Movies: Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief

Title: Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief
Director: Chris Columbus
Based on the book by Rick Riordan
Released: Feb. 2010
Rated: PG
Awards: the movie was nominated for MTV Movie Awards and Teen Choice Awards
Interest Level: 6th-12th grade
Plot Summary: The story is about Percy Jackson who is the son of the god Poseidon. But Percy has been accused of stealing Zeus' lightning bolt. Perzy doesn't know about his godly father and is on a school field trip when he is attacked by a Fury who is after the lightning bolt. Percy's best friend Grover and his Latin teacher fight off the Fury who then then sends Percy and his mom and grover to camp half blood. It is on the way that Percy is attacked by a minataur. It seems that Percy's mom is killed in the attack but him and Grover make it to safety at Camp Half-Blood. It is here the Percy learns of his father's origin. Percy must convince Zeus of his innocence to prevent a war among the gods.
Review: Having read the book I was not overly impressed with the movie. The movie does have some great action scenes and special effects but overall it's not that great of a movie. It did pretty well at the box office though and the sequel is coming out this summer. I think the book did bring a lot of reluctant readers to the series which is nice to see.
Annotation: Percy didn't know much about his absent father what he didn't expect was for him to be a Greek god who is about to go to war over him.
Why for tweens? The book series has a huge appeal with tweens and the movie has also been very popular with them. There is action and adventure, greek god and a bit of romance. It's PG rating makes it so it's not too mature for the tween audience.