In 2010, fantasy wasn’t the easiest thing to market. Before the release of Game of Thrones, the genre seemed like a wild gamble, even when based on established source material. This was the case for Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief. The incredibly wordy title was taken from Rick Riordan’s book that the feature was based on, but that was about where the similarities ended.
20th Century Fox kept the basic skeleton of a young demigod learning how to use his powers at a summer camp for the children of Greek gods. Percy Jackson (Logan Lerman) and the rest of his cohorts, however, were aged up significantly as they set on their quest to discover who stole Zeus’ bolt of lightning. The Disney+ adaptation of Percy Jackson has redeemed the books, but regardless, Percy is still doing extremely well on his Netflix streaming home even after years of division.
‘Percy Jackson & the Olympians’ Is a Relic of Another Time
There is no doubt that the 2010 feature isn’t the most faithful adaptation of Percy Jackson, but there is a reason why the story is finding new life on streaming. In addition to Logan Lerman, the movie has a well-established cast who gave the film their all. Lerman stars as the titular Percy, who, after an incident on a field trip, learns that he is the son of Poseidon. Characters from the pantheon of mythic gods are in place to spot such a power surge, including Pierce Brosnan’s Chiron, at first disguised as a teacher, Mr. Brunner.
This is just the start of a fascinating magic system where demigods are sent to a camp to achieve their destiny. Uma Thurman, Sean Bean, and Rosario Dawson support the young cast in the various mythological roles. No matter how blasphemous the interpretation of these characters was to book purists, Percy Jackson rode on a wave of the teen movie trend that had been well established up until that point.
The 2010s were dotted with teen romances, for better or for worse, and Percy Jackson was ready to take on that mantle. When viewed with this perspective, it is easy to accept that the franchise is still an entertaining ride. Lerman injects humor into his floppy-haired character as Percy approaches his destiny. He teams up with Athena’s daughter, Annabeth (Alexandra Daddario), and the satyr, Grover (Brandon T. Jackson), to aid him on his mythological quest.
The main cast has chemistry as they encounter monsters and eventually have to descend to the Underworld. There was joy in it enough to spawn a sequel, Sea of Monsters, though the franchise didn’t survive past that film. The story became forgotten because of the more recent book accurate series on Disney, but now time can be kinder to the 16-year-old series.
Just as Twilight has had a modern renaissance despite the bizarreness of its content, the same can go for Percy Jackson as well. Look past the silliness of the time period, and the movie offers an outlet for laughs, love, and adventure.