#odysseys

I am going to divide this into smaller subsections, ones going to go through the mythical “episodes” of the movie bit by bit and give my thoughts (some of them are split throughout the movie), ones going to discuss broader movie themes and issues (i.e the xenia thing, but also the aesthetics that have been talked about)

Broader themes

Aesthetics

So a lot of the non-ridiculous discourse pre-release was on the movies aesthetics. Armour inaccuracy, dull lighting etc. I would say I largely stand by them - though the movie is a lot less dully coloured than it felt like in the trailers, so it is not as bad. I did not like the costuming largely. Agamemnon's helmet made me want to laugh every time it was on screen bar one (go to the tiresias section for that), I felt it looked ridiculous. The creature design, bar the laestrygonians, was amazing. The cyclops looked incredibly, scylla looked great (even if I do not like that design for scylla - I will discuss that a bit more in her section)

The Gods

Some people were upset that the gods did not appear physically, worrying that it would be a more… non-mythical version of the myth. I can confirm that they do not appear physically, unless you count a hallucination of Athena's priestess that may be Athena but may not be.

Despite that I did like how they did it. I exited the movie sure that, in the world of the movie, the gods do exist. They are presences, forces bending the world around more than they are active characters in the movie.

Would I have popped off if Poseidon showed up on the ship post-polyphemus? YES. But I did still like this way of going about it.

Hermes is nowhere to be seen though (even symbolically), and that is a problem for me.

The Sea Peoples and The Bronze Age/The Trojan Horse and Xenia

So now we get onto something a bit weird…

So throughout the movie there’s talk of how these people from the sea are raiding and looting, that ithaca needs a king on the throne to solidify their rule and essentially provide the stability needed to be ready to fight them off.

Now the reveal at the end is that odysseus and his crew, and the other greeks, raiding and pilalging on the way back home are the sea peoples. The ecstasy of war and the breaking of xenia with the trojan horse has resulted in a sortof chain reaction, with the social bond of xenia, the mutual respect of guest and host, breaking, resulting in an end to the age of bronze.

The movie always calls it zeus’ law, not xenia, but it’s xenia.

Now heres an issue

The trojan horse did not violate zeus law, to my understanding. The Achaeans were not presented as guests, they did not receive food or gifts, they were definitely not invited in and so on and so forth. So a big part of the narrative, to my understanding, is based on a false understanding of xenia.

And the way this is explained is kinda… clunky? As is a lot of the actual historical stuff

These are 2 slightly misphrased lines in a conversation round the end of the movie

Penelope: You are the sea peoples

Odysseus: Our age of bronze is collapsing

This … What is this?

They are acted like hell, Hathaway is putting her back into it, but the lines are so clunky and silly. And also do not feel like what a person in the time would say (Our age of bronze? Really?)

The idea of the Greeks carrying their war-fury and ecstasy out into the world and that chain reacting isn’t terrible. But tying it to xenia is a weird mistake, and a fumble that fundamentally misunderstands xenia. The trojan horse was avenging a violation of xenia (the stealing of helen).

It feels like an attempt to have this great broad narrative about civilisation and the break down of the civilisational bonds of respect. But it just did not work for me. And I am not a historian but the sea peoples and bronze age collapse themes feel clunky as hell.

There’s more to say here, but it is near midnight.

Mythical Episodes

The Trojan Horse

So my major issues with this episode and how it is treated are in the broad themes section, but if I am just talking about the scene as a scene? Well, multiple scenes, this is a flashback thats split across the movie. I quite liked it.

Costuming complaints still apply, I do not like the Trojan guard armour. But the men squished into the horse, great, really like how uncomfortable and claustrophobic they made it feel, the men drowning and pissing in there, all fantastic. 

I love that they remembered Sinon! A lot of adaptations forget those more minor characters, so I really enjoyed seeing him on the screen, and he was far more important to the narrative than I expected. So props! 

The actual raid was also quite well done, though Agamemnon's armour, again, made me nearly laugh and cut off the vibe a bit for me.

Largely good I would say.

I know some people didn’t like the horses design - I was not that bothered but I would have preferred a horse on all it’s legs, personally. 

The Cyclops

Ah Polyphemus, my boy. What a fantastic design. They portrayed the threat of the cyclops very well. It is rare to see a good threatening giant in fiction, and I definitely felt the horror of having to deal with a giant in this. He also moved in a weirdly… gangly? Way, that I quite liked.

However. Right. There was no nobody scene. And thats a big deal for me - We are told that odysseus is clever throughout the movie - I rarely felt it. THis was a good opportunity to show that, and is a huge and iconic scene from the odyssey and you missed it? Polyphemus talks once and it is unintelligible. 

So Polyphemus appearence and his threat vibe? Immaculate. Polyphemus as a character? Practically erased, along with any conversational dynamic he could have. If that makes sense.

Here Odysseus arrogant act is firing an arrow at a polyphemus who has lost track of them, essentially, resulting in him pursuing. This changes odysseus sin in this moment from pride to anger, which I do feel inadvertently changes Ody a lot as a character in a way I find hard ot put into words.

Oh also! They do not tie themselves under the sheep but they do tie some thatch to their backs to imitate wool. I feel like I would know the difference if I was polyphemus, but as an adaptational change I kinda liked this. I would guess they tried the tying underneath thing and though it looked silly. I’d prefer they have done it, but hey.

The Laestrygonians

So. I’m just gonna call them the giants as thats a hell of a name.

I’ll do the pluses first.

-Them running into a child giant first is a great detail and quite fun.

-The way the forest moved was really cool and weird and magical at first.

Those are the pluses.

Now the negatives

-What is this design? What are these stormcast eternal looking motherfuckers? The giants look very bad, in my opinion. They move weird too - I think they were going for an uncanny look. And it was uncanny, but uncanny (bad) not uncanny (good). I felt like I was watching a bad robot or something. 

-The way the forest moved was really cool and weird and magical. At first. When the guy runs into a thatch of trees and then another has appeared behind him? That’s great. But the more they actively showed the trees moving the worst it looked to me.

-Mythical accuracy is a problem here, but I will not go off on that, as it is largely ancillary to my issues with this scene.

Still, nice to see these guys appear, hopefully this doesn't distort public perception of them too much and we get a more accurate portrayal in the future.

Circe

THE TRANSFORMATION WAS INCREDIBLE. Sorry, had to get that off my chest. The way she physically sculpted the men, while the other men were forced to just continue eating and watching and you could see the panic in their eyes. What a phenomenal transformation portrayal. Plus, return to your disguises being the phrase used to transform them back is a very nice touch.

I like that they remembered she did transform people into other animals, not just pigs.

I think I did not quite get whatever they were going for with the sister? I’m not sure if I just blanked for a moment, would love to see a comment explaining it. I get that her sister is the bird in the cage, I am just not entirely sure why and how ody figured that out.

Largely good, though I am a bit mixed on some details (some I haven't mentioned, I honestly think I may need to rewatch the scene at a certain point to solidify my thoughts). I think I do prefer a different type of circe in adaptations, so as a character she didn’t quite land for me personally, but the scene made up for that.

Tiresias and The Dead

Tiresias was great as this weird man halfway out of the earth. He’s one of my mythical blorbos, so I am always happy to see him. The way the dead came back, crawling out the dirt covered in mud and soil was amazing and I love that they didn’t clean them. Know that’s bare minimum, but Sinon covered in dirt throughout the whole convo felt great.

Speaking of… Agamemnons back and has not made me laugh. I do not know what they did differently. I think it was the fact I could see his face in the helmet? Maybe? But for this scene, for the first time, the armour felt… real, and not comical. 

I loved this scene.

I am a bit mixed on the look of hades, just this weird soil island thing. I think it’s interesting(?) but could be a lot better.

Sirens

SO the sirens were largely fine, liked how the sound got muted, but I had a big issue with it that kinda relates to the whole movie.

Poem odysseus I could see pulling the “I want to hear the sirens song” thing. I cannot see movie ody doing it. I didn’t feel like he was established as that prideful sortof character.

Scylla and Charybdis

So Ody convinces the crew to sail towards Scylla by suggesting they sail towards Charybdis, and they are getting mutinous so do the opposite.

Not much to say here except I do wanna discuss Scyllas’ design. She is like… weird toothy mouths on top of what are kinda like tentacles but with elbows? It’s a very neat and intriguing and cool design. I… this is a personal issue. I do not like this design for scylla, but I like this design. This is because I am a tad overly attached to myth accurate Scylla. She and Charybdis are more blorbos of mine. So I will not be taking points off the movie for this, as its a very personal touch, but still.

Other than that, good work, but a bit short (GIVE ME MORE OF MY PRECIOUS MONSTERS)

The Cattle

I would rather drown than starve - Mood

This scene was fine. Not much to say really? I liked the gods wrath as portrayed. 

It’s the scene where they kill some cows and get drowned for it.

Well-done but not a particularly rare scene, I would rate it a medium, didn’t really feel the steaks. I will stop with the puns now. 

I do believe they should be Helios’ cattle, which does frustrate me a bit, but that may be misremembering. In the movie they say Apollo.

Calypso and The Lotus Eaters

I like Calypsos look here. 

They do fuse her and The lotus eaters, with her feeding Ody lotuses to enchant him. This is fine - I would rather have the 2 episodes but I can see the logic of fusing the 2 enchanting things together into a single incident, especially as you have limited runtime and are already stretching it.

I felt they did make her sinister in a nice way, in the way she wanted to keep Ody there, and I always like a sinister calypso. Would like it to be a bit moreso, but that’s nitpicking.

I do however… I didn’t like how ogygia looked. 

Here’s the mythical description from wikipedia

“...and he (Hermes) found her within. A great fire was burning in the hearth, and from afar over the isle there was a fragrance of cleft cedar and juniper as they burned. But she within was singing with a sweet voice as she went to and fro before the loom, weaving with a golden shuttle. Round about the cave grew a luxuriant wood, alder and poplar and sweet-smelling cypress, wherein birds long of wing were wont to nest, owls and falcons and sea-crows with chattering tongues, who ply their business on the sea. And right there about the hollow cave ran trailing a garden vine, in pride of its prime, richly laden with clusters. And fountains four in a row were flowing with bright water hard by one another, turned one this way, one that. And round about soft meadows of violets and parsley were blooming…”

The movie ogygia is a beach. Thats all we see. Nice enough beach, but it doesn't feel like paradise. Feel like they could've found a lovely stretch of forest for it. This ties into the movies general aesthetic blandness, which is a definite problem.

The Return

I am running out of fumes a bit here to be honest (its half past midnight and I’ve been walking a lot all day) - so I am gonna fire quick shots here.

The Argos scene got me sad. Good work there. 

Antinous has been great throughout.

Penelope is played very well

Mentor was a nice mythical nod

The fight scene was a bit hard to follow for me.

The historical nods throughout felt more comical than interesting, which kinda comes to a head here unfortunately.

The washer lady recognising the scar on odys foot was done well.