A critical thinking review of The Odyssey
some spoilers
First, Nolan didn't destroy or rewrite the story in any way. He was true to it. A very good job. The classics held up in today's environment? kudos for that. Hollyweird is under constant pressure to rewrite or stick in agenda, and he didn't. Have to give him that. This was the Odyssey. start to finish.
Cinematography was good. Not Lord of the Rings, but good.
Music was slow and somber throughout. Tedious, which tried to impart the temperature of their long tedious journey.
A piece of propaganda put on US, was that this was a fiery feminist remake, told through the eyes of the women. Not at all. Not at all. The men were the central parts, they suffered, they endured, they tried to do the right thing. While the women were manipulative, treacherous, evil, insane, or angry and minor to what the men were actually going through. Except for Penelope but she had her own faults. This movie painted no woman character in a positive light. And it didn't tell the story through any of them.
Samantha Morton was insanely terrifying as Circe. Her deranged and secreted hatred of men while she tried to pretend normalcy was a force that oooh boy, may have some modern parallels.
Helen was sullen and unattractive down to an injured eye and scarred face, though still deludedly thinking she was all that. This was interesting. Her husband menelaus mocks her and what people gossiped of her that 'oh so this was the face that launched a thousand ships? Maybe 500.' When the cause of the war was really his brother's ambition.
Her sister was a treacherous and animalistic murderer.
ok the brothers (Menelaus and Agamemnon) were coal burners and footage implied they MAY have looted them from north africa. So that made sense that the sisters (Helen and Clytemnestra) hated their husbands. Maybe that was a plot hole in the original story, I dont remember, but it was filled in well if that was the case.
Zendaya as Athena. meh. Box office pull I guess. Zendaya's face was always screwed up like a newborn baby, just as red and wrinkled up, and her dialogue and impact on the men was minimal.
Charlize as Calypso: sad and lonely and desperate to keep Odysseus around. These are all believably toxic women.
The tiny trans was a bit part. And not gratuitous; Ellen played a lesser, weaker, warrior lied to and left behind to die as disposable. And she was NOT Achilles; that was propaganda played on us. I can see she may have begged for the part and having been friends with Nolan, well he worked her in in a way that made sense.
As I write this, I realize the female parts were all stereotypes of the worst of women. Except penelope, the one ideal. It turned out to be a story of Odysseus navigating toxic women as well as the seas. And that's a surprise that it truly reflects the Odyssey as it was written. I'd have to write that thesis if I still needed to do one; Homer's Odyssey and its 20 Year Trek Through Toxic Women.
Acting varied. The kid playing Telemachus was the most wooden. They were all caught up in forces they couldn't control, their trying just to survive through them, they needed more endurance than than emotional ups and downs. So it also made sense to plod along to reflect the vast stretch of time.
I wont say its a tour de force, but its one hell of a lot better than I expected, as good as Nolan's other films. IT had none of what we told it would have to set us off (anons can be victims of manipulation too). We can be wrong. no
I'll be heading to Imax with some buddies and um actually pay.