Wish we saw that through his eyes literally

I think the first Odysseus scene was him and Athena. I will say now and again later. The interspersion of her and Odysseus throughout was great great great. Perfect timing and perfect words between them. Then we see him and calypso. Their moments weee great too. I really liked the subversion of using her and his awakening as the tool of telling the story. It broke up the convention and I don’t believe that’s the case in the book. Only on book 2 there.

Cyclops scene was hyped to all hell for me. I think it was good. The design of the cyclops was cool. The sequence of getting out of the cave was tense when they tried multiple times. I think the scheming of Odysseus (which is a common theme of him in the poem) which brings about his men’s ruin paired with the love he has for them to really begin to show here. That fuels the plot of him and Eurylochus (Himesh Patel) across the journey.

Circe scene was a standout. That whole bit was a true locked in moment. Everything put onscreen there was exactly how it should be (even without reading the part of the poem yet). Laestrygonians scene was awesome. They are cannibals and I wish they would have shown that. Another layer of horror on top. The menelaus scene with Telemachus at the table with Helen and the retelling of them in the horse and the gate opening immediately became favorite scene. (If this came before Circe it was my favorite until Circe). Agamemnon standing there like Batman, Superman, and a power ranger combined was hilarious and really cool.

Next was the hades scene which is 1B to the Circe scene. That was so incredible. I’m using alot of aloof descriptive, mind is racing too much to properly use the English language and I need time and multiple more showings to digest. But that was so cool and well done. Charybdis and Scylla was pretty cool. They said Apollo’s cattle but he isn’t really the god of the sun. Odd bit but people are more familiar with Apollo than Helios. Final shipwreck scene was intense.

Anne Hathaway’s third act acting was immaculate. The tension between her and Telemachus as Telemachus is growing is something we saw but I wanted more of. It was good. Odysseus talking to her through the shroud and relaying his realization was chills inducing. Paying off the open threads of why he doesn’t want to come home during the journey was the Nolan moment. Again the Athena moment there was pitch perfect. The little flashes of what he saw throughout like her statute head was touch perfect.

The ending. I was thrown off at first but remembered what Emily Wilson said in the introduction. Can’t recommend enough again. Grab it off Anna’s or buy it and support 👍🏽. The ending of the poem comes at a weird point of Odysseus, his father, and Telemachus fighting the family of the suitors and then Athena stopping it. One book before has a good ending of Odysseus and Penelope going to bed. It is a debated point in scholarship. I grew to like and appreciate the ending as a film ending of this adaption as I was walking out the theater literally. Before I hit the front doors haha. I think it fully pays off the themes and desires of the characters it involves. Telemachus is able to realize his manhood (a theme he struggled with heavily in the book, it s a historical bit too about Greek male hood), Penelope is paid off by not only what she said before he left but with having him back and being at peace again. (There’s a lot about Penelope that Emily goes into, I’m not doing it justice at all). Odysseus having the desire to honor his men of whom he played a part in their demise paid off of course.

Side note: they kept spamming “Zeus’ law”. I get it, but it wouldn’t have killed Nolan to say the word Xenia. Emily talks a lot about it as it is so central in Greek life. In my classics classes at W&M, every Greek based course I took talked about welcoming strangers and how that was a paramount custom. I just wished he would have broken up the language. Maybe it was a screenwriting homage to epithets in the odyssey poem lol. Also it was funny they kept mentioning the sea peoples. It was also funny when Odysseus used some anachronistic language like the “age of bronze” when he was talking to Penelope behind the shroud. I know that made the classicists perk up and squirm a little. That is a fair critique I think they can have.

just finished watching the movie

i went in kinda blind watching it because i only saw the trailer for it a while back with nothing else informing me about it

i honestly thought it was gonna be some artsy super kino s*** but it had really good action and i liked the movie a lot

ngl a thought that was going through my head while watching it is that Sony should get Christopher Nolan to do a film adaption of God of War

I think it would be really damn good

Something I was also thinking during the movie is that all the classic hero tropes and cliches that came up during it probably originated from this story

It’s crazy I didn’t pick up on any of the soundtrack that much during. Listening now in the car it’s so good

Crazy how much I juggle on the first viewing of something. I get in my head a bit too much while I’m watching. I try not to but I simultaneously try to review and immerse myself and that doesn’t work sometimes. Causes me to fail at both ironically

Bonkers it transported me doing this and sinners back to back is insane

I almost cried

Ngl i totally missed the fact that that the sea people they kept warning about were actually the Greeks who were trying to come back home from the war after they foresaken their morals with the Trojan horse.

So the sea people that were a threat to the Greeks were just the Greeks themselves

Dont remember too much from my reading of the odyssey but I dont believe Zeus law was as a big of an importance in it as it is in the film or at least in the same manner. Film pretty much gives commentary on the idea of lost principles and morals will destroy a civilization from the inside

how come we didn't see Mia Goth's character get what was coming to her

Probably a victim of the edit. I didn’t want her end to be depicted as a violent death ordered by Telemachus. I think some sort of brief conversation with her and Penelope would have sufficed. Either have Penelope order her death or exiled (not with them ofc).

The more I think and listen I think it’s his best. It’s def my favorite of his.

Odysseus spawned thousands of main characters with amnesia

Jason Bourne in Greece

the storm scene where their boat was finally destroyed was so perfectly done man, felt like I was right there with them

They gotta do sunset screenings. Timed so that people are walking outside to the sunset after seeing the movie

saw this for a second time last night. seriously one of the greatest theatrical experiences ever.

Sources tell me Polybus is stable. Please gods

how you spoil history