Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief (also known as Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief) is a 2010 fantasy film directed by Chris Columbus and written by Craig Titley, based on the 2005 novel by Rick Riordan. It is the first installment of the Percy Jackson film series. Logan Lerman stars as the title character, alongside Brandon T. Jackson, Alexandra Daddario, Jake Abel, Sean Bean, Pierce Brosnan, Steve Coogan, Rosario Dawson, Catherine Keener, Kevin McKidd, Joe Pantoliano, and Uma Thurman.
In 2004, 20th Century Fox acquired the film rights to the book series. In 2007, Chris Columbus was hired to direct. Filming began in April 2009 in Vancouver. Some shots were filmed in Tennessee and Las Vegas, and some exterior scenes were shot in New York.
Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief was released theatrically in the United States on February 12, 2010, by 20th Century Fox. It received mixed reviews from critics, with praise for the action sequences and the performances of Lerman and Jackson, but criticism for its script and unfaithfulness to the source material. The film grossed $226.4 million worldwide against a production budget of $95 million. It was released on June 29, 2010, on DVD and Blu-ray Disc. A video game based on the film was released for Nintendo DS on February 11, 2010. A sequel, Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters, was released on August 7, 2013.
Plot
Zeus accuses Poseidon's demigod son, Percy Jackson, of stealing his master lightning bolt. Poseidon reminds him that Percy is unaware of his heritage, but Zeus declares that war will be waged if the lightning bolt is not returned to Mount Olympus before midnight of the Summer Solstice.
Sixteen-year-old Percy, who lives with his mother Sally and her abusive boyfriend Gabe, struggles with dyslexia and ADHD. On a school trip to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Percy is attacked by Alecto, who sheds her disguise as his substitute teacher and demands the bolt. Percy's best friend Grover Underwood and his Latin teacher, Mr. Brunner, fend off Alecto. Mr. Brunner gives Percy a pen and instructs Grover to take him and Sally to Camp Half-Blood—a secret sanctuary for demigod children.
On the way there, they are attacked by the Minotaur, who seemingly kills Sally. Percy discovers the pen is a magical sword, and uses it to fight the Minotaur, killing it before passing out. Waking up three days later, Percy learns he is Poseidon's son, Grover is a satyr and Percy's protector, and Mr. Brunner is Chiron, a centaur. He discovers that his struggles were actually his latent demigod powers, and that he also possesses hydrokinesis and healing. While touring Camp Half-Blood, Percy meets Annabeth Chase, Athena's daughter, and the camp's leader Luke Castellan, Hermes's son.
Percy is visited by his uncle Hades's apparition, who reveals that the Minotaur abducted Sally to the Underworld to trade for the bolt. Defying Chiron's orders, Percy sets out for the Underworld with Grover and Annabeth. Luke gives Percy a map with the location of three green pearls belonging to Hades' wife, Persephone, which will allow them to escape the Underworld. Luke also gives him a pair of flying winged shoes and his favorite shield.
At a garden center in New Jersey, with help from Grover and Annabeth, Percy manages to decapitate Medusa and takes the first pearl from her corpse. At the Parthenon in Nashville, Percy uses the shoes to retrieve the second pearl from the crown of the statue of Athena, and Grover uses Medusa's head to kill a Hydra guarding it. They track the final pearl to the Lotus Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, where they fall under the spell of the Lotus eaters. With Poseidon's guidance, Percy breaks the spell and escapes with Grover and Annabeth.
Having lost one week in the Casino, the trio only has one day left to return the lightning bolt to Zeus. They make their way to Hollywood, where the entrance to the Underworld is. There, Hades finds the bolt hidden inside Luke's shield, revealing that Luke is the thief. Hades tries to kill them, but Persephone turns on him in retaliation for imprisoning her. She frees Sally and gives the bolt to Percy. With only three pearls, Grover volunteers to stay in the Underworld.
They teleport to the Empire State Building, which houses the entrance to Olympus. Before they can enter, Luke ambushes them. Luke reveals to Percy that he stole the bolt to demolish Olympus and establish the demigods as Olympus' new rulers. Percy and Luke battle across Manhattan, ending in Luke's defeat. Percy returns the bolt to Zeus and reconciles with his father. Percy reunites with Grover and Annabeth at Camp Half-Blood.
Later, Sally kicks Gabe out of their apartment, and Gabe ignores Percy's written warning not to open the fridge, breaks it open, and is turned into stone by Medusa's head.
Cast
Logan Lerman as Percy Jackson, the demigod son of Poseidon Brandon T. Jackson as Grover Underwood, Percy's best friend and protector, a satyr Alexandra Daddario as Annabeth Chase, the demigod daughter of Athena Jake Abel as Luke Castellan, the demigod son of Hermes Sean Bean as Zeus, Percy's uncle, god of the sky, thunder, lightning, king of the twelve gods of Mount Olympus and brother of Poseidon and Hades Pierce Brosnan as Mr. Brunner/Chiron, a centaur who is a high school teacher and also trains heroes at Camp Half-Blood, the immortal son of Kronos and brother of Zeus, Poseidon, Hades, Demeter, and Hera Steve Coogan as Hades, Percy's uncle, god of the Underworld, the dead, and riches Rosario Dawson as Persephone, goddess of springtime, wife of Hades and admirer of Grover Melina Kanakaredes as Athena, Annabeth's mother, goddess of crafts, domestic arts, strategic warfare, peace and wisdom Catherine Keener as Sally Jackson, Poseidon's lover and Percy's mother Kevin McKidd as Poseidon, Percy's father, god of the seas, earthquakes, and horses Joe Pantoliano as Gabe Ugliano, Percy's abusive stepfather Uma Thurman as Medusa, a gorgon cursed by Athena Dylan Neal as Hermes, Luke's father, god of trade, thieves, travelers, sports, athletes, and messenger of the gods of Mount Olympus Erica Cerra as Hera, goddess of birth, family, marriage, women and queen of the twelve gods of Mount Olympus, sister and wife of Zeus Stefanie von Pfetten as Demeter, goddess of agriculture, fertility, and the harvest, sister of Zeus and mother of Persephone Dimitri Lekkos as Apollo, god of the sun, light, knowledge, healing, plague and darkness, the arts, music, poetry, prophecy, archery, and twin brother of Artemis Ona Grauer as Artemis, goddess of the hunt, virginity, the moon, and all animals, and twin sister of Apollo Serinda Swan as Aphrodite, goddess of love, beauty, wife of Hephaestus and lover of Ares Conrad Coates as Hephaestus, god of fire, forge, blacksmiths, craftsmen and husband of Aphrodite Ray Winstone as Ares, god of war, lover of Aphrodite (uncredited) Luke Camilleri as Dionysus, god of wine, celebrations, ecstasy, and theatre Maria Olsen as Mrs. Dodds/Alecto, a Fury, servant to Hades Julian Richings as Charon, ferryman of the River Styx, servant to Hades
Production
In June 2004, 20th Century Fox acquired the film rights to the book. In April 2007, Chris Columbus was hired to direct. Filming began in April 2009 in Vancouver, and Mammoth Studios in Burnaby was selected to be the studio. Portions of the film were shot at the Parthenon in Nashville, Tennessee, that has a full-scale replica of the original Parthenon in Athens. The Lotus Casino sequence was filmed at The Westin Bayshore in Vancouver in June 2009, and additional scenes of Percy, Grover and Annabeth driving to and from the casino were shot on the Las Vegas Strip and in front of the Fremont Street Experience. Filming wrapped up on the morning of July 25, 2009, in Mission, British Columbia. Additional exterior scenes were filmed on location in Brooklyn, New York during the first week of August 2009.Chris Columbus, Joe Pantoliano And Logan Lerman On Location For "Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Lightning Thief" - August 1, 2009 . Wireimage. Retrieved October 26, 2010. Digital intermediate work began in San Francisco in November 2009. Christophe Beck composed the score. Columbus has stated that the cast was chosen specifically with sequels in mind. "I think with Percy Jackson it was a matter of finding the right cast to fit into these roles, sort of the perfect cast for these roles, because hopefully, God willing, we will go on to do other Percy Jackson films and you want the cast to grow with their characters".
During production, Riordan was disappointed with the changes made to the story and warned the studio that it would likely alienate the readers of the book series that it was depending on to buy tickets. In two emails commenting at length on a draft of the script that he posted to his blog in 2018, he specifically warned the studio that trying to make the story more attractive to a teenage audience by aging the characters and including some profanity in the script might move a significant portion of the books' readers to leave the theater in disgust long before the movie ended. He also felt the introduction of Persephone's pearls as a plot device made no sense, having no basis in mythology and distracting Percy from his goal of recovering the stolen lightning bolt.
Reception
Box office The film opened on February 12, 2010, in 3,356 theaters; its opening weekend box-office results totaled $31.2 million in the U.S., finishing at #3 below The Wolfman, which opened at #2 with $31.5 million and below Valentine's Day, which opened at #1 with $56.3 million. The film had a strong opening weekend for its genre, posting the highest opening weekend for a fantasy film not from the Harry Potter, Chronicles of Narnia, or Lord of the Rings series. As of September 14, 2010, it grossed a total of $88.8 million in the U.S. and Canada with $137.7 million elsewhere in the world, bringing it to $226.5 million.
Critical response On Rotten Tomatoes the film has an approval rating of 48% based on reviews from 150 critics, with an average score of 5.30/10. The site's consensus reads: "Though it may seem like just another Harry Potter knockoff, Percy Jackson benefits from a strong supporting cast, a speedy plot, and plenty of fun with Greek mythology." On Metacritic it has a score of 47 out of 100, based on 31 reviews, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film a grade B+ on a scale from A+ to F.
Kenneth Turan of the Los Angeles Times described the film as "standard Hollywood product... unadventurous and uninteresting". The reviewer for The Washington Post thought "the movie suffers by taking itself a little too seriously. It's not just that it's a lot less funny than the book. It's also a lot less fun". On BBC Radio 5, Mark Kermode criticized the similarity of the film to director Chris Columbus's Harry Potter films, likening it to a Harry Potter parody book and dubbing it Benjamin Sniddlegrass and the Cauldron of Penguins. This comment later sparked a satirical fan creation with precisely that title, narrated by Stephen Fry.
Rick Riordan's response