A fantasy film like Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief has a tricky marketing task ahead of it, mostly because there are so many ways it could go. Should it play up the fact that it was made by Chris Columbus and aim for the Harry Potter audience, as its first trailer did? Should it take a page from Twilight and turn teen lead Logan Lerman into the next Rob Pattinson? Or should it intently study The Vampire's Assistant: Cirque du Freak for a case study on what not to do?
Based on this new trailer, it's trying all of the above. Percy puts forth a more aggressive, action-oriented spot than nearly all of those precedent properties, but it's still a little messy -- is there a point to including a Percy-in-the-pool prologue unless the trailer's going to explicitly spell out the kid's familial link to Poseidon? (Perhaps its marketers are trying to corner the female audience whipped into a frenzy by Taylor Lautner's New Moon abs.) At least there's a cameo by Uma Thurman as the most stunning Medusa ever, though I could have done without the way an iPod figures into beating her. The Greek Gods may have had powers beyond our ken, but they're apparently no match for the overwhelming modern force that is product placement.
VERDICT: Modest interest.