So here I am, somehow defending a movie I thought was just fine. The movie has its flaws and there was plenty of stuff I didn’t think it did well. Mainly the emotional aspects fell flat for me. And I don’t agree with a lot of the changes made and would have preferred a different take on it. But that’s exactly it. I would have preferred it. It wasn’t for me and that’s okay. It’s not my style. I would have loved a version more accurate to the original story. I would have loved a movie with a lot more color and aspects of Greek culture. I would have loved a more fantastical version that had more of the gods in it and didn’t just rush past some of the monsters. But that was never what this was gonna be. It’s Christopher Nolan’s Odyssey. What did you expect. Obviously it will be dark and colorless and gritty with generic armor designs and an all star cast. It doesn’t even look bad. It’s not my personal taste but for the most part I thought it looked good! I even liked Agamemnon’s armor design. The movie is… fine. It’s flawed, but fine. Nolan made something with a clear vision and it wasn’t for me. I don’t really think Nolan made this movie with the Greek mythology nerds in mind. Which is sad and I’d love one that was but that’s not what this was. Did I hate a lot of the changes made? Yes! The Polyphemus scene pissed me off and I miss Odysseus actually being Odysseus! But it doesn’t need to be a perfectly faithful adaptation. Would I have enjoyed one? Yes! Do I understand wanting to put your own spin on it (even if that spin is rather boring) and reinterpreting it in a way you find interesting? Also yes. That’s what’s fun with adaptations. It doesn’t need to be the exact same story. There have been plenty of versions over the years that have brought different things to the story. Nolan reinterpreted the story in a way he felt said something that mattered in today’s age and I didn’t even dislike the main message he was trying to deliver. I think it’s an interesting interpretation. But I also think it could have been executed better.

Not every white person dating a POC is fetishizing. White people can be respectful and responsible when it comes to culture and relationships and not everyone has bad intentions.

Asian people can date Black people without you saying shit like “your kids will be so pretty” they’re not dating for pretty kids. They’re dating bc they like each other.

Someone can dress their partner in clothing from their culture if they want. Someone can take their partner to cultural events if they want.

People in relationships can share cultures, experiences and love without it being toxic or skin deep.

Their partner isn’t culturally appropriating. Their partner is being shown the ultimate form of love, bc their partner trusts them and loves them enough to share their history and heritage.

Yeah, dating someone from your culture is nice bc you automatically have similar experiences. But you’re not limited to dating people with the same experiences. Loving someone is sharing and growing and being together.

oh………..

And

You guys, it wasn't so bad lmao

Honestly I was expecting something so much worse, so I was pleasantly surprised when I saw it

The problem is that everyone and their mom has an opinion about the Odyssey but nobody has read it lmao

First of all, I'm not mad about the movie being anachronistic because Homer himself was anachronistic, he was mixing things here and there, but I would've liked to see more color and different clothing choices.

I wasn't even mad about the nobody thing, because you see, there was only one (1) cyclop, so the nobody trick isn't necessary at all, and while Odysseus doesn't shout his name, he goes back and shoots him with an arrow because, well, hubris, so I guess that was all good, I think they didn't have money for more cyclops, so it was fine by me

Now the things I didn't like were Odysseus and Athena's personalities

Because Odysseus gets made into this heroic noble figure, and he wasn't like that, I think the point of his character is that he survived the war, not because he was young, kind or noble. No, all the characters that were that; like Achilles, Patroclus and Hector, died. Odysseus survived because he was smart and he wasn't afraid of stabbing someone in the back when he needed to.

Actually there's a theory that the Odysseus of the oral tradition before the Odyssey existed as it is today, was probably worse and Homer or the poet of the Odyssey made him more noble, and yet he still isn't the moral hero that he is in the movie

Honest to God if Nolan wanted to do a character that was noble and heroic like that, he could've made an Iliad movie with Hector or even Patroclus as the protagonist

Actually, a lot of themes of the movie, like the consequences and brutality of war, would've fit better in an Iliad movie lmao

But making a movie about the Iliad is so fucking difficult and everyone prefers the Odyssey anyway lmao

About Athena, I disliked that Nolan portrayed her as being sad about the fall of Troy and taking the form of a woman they killed to remind Odysseus of the war, like no

For starters Athena was number one hater of Troy, she was on the side of the Greeks and wanted to see Troy burn, second, she wouldn't have cared

One thing about the Iliad and the Odyssey to some extent, is that Gods truly don't care that much about humans unless is a personal offense, like Athena cares (to an extent) about Odysseus because that's her poor little meow meow, her blorbo if you will, but if Zeus had said "this bitch dies in the war" Athena wouldn't put her neck on the line for Odysseus.

You can see the juxtaposition of scenes where the Gods are having a good time with scenes of humans being massacred in the Iliad just to drive the point that they truly don't care. So Athena being sad about Troy, I didn't understand why. Like, if you wanted to show someone being sad, maybe have Odysseus hallucinate Hecuba's ghost or Astyanax instead

And don't get me wrong, Athena was mad after Troy fell, but she was mad with lesser Ajax for raping Cassandra on her temple, and she killed Ajax, if she had been mad with Odysseus, Odysseus wouldn't have made it home lmao

So what was up with Athena being all sad for Troy? Again, there were better characters to show the pain of Troy than Athena, maybe none of the Gods but if you have cyclops and witches in your movie, you can put some ghosts here and there, not like Nolan didn't want the story to remain unchanged

Finally, they keep repeating about the seafaring people or something like that (Idk, I saw it in Spanish because I went with my dad) and how these people were going to attack them and I was like "what the hell are these bitches talking about" because the seafaring people were the Greeks, the Achaeans

And then it turns out that yess, they are the seafaring people lmao

They also reference the dark age, a period of time after The Mycenaean civilization fell, and nobody knows much about it now because nobody back then wrote anything lmao

So I guess it was Nolan's "are we the baddies?" Moment

Because, that plus how all the characters were constantly talking about xenia, it felt like Nolan was saying "yeah, how we treat people that aren't like us in the west is fucked up and it's going to cause us a lot of problems later"

So I guess that message is fine, I don't know Nolan's politics but I would say he seems to be at least liberal; ironically enough I think it would've fit better with the Iliad than with the Odyssey lmao