We took the kids to see Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Lightning Thief this weekend. Based upon Rick Riordan’s series about Percy Jackson, this is likely the first in a series of movies if it does well. Not having read the books, I can’t really judge how faithful the transition to the big screen is. But I’ve heard that the movie is only loosely based on the first book in that it omits some characters from the book and borrow somethings from the second book. Overall it’s a decent tale.

Act 1 of the movie introduces us to the characters. In the prologue, Poseidon meets up with Zeus, who accuses Poseidon’s son of stealing Zeus’ lightning bolt (the most powerful weapon in the world) and promises all out war if it isn’t returned in two weeks. Then we cut to Percy Jackson spending seven minutes sitting in the swimming pool (guess who’s son he is). Percy, who lives with his Mom and obnoxious step-father, is a nobody in the inner city high school. While on a school field trip Percy is accosted by a Fury and rescued by his good friend Grover (who is really a Satyr) and his teacher Mr. Brunner (who is really a Centaur). This is when Percy finds out he is the son of Poseidon and goes to a camp for demi-gods (children of gods and mortals) where he runs into Annabeth, daughter of Athena.

Act 2 is our quest. Percy, Annabeth and Grover go on a quest to find three Pearls of Persephone. Once they have those pearls, they will be able to go to the Underworld and confront Hades, who has taken Percy’s Mom. The pearls will help them escape the Underworld. The trio travel cross-country to find the treasured pearls and get to the Underworld. They run into many other Greek figures in their travels.

Act 3 is the finale. The climatic fight scene, the truth about who stole Zeus’ Bolt (which doesn’t seem as powerful in practice as Zeus claimed) and the final wrap up. We end up with our characters ready for another adventure in book 2.

The special effects aren’t bad. But the introduction to the Olympians is not done well (when Athena appeared, I thought it was Hera) and the plot is by the numbers. It’s not bad for a younger crowd (and will most likely be better than the remake of Clash of the Titans). Half a recommendation, but it did get my daughter interested in reading the books.