Harry erm.... Percy!

FILM ONLY REVIEW

Greek God Zeus accuses Poseidon’s son Percy of steeling his lightening bolt and he gives him 14 days to return it before he goes to war. Unfortunately Percy does not know about his father and the fact he is a demigod. Percy thinks he is a normal teenager who suffers from ADHD and Dyslexia and goes to a special school to help him.

Percy is in for a shock when on a school trip to the local museum he is attacked by a creature who demands the bolt off him. The museum guide, Mr Brunner explains to Percy of his origin and the fact his father is the god of the sea. Percy is shocked and then discovers that his life is in danger and he must go to a special camp but on route his mother is kidnapped and he discovers that his best friend is in fact half goat. At the camp he meets other demigods and starts his training. Percy then hatches a plan to rescue his mother but he needs the help of his protector and new friend to go and collect pearls to be able to get to the underworld where his mother is being help.

Can Percy and his friends get to the underground and save his mother and will he be able to find the real lightening thief and stop war?

I had been looking forward to watching this film as the trailers for it made it look a enjoyable and exciting children’s film, unfortunately both me and hubby were left disappointed by it. The storyline was good and so was the acting and I think the fact it included a lot of mythical Greek Gods made it more believable. The one big thing which was off putting for me was the similarities between other films. I could not shake of the way so much of the story and the ideas were so like the ones in the Harry Potter films and there was also an element which was similar to the Narnia films. I think I would have liked this to have been more different from the other films so it was a solid stand alone film.

The acting was good and the lead role of Percy was played by Logan Lerman, this was the first film I have ever seen him in and for me he played a good solid character. He was likable and friendly and I was easily able to warm to him and get a good idea of the way he was bought up. He delivered all of his lines with ease and made them believable and I thought he worked well with all of the special effects and action scenes. There was a good connection and chemistry between him and protector / best friend Grover and for the majority of the film they both seemed to have a normal teenage friendship. Grover was played by Brandon T Jackson and he was another good solid role. He did manage to bring some humour to the film and I liked the way he was so comfortable with being half goat.

We did have some other good actors in the film, Pierce Brosnan played a good role and he was strong and authorities, Sean Bean also made an appearance as Zeus and for me I would liked to have seen more of him. The one role which I was not able to warm to was that of Annabeth, she was too smart and she just did not come across as natural and I found the majority of her lines seemed forced and wooden. Despite this one unlikable character I did the majority of them were good and strong.

The film did have a whole load of special effects and CGI right from the very star and for me it was all of a high quality and fitted effortlessly into the film. The actors did a great job of working with the computer generated monsters and made them appear to be in the same room as themselves. The battle scenes were also good and the actors worked hard to make them look realistic and good. The music was good and in keeping with the style of the film, it helped add drama and tension to a lot of the scenes and overall helped with the telling of the story.

This film did have an element of mythical magic involved in it and we did get a lot of the old monsters appearing. I would advise caution when letting children watch this film as some of them were horrible to look at and quite scary. The rate for the film is a PG and both me and hubby both said that it should have been a 12 instead. I will not be letting my 8 year old watch this film as some parts would scare him but I do feel he would be able to follow the storyline easily. The running time of the film is 118 minutes and I felt this to be a good length with the story moving at a good pace from start to finish.

This is a film only review so there are no bonus features to speak about. The DVD can be bought for around the £5 price now in a variety of stores and online. I am happy to give this film a good 4 stars as it was good and had some very good actors. I have had to drop a star as it was too much like other films and it deserves a slightly higher rate. Definitely one to watch if you can catch it on Sky movies for free.