When I first heard of Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightening Thief, the first in a series of five books, I immediately thought of a couple of other book series to big screen adoptions. Both Twilight and Harry Potter have been hugely successful over the last decade or so, which -in a nutshell- explains why I had serious doubts before even seeing this movie.

Harry Potter and the Twilight series work for many reasons. The most obvious one pertains to the authors’ ability to connect with her audience. Both series have survived off the sheer fact that fans become extremely attached to the characters, living their adventure with them with each page turn. Percy Jackson’s story was never fully explained and involves very little character development. Percy himself is quite the mystery; we know he is an unpopular student, but before we have time to fully understand what makes him tick we jump right into the action.

Another complaint I have is the lack of story clarification. It is never fully explained why Zeus thinks Percy stole his lightening bolt, and for any viewer over the age of eight, this is an important aspect of the story. Prior to the accusation, Percy was entirely unaware that his father was a god. If you think about it, without that knowledge, it would be pretty hard to know that the bolt existed and on what terms it could be stolen.

I will credit the film for the action sequences, which were fast paced and over the top. There was no shortage of star power as Uma Thurman, Pierce Brosnan and Rosario Dawson all make intriguing cameo appearances. Sadly, they are the highlight of the film as our main characters, played by Logan Learman and Alexandra Daddario, are nothing special and soon forgotten.

Secrets of the Gods: This interactive feature provides short descriptions of some of the gods featured in the film. If only they had provided this much background within the actual story, then everything might have made a little more sense.