What was wrong with it?
On a purely technical level outside of any identity politics, I have a number of criticisms. The sound mixing was either bad or the IMAX theater we went to sucked. I couldn’t hear the dialog half the time but the music was practically blowing my eardrums out it was so loud. When I could hear the dialog, it was poorly written and poorly acted. (We’ll get to the casting 🙄).
The music was probably the best part of the movie when it wasn’t drowning out the dialog. However, it was often misused following the typical Nolanism of being overly insistent. Often, the music would be going wild when the scene needed silence or subtlety. And you’ll get plenty of BWAAAMS to let you know something important is happening.
Cinematography was exceptionally good. Great landscapes and framing except during the action sequences. He needed to pull back into some wide angles and let good choreography drive home the point. Like, when Odysseus comes home to all those suitors, I wanted him to just fucking wade through them like the hallway fight scene from Old Boy. What we got instead was typical action fair with very little if any blood. I thought the movie was PG-13 the whole time until I heard them say fuck twice.
There’s more technical stuff I could get into but the biggest thing for me personally was just the awful casting choices. Anne Hathaway was trying too hard, Matt Damon just felt like a tired version of himself the whole time, Tom Holland was a big shrug, I straight up laughed my ass off when I saw John Leguizamo because he looked so goofy in his costume, Charlize Theron was also in the movie… and Himesh Patel was god AWFUL with his line delivery. How the fuck did he get the role? And John Bernthal? Felt like some LA street thug delivering lines. Like, no one fit their role. With the exception of Robert Pattinson who was actually having fun and elevating the material. Maybe Mia Goth too but she has so little screen time it doesn’t matter.
Then there’s the obvious poor casting choices. They added a character to the story so they could cast tranny Ellen Page. She’s not playing Achillies but her character, Sinon, replaces him narratively which feels like a big fuck you to masculinity. If you don’t understand how cutting out one of the most masculine characters in Greek history and replacing them with a trans man is a problem then I don’t have the time or energy to talk to you.
Lupita Nyong’o was kinda just there. Twice. Don’t know why they casted her. She didn’t really do anything interesting with the two roles she got handed to her. Nice paycheck for her.
Oh and I literally almost forgot: the industry plant, Zendaya, also showed up and also cashed her check. Again, I have no idea why they casted her. She has so little dialog and screen time it was a complete waste of money casting her. Literally anyone could’ve played her role.
But here’s the meat of the issue with the casting and why it took me out of the movie: there isn’t any sense of setting or culture because the whole cast, including the extras, look like a community college catalog rather than any real place. Certainly not Ancient Greece. There’s Asian, black, white, Indian, vague brown people, etc. It doesn’t feel like ancient historical fantasy. It feels more like a sci-fi or cyberpunk cast where races and cultures WOULD be mixed. The whole crux of the story is that Zeus’s law isn’t being upheld so bad things are happening. I’m thinking, “Yeah, because no one here is Greek. Why would they uphold it?”
The cast and filmmakers wanna go on and on about how diverse the cast is and pat themselves on the back, but they didn’t cast ANYONE who was Greek. And before people say it, no, an all white cast wouldn’t have fixed it for me… but being anti-white isn’t helping ‘the cause.’ Hollywood has a bad track record with casting choices. Like, I don’t think John Wayne shouldn’t have played Gangis Kahn. But STILL getting it wrong by casting a bunch of random races and then turning around and calling it progress is absolutely infuriating. You don’t solve racism with more racism. You don’t solve a wrong with another wrong.
If this is really about representation then cast it FULLY Greek or don’t do it. OR just cast people who can actually act and make your goddamn movie. If race shouldn’t matter then hire off of merit and vision.
It just felt like I was watching the neutering of culture and everyone fucking clapped at the end. I need to go touch grass.
The music was probably the best part of the movie when it wasn’t drowning out the dialog. However, it was often misused following the typical Nolanism of being overly insistent. Often, the music would be going wild when the scene needed silence or subtlety. And you’ll get plenty of BWAAAMS to let you know something important is happening.
Cinematography was exceptionally good. Great landscapes and framing except during the action sequences. He needed to pull back into some wide angles and let good choreography drive home the point. Like, when Odysseus comes home to all those suitors, I wanted him to just fucking wade through them like the hallway fight scene from Old Boy. What we got instead was typical action fair with very little if any blood. I thought the movie was PG-13 the whole time until I heard them say fuck twice.
There’s more technical stuff I could get into but the biggest thing for me personally was just the awful casting choices. Anne Hathaway was trying too hard, Matt Damon just felt like a tired version of himself the whole time, Tom Holland was a big shrug, I straight up laughed my ass off when I saw John Leguizamo because he looked so goofy in his costume, Charlize Theron was also in the movie… and Himesh Patel was god AWFUL with his line delivery. How the fuck did he get the role? And John Bernthal? Felt like some LA street thug delivering lines. Like, no one fit their role. With the exception of Robert Pattinson who was actually having fun and elevating the material. Maybe Mia Goth too but she has so little screen time it doesn’t matter.
Then there’s the obvious poor casting choices. They added a character to the story so they could cast tranny Ellen Page. She’s not playing Achillies but her character, Sinon, replaces him narratively which feels like a big fuck you to masculinity. If you don’t understand how cutting out one of the most masculine characters in Greek history and replacing them with a trans man is a problem then I don’t have the time or energy to talk to you.
Lupita Nyong’o was kinda just there. Twice. Don’t know why they casted her. She didn’t really do anything interesting with the two roles she got handed to her. Nice paycheck for her.
Oh and I literally almost forgot: the industry plant, Zendaya, also showed up and also cashed her check. Again, I have no idea why they casted her. She has so little dialog and screen time it was a complete waste of money casting her. Literally anyone could’ve played her role.
But here’s the meat of the issue with the casting and why it took me out of the movie: there isn’t any sense of setting or culture because the whole cast, including the extras, look like a community college catalog rather than any real place. Certainly not Ancient Greece. There’s Asian, black, white, Indian, vague brown people, etc. It doesn’t feel like ancient historical fantasy. It feels more like a sci-fi or cyberpunk cast where races and cultures WOULD be mixed. The whole crux of the story is that Zeus’s law isn’t being upheld so bad things are happening. I’m thinking, “Yeah, because no one here is Greek. Why would they uphold it?”
The cast and filmmakers wanna go on and on about how diverse the cast is and pat themselves on the back, but they didn’t cast ANYONE who was Greek. And before people say it, no, an all white cast wouldn’t have fixed it for me… but being anti-white isn’t helping ‘the cause.’ Hollywood has a bad track record with casting choices. Like, I don’t think John Wayne shouldn’t have played Gangis Kahn. But STILL getting it wrong by casting a bunch of random races and then turning around and calling it progress is absolutely infuriating. You don’t solve racism with more racism. You don’t solve a wrong with another wrong.
If this is really about representation then cast it FULLY Greek or don’t do it. OR just cast people who can actually act and make your goddamn movie. If race shouldn’t matter then hire off of merit and vision.
It just felt like I was watching the neutering of culture and everyone fucking clapped at the end. I need to go touch grass.
3🤙1
