Soundtrack Review: Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Lightning Thief (2010)

Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Lightning Thief Movie Soundtrack Review: This is a review of the motion picture score Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Lightning Thief by Christophe Beck.

"Percy Jackson appears to be quite heroic and big on the outside, but it's not quite there"

Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Lightning Thief is based on the book by Rick Riordan who has written 5 very succesful books about Percy Jackson, the fantasy novel based on Greek mythology. Percy Jackson isn't like regular kids, he is the actually a demigod, the son of a human woman and the Greek God Poseidon. An apocalyptic war is afoot between the Greek Gods Zeus, Poseidon and Hades and Percy and his friends are on a mission to stop it. It's directed by Chris Colombus and starring Logan Lerman as Percy Jackson. The composer is Christophe Beck who returns to the fantasy movie genre for the first time since 2007.

Track List

Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Lightning Thief marks Christophe Beck's comeback to the fantasy movie genre since The Seeker: The Dark is Rising from 2007. Both movies are based on books and could possibly generate more movies if they were to be successful. I was slightly intrigued when I saw Beck's name tied to this movie. The Seeker was ok, but nothing more than that, but I always felt there was potential to be used in another fantasy action movie. So color me intrigued.

Big Budget Score

Percy Jackson feels like a big budget movie when you listen to the score. There's lot of great and pompous moments and the score almost feels like it's trying too hard at times. Still it can feel good to listen to a score that tries to be bigger than it is. The theme is heroic and big, like a hero's theme, but it's also one of those fire-and-forget kind of themes. You will forget about it quite quickly, and emotionally it might not tickle your fancy, at least it didn't for me.

'Prelude' starts of slowly with the main theme played on a single flute before it goes into the fantasy genre with more power. Not the best cue or the best start, but Beck's intentions are clear as soon as the choirs and the big horns enter the fray. Christophe Beck wants big so he does his best to provide that. 'End Credits' is quite similar to the opening cue, and replaces the flute with some horns to play the main theme. Of course it is almost 5 minutes longer so there's a lot more here. It is a 'best of Percy Jackson' cue, but I feel it is perhaps too long and the best parts of Percy Jackson could be shortened a bit. My favorite cues are 'The Fury', 'Fighting Luke, Part 1' and 'Homecoming' which has that little extra. Most of the cues here goes into each other. It suffers a bit from the well-known "if you've heard this cue, you have heard it all" syndrome. I feel the cues I've mentioned is similar to the rest, but has slightly more to them. Beck tried to be big and succeeds with these cues.

Conclusion

It's a good score, not a great score. Percy Jackson appears to be quite heroic and big on the outside, but it's not quite there. It's definitely top marks for effort as nothing has been spared. It feels like a big movie score, it just fails to give me my need for something emotional. Christophe Beck has proven one thing, he certainly should be considered when there are fantasy movies to be scored.

->Buy the CD on Amazon<-

->Buy the MP3 Album on Amazon<-

Listen to the Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Lightning Thief soundtrack by Christophe Beck below: