Percy Jackson Lacks Spark

Harry Potter clone falls short of Olympian ambitions
By Nick McMaster,  Newser Staff
Posted Feb 12, 2010 5:25 PM CST

Critics are pretty disappointed with Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief. The Harry Potter-esque romp, directed by Chris Columbus, follows a boy who discovers not just that he has powers, but that the Greek gods are alive in America.

  • The film "has no real pep to it as Columbus moves from one special-effects sequence to the next, and as an effects film it is perhaps the first clear casualty in a post-Avatar world: Everything looks somewhat cheesy," writes Tom Long for the Detroit News.

  • Rick Groen of the Globe and Mail calls Percy Jackson a "Potter knock-off right down to that mouthful of a title."
  • The flick "has all the CGI sorcery of a Harry Potter pic, but none of the magic," Adam Markovitz writes for Entertainment Weekly.
  • At least one viewer finds Percy somewhat enjoyable: Columbus "has brought together the modern and mythical spheres with sharp pacing and a nifty sense of fun that atone for the film's dippier moments," writes Amy Biancolli for the Houston Chronicle.
(More movie review stories.)

Get the news faster.
Tap to install our app.
X
Install the Newser News app
in two easy steps:
1. Tap in your navigation bar.
2. Tap to Add to Home Screen.

X