change not fully endorsed by many Riordan fans out there -- who learns that he's actually a demi-god, the son of a god and a mortal. And it's not just any god who fathered him, but one of the big three in Greek mythology, Poseidon (Kevin McKidd), the god of water. Poseidon and his brothers Hades (Steve Coogan) and Zeus (Sean Bean) have never really gotten along all that well, and when Zeus's lightning bolt goes missing, Zeus threatens to start a war to end all wars unless the bolt is returned to him ASAP -- or sooner.
Prime suspect number one is Percy, who's back on Earth and oblivious to it all: his identity, his burgeoning powers (like sitting underwater for seven minutes), why his mom (Catherine Keener) is willingly with an abusive lunkhead (Joe Pantoliano), and so on. But on a class trip to the history museum, everything becomes clear -- clear, but not easy. His best friend, Grover (Brandon T. Jackson), who gets around using crutches, turns out to be his protector... and, as a satyr, part goat. His teacher (Pierce Brosnan), who uses a wheelchair, well, he's a centaur, half-man and half-horse. Percy soon finds himself at Camp Half-Blood, a training camp for demi-gods. Grover is always by his side, and then there's the feisty and gorgeous Annabeth (Alexandra Daddario), also a demi-god, and soon -- racing the clock to save the world and also rescue Percy's mom from hell -- they're taking on all sorts of beasties, including Medusa (Uma Thurman), with those eyes that turn people to stone and snakes writhing around her head; Hades' smokin' hot gal, Persephone (Rosario Dawson); a hydra; and more. Expect plenty of fighting, oodles of fanciful special effects, an epic quest involving blue pearls and a psychedelic visit to Vegas, a few pit stops for family drama, budding romance, and buddy-buddy bonding, and a wet and wild finale involving the Empire State Building in New York City.
So, putting it all together, you've got a history lesson wrapped in a tentpole movie, with an all-star supporting cast backing the young leads. Many eyes will be on Lerman in particular, but it's not like he's new on the scene. He was terrific in Jack & Bobby (TV) and even better as the youthful George Hamilton in My One and Only (2009), a small gem of an indie film. The director, meanwhile, is Chris Columbus, no stranger to mega-movies and the man who established the Harry Potter-verse when he directed Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (2001) and Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002) and produced Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004). Can he do it again? Can he create a mass-appeal, mainstream film that captures the essence of Riordan's source material? Find out for yourself on February 12, when Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief opens nationwide.
