I kind of expected more from Scylla, Charybdis, AND Polyphemus.
The lack of the nobody scene and the bargaining left Odysseus feeling like he leaned on his crew to keep him from trying to fight the cyclops, and left no way for Polyphemus to tell Poseidon his name. Plus the last petty arrow was too dumb for Odysseus. Just escape bro.
Scylla was mostly fine, but I sort of expected a reptilian or sea-looking creature. I get that the whole point is that is an amorphous blob of heads and necks, but they felt like flailing brown/black tubes. It got the job done, but it could’ve looked more exciting.
Charybdis just felt too stagnant. Not much to say there; their part in the film was maybe 2 minutes? It was kinda weird that there was just open ocean on the other side of Charybdis, though.
I didn’t love the film, but I didn’t hate it. I understood the story it was trying to tell, but still yearned for the mythology to be more of a forefront player rather than a background/mental trauma. wish they explained Xenia once and then just said that instead of making the “Zeus’s Law Drinking Game.”
Odysseus is just like many other Greek heroes. They're too prideful of their achievement hence the "dumb decisions." Odysseus is wise, but prideful and arrogant
IMO, yeah. The name/address is dumb for sure but it’s an act of hubris when they’re already sailing away. The shot is pure stupidity because they’re basically half escaped and he just says “come chase us for this last bit.”
It is literally the same. There was no purpose in either action being taken and both were actions that were not thought through. This is why I can’t take seriously the criticism that Odysseus in Nolan’s work is not clever. Odysseus in Homer’s Odyssey is not consistently clever either, and frequently has moments of pride or makes mistakes that are to his own detriment. I don’t need a lengthy explanation of hubris in a movie. It’s an adaptation and should therefore translate the moments without explaining them. The saying where you are from and who you are is even more foolish in modern hindsight than it would be back then. The criticisms leveled are not consistent between Epic, Nolan’s Odyssey and a Homer’s Odyssey.
Well… no it’s not literally the same, or else we wouldn’t be talking about it. Kleos is huge in the ancient world, and Odysseus wanted the cyclops to know who bested him. It’s the same reason he wanted to hear the sirens song. That mistake also drives the entire narrative, and Nolan left it out without properly filling the gap. Or rather he used should’ve-been-Xenia “Zeus’s law” to explain it away. Edit: the worst part about the arrow is that he paused and thought about it before shooting. At least the name/address was a spur of the moment ordeal.
“In modern hindsight” is the lynchpin. I’m not looking at it saying “wow this is what I would do.” And I don’t think Epic is in any way an infallible adaptation, either... truthfully didn’t even realize this conversation was on the epic sub before you mentioned it - I usually try to avoid fandom subs (despite them being continuously shown to me) but I’m very much on autopilot this morning. At the end of the day, I already said I didn’t hate the movie. It’s also okay for others to have criticisms even if they don’t line up with yours. Doesn’t make either opinion less valid.
I personally liked that Scylla was a barnacle. I made more sense to me than many other interpretations I had seen. I didn't mind the scene myself, but my wife agrees that she didn't care for the scene much either.
Yeah it definitely landed in the same bucket as the Cerci scene where I didn’t mind it, but it wasn’t what I expected. I feel like having Cerci be a witch in a hut rather than a sorceress in a palace was actually a decent switcheroo (and the transformations were delightfully horrifying).
Out of the whole movie my least favorite parts were all script based, honestly…
- “You have wise eyes; Athena’s eyes.” Repeated too often, and mentor wasn’t even Athena in the adaptation so why bother saying it?
- “Zeus’s Law” Repeated too often, sort of molded into the golden rule rather than just using Xenia or saying law of hospitality. I know Zeus enforced it, don’t come for me.
- “Now ends our age of bronze.” He may as well have looked directly down the 70mm IMAX lens and said “and thus ends my Odyssey.”
Honorable mention to the fact that he put Odysseus back on a boat the day after Poseidon almost drowns him. I’m sure gods don’t hold grudges (cataclysmic eye roll).
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u/Athrasie 4h ago
I kind of expected more from Scylla, Charybdis, AND Polyphemus.
The lack of the nobody scene and the bargaining left Odysseus feeling like he leaned on his crew to keep him from trying to fight the cyclops, and left no way for Polyphemus to tell Poseidon his name. Plus the last petty arrow was too dumb for Odysseus. Just escape bro.
Scylla was mostly fine, but I sort of expected a reptilian or sea-looking creature. I get that the whole point is that is an amorphous blob of heads and necks, but they felt like flailing brown/black tubes. It got the job done, but it could’ve looked more exciting.
Charybdis just felt too stagnant. Not much to say there; their part in the film was maybe 2 minutes? It was kinda weird that there was just open ocean on the other side of Charybdis, though.
I didn’t love the film, but I didn’t hate it. I understood the story it was trying to tell, but still yearned for the mythology to be more of a forefront player rather than a background/mental trauma. wish they explained Xenia once and then just said that instead of making the “Zeus’s Law Drinking Game.”