Critics are pretty disappointed with Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief. The Harry Potter-esque romp, directed by Chris Columbus, follows a boy who discovers not just that he has powers, but that the Greek gods are alive in America.
- The film "has no real pep to it as Columbus moves from one special-effects sequence to the next, and as an effects film it is perhaps the first clear casualty in a post-Avatar world: Everything looks somewhat cheesy," writes Tom Long for the Detroit News.