DVD Review: Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief
What Parents Should Know
Parents need to know that this movie is an aged-up version
of the
Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief book that Common
Sense Media recommends for readers 9 and up. Young hero Percy
is now in high school rather than middle school; his satyr
friend Grover loves the ladies; and a trip that Percy, Grover,
and Annabeth take to a casino has a nightclub, a full bar, and
trippy lotus flowers that all the patrons ingest (in the book,
they play video and arcade games endlessly). Plus, the violence
level is high for a PG-rated movie: Monsters are very
frightning, especially the demonic ones -- like Hades aflame
with skeletal wings and a fury sent to destroy Percy --
characters (monster and human) are impaled and slashed at with
swords, and Percy's mom is crushed by a minotaur and taken to
the underworld. After Medusa's head is severed, it's dragged
along on the road trip to Hades.
- Families can talk about the book vs. the movie. So much was changed here -- the characters' ages, the plot, the places they visit, etc. Was it still the movie you were hoping for?
- Talk about the scare factor. Did anything make you hide under your chair? What mythological monsters would you least like to see in the real world? Does fantasy violence have the same impact as more realistic violence?
- Who are your favorite hero characters? Do they usually have humble beginnings, thinking they're nobody special, or do they always know what they're destined for? How many of your favorite heroes are girls? Boys?
Seemingly normal (albeit dyslexic) D student Percy Jackson (Logan Lerman) realizes that something is very wrong when he's attacked by a demonic beast during a class trip and whisked away by his mother (Catherine Keener) and friend Grover (Brandon T. Jackson) to a secret camp. He wakes up in an infirmary like no other, teeming with teens in Greek battle gear, as he remembers with a jolt that he fought and killed a minotaur ... but only after it took his mother to the underworld. Grover, now sporting the goat hooves of a satyr, leads Percy through camp explaining that he's actually half-god -- and his parent isn't just any god, but sea king Poseidon. But before Percy can even break in his new bunk, Hades accuses him of stealing Zeus' master lightning bolt. So Percy decides to go to the underworld to find the truth and save his mother. Grover and daughter-of-Athena Annabeth (Alexandra Daddario) decide to go with him, armed with a magic map from senior camper Luke (Jake Abel) that will lead them to three special pearls -- the key to getting out of the underworld alive. Too bad Luke didn't warn them about what was guarding the pearls -- they'll have to fight Medusa (Uma Thurman), a hydra, and even lotus flowers to get to the underworld and back before the gods' petty fighting destroys the earth.
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