- 7
...packed with entertaining, kid-friendly mythology lessons.
—Michelle Tan People
- 7
Somebody stole Zeus's lightning, and the movie's thunder.
—Roger Ebert Chicago Sun-Times
- 6
...has all the CGI sorcery of a Harry Potter pic, but none of the magic.
—Adam Markovitz Entertainment Weekly
- 6
...agreeably tame and unthreatening.
—Stephen Holden New York Times
- 6
...gets so many things right that when it goes astray (which happens with more and more frequency as it goes along) that you kind of wish it hadn't tried in the first place.
—Bill Gibron filmcritic.com
- 5
...as long as the kiddies aren't too upset by the major liberties reportedly taken with the source material, it might be enough to distract them until Harry returns.
—Aaron Hillis Village Voice
- 5
This is generic filmmaking at its most banal, a simple-minded simplification of a not overwhelmingly complex book.
—Kenneth Turan Los Angeles Times
- 5
...even hardcore mythology geeks -- and fans of the popular Percy Jackson kids' books -- will have a tough time putting up with this flick's bland CGI and even blander cast.
—Peter Paras E!
- 5
What's really lacking in The Lightning Thief is a genuine sense of wonder, the same thing that brings viewers back to Hogwarts over and over again. Percy's world seems like a decent place to visit, but it's just not magical enough to make you want to live there.
—Ethan Alter Hollywood Reporter
- 5
...yet another kidlit adaptation hoping to steal some of Harry Potter's thunder.
—Peter Debruge Variety
- 5
...the latest in Hollywood's long series of attempts to create another Harry Potter. It's even directed by Chris Columbus, who initially helmed that cash machine.
—Lou Lumenick New York Post
- 4
...a kids'-book adaptation that follows the J.K. Rowling formula closely enough to ease the pangs of forlorn Harry Potter fans in general.
—Tasha Robinson Onion AV Club
- 3
What a shock -- another "beloved" series of children's books that no one had heard of until the movie was made fails to light the world on fire.
—Nick Starkery Premiere
- 3
...a wannabe-franchise jumpstarter directed by Chris Columbus with the same flat, crane-shot-obsessed aesthetic blandness that he brought to his first two Potter movie adaptations.
—Nick Schager Slant Magazine