The Lightning Thief is a novel-turned-movie. It's like the Harry Potter series. In the story, a kid learns that he's half-god - half-Poseidon, to be exact. The hero, twelve-year-old Percy Jackson, discovers this the hard way when he encounters strange, mythological creatures like the Minotaur which disappears with his mother. Percy finds himself mysteriously transported to a camp where he discovers is a training ground for demigod kids like himself.

Author Rick Riordan weaves a a fast and humorous tale of fantasy, action, adventure, and mythology, moving around a kid with personal problems associated with being dyslexic and attention-deficit. He gets the enormous task of coming between three ancient gods at war, Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades. Our unlikely hero must deal with quests, intrigue, and the personal interests of those around him that could jeopardize his mission.

The movie adaptation of young adult novel, Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief, features big name stars like Uma Thurman, Pierce Brosnan, and Sean Bean. Thurman, who's appeared before (some twenty years ago as of this writing) as the goddess of love, Venus, in the movie The Adventures of Baron Munchausen. Now in Percy Jackson and the Olympians, she plays the snake-haired Medusa. Her gruesome character makeup can definitely turn someone into stone. Brosnan plays Chiron, and Bean, who've played mean guys before, plays Zeus. Kevin McKidd, from Grey's Anatomy and the mini series Rome, plays Percy's father Poseidon.

It's hard not to compare Percy and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief with the Harry Potter Series. Both Percy and Harry have problems, both are trained in a school, and both are offsprings destined to discover the amazing powers they have, ultimately giving them a purpose when in the beginning, they're just ordinary kids with the misfortune of being in undesirable situations. The book has sold 1.2 million copies in the first four years of its release and this figure already says a lot about the movie. This one is directed by Chris Columbus, who also directed Harry Potter movies. Its screenplay is from Craig Titley.

Uma Thurman and Pierce Brosnan play mythological creatures in movie adaptation of the first The Lightning Thief book.

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