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if you need to. (photo courtesy Twentieth Century Fox)

You know a movie is not doing well when the cameos are better than leading performances. Such is the case in "Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Lightning Thief," based on the novel by Rick Riordan. Despite obvious parallels with stories involving a certain young wizard named Harry Potter, there is a lot in this movie that is fresh and interesting and could have led a successful adventure movie. However, in their attempt to widen the appeal of the story to a broader audience the filmmakers have cobbled together a story that feels both too rushed in some places and too slow in others. That the film hangs on the lackluster performances by the three attractive but vapid leads reinforces the feeling that Harry, Hermione, and Ron are safe in their positions as the supernatural whiz-kid royalty.

The movie starts out promising, with Kevin McKidd's (Rome) Poseidon and Sean Bean's (Lord of the Rings) Zeus seething with brotherly rivalry. These two actors were born to play gods, and they radiate the power and vitality in the few minutes they are on the screen.

When they first meet atop Manhattan's Empire State Building, the movie sizzles with a sense of foreboding. Zeus's lightning bolt has been stolen, you see, and that makes the god very, very angry. He accuses his brother's son Percy, played with faux-emo angst by Logan Lerman, of the theft. This, even though the boy has no idea that he is half-god, known as a demi-god, or who his father is. Why Zeus thinks Percy is even able of stealing his famed weapon is one of the many plot holes the movie chooses not to fill. Never mind, he has two weeks to return it--until the summer solstice--or the gods will go to war, which will be very bad for everyone.

After this nice set-up, unfortunately, the movie turns to Percy himself. In the book, he was 12 when this story started. In the movie he is 17. Perhaps the powers that be thought that both teenaged boys would not relate to such a young protagonist, and wanted an actor that would attract the kind of devotion enjoyed by Robert Pattinson's Edward Cullen, who was 17 before he was turned into passionate-yet-tormented vampire. His age does give the film license to give him a romantic interest in Annabeth, another demi-god played by Alexandra Daddario. She plays the daughter of Athena with more intensity than Lerman is able to muster, but isn't given a whole lot to do.

Lerman's performance as Percy, meant to connect the audience with the story, is not strong enough to anchor the film. He does not inspire empathy, mostly because he accepts the wacky goings-on far too readily. His mom is apparently pulverized by a Minotaur, but the next day he hardly mentions this, too busy wandering around a demi-god summer camp and exchanging intense stares with Annabeth. The pair shares a moment or two of whining about how they don't know their godly parents, but it mostly comes across as normal adolescent complaining about how cruel the world is.

Not all of this is Lerman's fault. The plot has the tendency to linger over long, expository scenes meant to explain the lengthy back-story of Greek mythology on the one hand, and bulldoze through the action sequences and series of guest appearances. The result is the jerky feeling of being in a car that keeps stalling out.

One of the most promising premises in the movie is the notion that there are reminders of Greek mythology all around us in America that may have more links to the gods of old than we think. A sequence inside a replica of the Parthenon that sits in a Nashville park (who knew!) is a clever nod to the eclectic culture we live in. Unfortunately, the other forays into Greek myths--a made-up casino in Vegas as the lair of the lotus-eaters, Hollywood as a fire and brimstone version of Hades--lack the originality of that scene. There have to be a few more good pit stops along Route 66 that would have made backdrops just as fun as the Medusa's den the film offers.

Uma Thurman, who plays the deadly gorgon with seductive madness, is one of the few high points in the film. Also great are Steve Coogan as Hades and Rosario Dawson as his captive wife Persephone. These two, as a Mick Jagger wannabe and his slinky, bored housewife give a modern feel to the age-old couple, but you can feel the eons they have endured one another. And once the film manages to reach Mount Olympus and it's powerful residents via a hidden elevator in the Empire State Building, you can understand why exactly we care whether or not the 30-foot tall beings are angry. Played with intimidating force by great actors, they are plenty impressive. If only the movie had spent its two hours watching them stomp around and argue rather than following around the half-mortals. At least their issues are worth hearing about.