Percy Jackson and the Olympians, The Lightning Thief (2010), is a movie based on the first book of Rick Riordan’s Percy Jackson and the Olympians series (2005). This film is a fast pace action and fantasy motion picture distributed by 20th Century Fox. The Lightning Thief (2010) puts a modern-day twist on ideas from ancient Greek culture.
This movie follows Percy Jackson (Logan Lerman) who has been accused of stealing Zeus’ lightning bolt and his two friends, Annabeth (Alexandra Daddario) and Grover (Brandon T.Jackson). As they race against the clock to save Percy’s mother who has been captured by the god of the under-world Hades (Steve Coogan) as well as find and return the source of Zeus’ power and stop a war between the Greek gods. On their way to the under-world they must find three of Persephone’s pearls (pearls that are able to transport anyone to anywhere in the world) that have been scattered across the United States, but to retrieve these pearls they must face challenging enemies that want to stop them and steal the lightning bolt that Percy has been accused of taking. Once they have retrieved these pearls, they enter the under-world to save Percy’s mother and find the lightning bolt. After finding the bolt the group uses the pearls to get out of Hades and go to Mount Olympus (home of the gods) to return Zeus’ prized possession.
It is no surprise that this film is heavily influenced by ancient Greek culture. One of the ways that the directors are able to do this is by making or recreating art pieces that look like they would be from this time period. In ancient Greece, the use of marble was very prominent in sculptures and buildings. In the beginning of the movie Percy and his class end up at a museum of Roman and Greek art. In this museum we are able to see marble statues of Zeus and Poseidon. These statues are made from polished white marble and have indentations and curvature in the clothing, this adds a realistic element to the statues, while giving the viewer a feeling that they are watching something modern with hints of the ancient Greek time period. Another thing that the directors do with this film is use an actual location/building in the United States that is based on Greek culture, The Parthenon in Nashville Tennessee which is a full-sized replica of the original. This building is used as a location for one off Persephone’s pearls and houses a replica of the statue of Athena. The building/set used for the movie uses marble columns that replicates the actual Parthenon itself. Unlike the actual replica of the Parthenon which has Athena wearing a gold dress, holding a gold bird, and wearing a gold crowns, the replica only wears a gold crown, which is has the pearl in the center of it and looks to be painted. This is apparent when Percy rips off the chunk that has the pearl and it shows that it is still white underneath. The architecture used really helps to add to the feeling of the Greek background in the movie.
In the movie Percy is taken to a camp (Camp Half-Blood) and is given a pen that can transform into a sword when you click it. Camp Half-Blood was built to house other demi-gods like him to keep them safe from the outside world and the monsters it holds. In this scenery the campers wear a mixture of modern-day clothing with leather and metal armor. This armor is meant to symbolize the kind that warriors would wear in times of battle and serves to protect the campers as they train to become fighters. The campers would typically wear a leather chest plate as they went around doing daily tasks such as archery practice or spending time with their siblings and cousins, and in times of battle, or in this case, capture the flag, they would wear a metal helmet that didn’t cover their face and had either a blue or red plume (decoration on a helmet that looks a bit like a mohawk) to symbolize the team that each camper was on. Along with being decked out in armor, each camper is given a sword and a shield. Each shield was made of bronze and had some sort of marking on it to give the feel of truly being a shield used for Greek battles. Just like the architecture, the armor shown in the movie helps to add to the historical Greek background that most of the characters have as well as reminding the viewer of the campers fighting/warrior instincts.
Mythical creatures play a key part in Greek lore. For instance, there are 12 main Greek Olympian gods and the film uses most of them to really capture the fantasy aspect of thefilm. The movie uses Zeus (Sean Bean)and Poseidon (Kevin McKidd) as the main conflict point of this motion picture. These two are hell-bent on starting a war with each other because of Zeus accusations against Poseidon’s Son, Percy. Along with the Greek gods, the movie expands into this idea that these gods would come down to Earth and hook up with humans. When they did this, they would typically have kids. These kids are called demi-gods meaning they are half-human, half-god (Percy and Annabeth). The story doesn’t just contain the human figures though, it also contains a few of the beasts/monsters that are mentioned throughout Greek lore. It contains satyrs (Grover), centaurs (Mr. Brunner/Chiron), as well as creatures that are not so friendly. For example,at the beginning of the movie in the museum Percy is attacked by a Fury who is after the lightning bolt. As a team, the three friends face Medusa (Uma Thurman) a Gorgon with a head of snakes who,with one look can turn any living thing into stone. The gang must also take on Hydra in the Parthenon, a five headed dragon (the middle one spews fire) who can regrow twice the number of heads that are chopped off, this makes it one of the most challenging of the monsters that the group faces while set out to retrieve one of the pearls. These creatures add a fantasy aspect to this movie and some of them help to add action with fast pace fight scenes.
This movie Percy Jackson and the Olympians, The Lightning Thief (2010), is a high paced action and fantasy motion picture that contains elements of ancient Greek culture. I found this to be an excellent film to watch and really enjoyed the characters and plot development. If there is someone out there who loves the Greek culture and is debating on whether or not they want to watch this movie, I would absolutely recommend it. From the way that this movie ties in pieces of art such as statues like the marble ones in the beginning of the movie to the evil creatures the trio of heroes have to fight together, this movie does an astounding job at tying in those elements to the, now, more modern day world.
