This is another good movie that was once again introduced by my son to me. It was about Greek mythology (an interest we both share) particularly the story of a young boy named Percy who discovers that he is a demi-God – a product of the union between a God and a mortal. But his dad is not just any mere God, but rather one of the big three, Poseidon. But he does not know this and grew up hating his father whom he thought has abandoned him since birth. Then, during one class tour at a museum, Percy was attacked by a Fury, disguised as a teacher who claims he stole the lightning bolt of Zeus. Percy soon discovers that another history teacher (played by Pierce Brosnan) and even his best friend Grover knew his secret identity and was protecting him all along. And so after the incident, Percy with his mom and best friend proceed to Camp Half Blood to further protect Percy and be with his own kind (demigods) but before getting inside, his mom is taken by a Minotaur.
Inside the camp, Percy meets other demigods dressed in ancient Greek attire – complete with weapons: shields, swords, and bows - to train and fight to harness their abilities. Percy goes on to meet Annabeth (a pretty brunette who was the daughter of Athena, goddess of wisdom), Luke (son of Hermes, the messenger God) and their teacher, Mr. Brunner who is Chiron, a centaur (half-man and half-horse) and trainer of students. Chiron, then brings Percy to his house/quarters in the camp and he soon realizes that he is the son of Poseidon. Chiron explained that this was why his identity needed to be kept a secret because being a son of the big three, he posed a threat to Olympians.
Percy then engages in training with the other students and they go into battle with Percy joining the blue team headed by Luke and Annabeth heading the red team. They soon battle each other for control of the flag and Percy uses the water from a nearby stream to regain strength and parry Annabeth’s blows eventually defeating her and getting the flag. That night, the kids celebrate with some dinner and drinks but their festivities get disrupted by a visit from Hades demanding Percy to give him the lightning bolt in exchange for his mother, who is his prisoner in the Underworld.
Later that night, Percy decides to leave camp to try to rescue his mother (despite Chiron’s plans to continue training first, go to Olympus to appeal to Zeus and rescue his mom later). He is joined by Grover and Athena who wanted to join him in his quest. Their only problem is how to go to the Underworld and so they seek Luke’s help because his dad (Hermes) is a frequent visitor there. Luke says he doesn’t talk to his father (still the same father issues as Percy) but he gave them three things to help them get there – winged shoes, a map to help them find Persephone’s pearls (to be used in going out of the Underworld), and his favorite shield.
Hence, the three proceed with their quest, with the map showing the first location of the pearl at a Garden emporium in New Jersey. They soon discover that they have inadvertently walked into Medusa’s lair. Percy and Grover find Medusa trying to get Annabeth to open her eyes and they save her with Percy distracting Medusa to run after him and beheading her. Before they leave, they find the pearl in Medusa’s bracelet and sets off to the map’s next location – the Parthenon replica at Nashville, Tennessee. There, they see the pearl placed on top of a statue of Athena, that’s 30 feet tall. The three had to wait until the museum closes so that Percy can use the flying shoes to reach Athena’s headdress and the pearl. But before they can peacefully leave, they had to battle it out with a five-headed hydra. Despite their mistakes (since Percy cuts off the hydra’s head which made two more grow in its place), they successfully get the pearl and defeat the now ten-headed hydra by using Medusa’s head, turning the hydra instantly into stone.
The map next leads them to a Las Vegas casino where they unknowingly placed themselves in a trance by eating lotus flowers being offered by waitresses. But Percy hears the voice of Poseidon which immediately ‘wakes’ him so he sets out to wake his friends as well. Finally, they head on to their final destination which is Hades lair in Hollywood. The three are taken inside hell by a boatman they bribed with drachmas taken from Medusa’s garden. Then, they are met by three ferocious hellhounds before finally meeting Hades. Hades revealed that he planned to get the lightning bolt to overthrow Zeus and escape the Underworld but Percy tried to explain that he doesn’t have the thunderbolt. They were all surprised when the bolt was found inside the shield that Luke lent them. But what was more surprising was how Persephone zaps Hades with the lightning bolt and tells them all to flee. She says she doesn’t want Hades to win the war since it would mean that she would be trapped in hell forever.
They all leave Hades lair, with Grover left behind since they only have three pearls and so one of them must ‘sacrifice’ to save Percy’s mother. When they crushed the pearl they found themselves at the top of the Empire State Building where Olympus is located. But before they could enter, Luke arrives to prevent Percy from returning the bolt. He reveals that he wanted the gods to go to war so they would destroy themselves and the demigods can then take over. He and Percy fight it out for the bolt and Percy eventually deluges Luke with water from overhead tanks and slays him with a trident shaped from water proving once and for all that he is the son of Poseidon.
Percy and Annabeth enter Olympus in the nick of time just as Zeus was about to declare war. Percy returns the bolt to Zeus explaining that it wasn’t him who stole it but Luke (son of Hermes) who wanted them to destroy themselves in war. Zeus accepts his explanation and declares peace. He also allows Poseidon to talk to his son for the last time. Percy also pleads to Zeus to bring back Grover from Hell and he surprisingly relents. Poseidon and his son finally talk and came to an understanding. The last scene shows Percy back at Half Blood camp with Grover sporting new horns and promoted to Senior Protector.
The movie is definitely derived from Greek mythology although not all the accounts were factual. It was a truly entertaining family movie with just the right amount of action, humor, adventure and history interspersed. In its way, it managed to convey Greek mythology as fun and would hopefully encourage the teenagers who watched it to continue reading up on not just Greek but even Roman mythology, just like what my son and I did because we had our book on Greek mythology open trying to search for the Greek references/stories that were used in the film. It truly is a more exciting and teen-friendly version of the Clash of the Titans.
[photo grabbed from IMDB]
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