Percy Jackson Lacks Spark

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.

• Rick Groen of the Globe and Mail calls Percy Jackson a "Potter knock-off right down to that mouthful of a title."
• The flick "has all the CGI sorcery of a Harry Potter pic, but none of the magic," Adam Markovitz writes for Entertainment Weekly.
• At least one viewer finds Percy somewhat enjoyable: Columbus "has brought together the modern and mythical spheres with sharp pacing and a nifty sense of fun that atone for the film's dippier moments," writes Amy Biancolli for the Houston Chronicle.