The Odyssey
As is, the movie is amazing. But I have redacted one star because of it not being an accurate retelling of the myth.And in my opinion, if you want to make a movie about a myth it should be as accurate as it can be.
So take this review with a grain of salt as I will talk about it as if it was its own story, without the original myth in mind. :)
I think it is safe to say that the music for this movie was phenomenal. This probably also comes from the fact that our cinema was way too loud but my heart was beating with every drum and it really helped setting the emotion of the scenes shown on screen. I really loved seeing the scene with the Cyclop as I have listened to a retelling of exactly that story part a million times when I was a child, so seeing it so realistic on screen was a good throw back to the times where I was obsessed with Greek mythology. I find that the scenes also have enough context to the viewer for one to be able to understand the story, or at least what was shown without needed to have read the story beforehand. My favourite scene must have been the one with the witch though. A woman so deeply traumatised by war that she could not trust any man coming by and taking it upon herself to make them into what she deems them to be was astonishing to see. Of course, it was not the most beautiful sight, seeing her grab down the men’s throats and moulding their faces into pig heads but I couldn’t really be against it after hearing her out now could I?
As a hades fan ever since seeing him be portrayed in all kinds of ways I did really enjoy Nolan’s way of showing the underworld. Seeing every soul staring at Odysseus, waiting for him to explain himself just to then run at him with the same rage they carried while going after Troja was emotionally moving. Also kind of amusing seeing grown men trying to throw themselves into boats. Sorry.
To skip ahead a bit, at the start of Odysseus return home I was a bit annoyed with him not showing who he was but it was all worth it for the bow scene. Yes it was super cool I don’t care how foreseeable it was. I also really liked seeing how much of a coward Antinous was. From the start he carried himself as if he was the King. Just to not only have the strength to even try to shoot the bow, but to then also hide behind a Pillar and scream at other men to take the weapons he himself asked for.
Overall it was a very well shot movie and I’m happy to have seen it in its full format(IMAX). While it is not the best retelling one can find of the story, it is definitely a good opening for people to now inform themselves about it or even become more interested as Greek mythology is something worth reading about.
Movie also motivated me to finally finish reading Circe so hell yeah to that