Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Lightening Thief (DTS-HD MA) - disc review

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Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Lightening Thief (DTS-HD MA) – Tier 1

 

Imitation is one of the most sincere forms of flattery and here, movies like Clash of the Titans, Harry Potter and even High School Musical must be rather flattered for this adaption of a series of stories borrows from all of the above and more.

 

However, let me ask the obvious, why in Zeus’ name do we find Greek, yes, Greek gods in the middle of US of A??? The male and female leads, plus the obligatory sidekick all could be models for some teen magazine and I assume their roles is to distract from the many loopholes in a paper thin storyline, which relies on stars which all look like gods and goddesses, have nice blue eyes and megawatt smiles. Throw in a plot of thievery, conspiracy and add the old story of demi-gods which arose from the amorous ways of the gods, and you have this movie. It might keep your children entertained with plenty of good looking characters, and they might be willing to look past the failings in the plot but action aficionados will need to wait patiently between plenty of inane acting before the rather stingy doses of action kick in.

 

Plot- 2.5/5

 

As for the surround effects, this is a modern 2010 modern and yet, the surround integration is not as impressive as a good movie made this year should be. Sure the LFE is turned up in moments where there is some action, and of course the lightning bolts come with substantial heft in the bass, but there is not a lot of use of the surrounds to heighten the tension, and the LFE comes in a artificial manner which does not gel well into moments of dialogue. Speech is still made out quite easily, but it won’t go down as a match for Legion, Toy Story, or many of the other top hits on Blu Ray this year.

 

SQ – 3/5

 

PQ- here is one bit which helps to redeem the movie, and the colors are well rendered, and in particular the Camp Half-Blood scenes are well done, and very natural.

 

Should you buy, rent or avoid? I think if you have kids or need something for a slow weekend afternoon, you could consider renting this and I would suggest doing so before even thinking about buying it….

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