SM: BND

 

Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks. So, let us talk about SM: BND instead.

I watched it. I liked it. I… feel that there is something too much, or not enough, in it.

Let us expand. In Nolan’s ‘Odyssey’ we got to see an almost 3-hour-long film about Odysseus and his entourage – namely his wife Penelope, his son Telemachus, his nemesis Antinous, and his therapist, Calypso. Everyone else was an episodic character, including Athena, and some characters, like Odysseus’s parents, who played important parts in the original epic, are absent entirely.

Conversely, SM: BND is a pageant of Marvel characters, as Tom Holland’s Spider-Man films are since the very first movie, (remember it?). Here we see the friendly neighborhood you-know-who deal with the Scorpion, the Hulk, DODC, and the Hand ninjas controlled by the new Jean Grey, while dealing with his increased loneliness from Ned and MJ. Pause.

Right, this is a good point to start. In SM3, Peter parted with Ned and MJ on a tearful, powerful note. Here we see him still single, but still hanging around Ned and MJ even as they are becoming different people who have no attachment to him, no connection. So why is he not moving on?

Well, for one thing, I suspect that Tom and Zendaya are in love, and they do make more money as a package than separately. Oh, they appeared separately in all sort of films… just not Marvel ones, and so Sony/MCU did not intend to buck the trend, especially a successful one. Pause.

In the SP4 finale, we learn that PP is going into space… and without MJ and/or Ned, so there is that. Maybe PP is moving on, and outwards. After all, MCU never likes making aromantic movies, so, who knows? Maybe PP can find happiness without MJ after all.

…Given that Tom and Zendaya are in love and a successful team and Zendaya comes across as the one in charge here, I am not so sure. What else?

Jean Grey is introduced to MCU in a bright new way, since it is a ‘brand new day’. Since the upcoming Doomsday film is bringing the X-Men back as a group, this raises questions as to what happened to the other Jeans. Hey, we had several SM, Lokis, and few other characters – why not several Jeans at once? Sophie Turner might be willing to make a toehold for herself in MCU, eh?

The plot itself… it works, obviously, as do the visuals. This is important, as a plot, is well, important, and so’s the delivery. ‘Stuart fails to save the universe’, for example, has a decent plot and delivery, and… that is it. Right now, the support is highish, but people are still cautious about committing to it, it looks like.

‘Surviving Earth’, on the other hand… it was a beautiful mess whose supporters lost interest midway through. The episodes feel out of order; the season-long ode to motherhood was something else; and I really want to talk about it some other time.

For now, let us just accept that SM: BND is a good film, but not unlike Nolan’s ‘Odyssey’, it has its flaws and doubtful moments and move on. Real life sucks, eh?

However, for now, this is it. See you all soon!

Nolan's Odyssey - July 21

 Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks… and, apparently, Mr. Nolan feels the same way; he might be able to buy my immediate family, our expanded family, and me many, many times over, but his Odyssey-2026? Is still depressing as Tartarus.

Where to begin? The issue of controversy and Nolan pushing a progressive agenda forth in his film. Here is the thing: he does not. Oh, of course, he has minorities in his movie, both racial (Zendaya and Lupita Nyongo’o), and sexual (Elliot Page), but they are episodic characters; they come and go and while they help move the movie forward, ‘help’ is the key word: they aren’t on screen all that much, and once they’re gone, they’re gone. The actors behind the four main characters – Odysseus, Penelope, Telemachus, and Antinous – are all WASPs rather than POCs, but no one seems to mind too much. Next?

Right, Nolan supposedly using Emily Wilson’s translation of the Odyssey as his choice for the source. I read excerpts of her translation of the epic in question, and there is no more political progressive agenda than there is in Nolan’s Odyssey movie. My opinions on Natalie Haynes and her books are not very flattering, I am afraid, but if you read her books, especially the non-fiction, (such as ‘Pandora’s Jar’ and ‘Divine Might’) you quickly realize that she does push forth political progressive agenda. The question here is whether she is a latecomer who is trying to compensate with a neophyte’s zeal for being late, or if she doesn’t believe in it at all, but is just trying – and succeeding - to make money from this political progressivism instead. From Emily Wilson’s Odyssey you do not get this vibe at all; it is ‘just’ a translation/adaption of the classic – nothing more.

Oh, sure, people will argue about the details of Wilson’s translations, but this type of argument attracts only a particular group of people; for the majority, her translation is acceptable – and so’s Nolan’s film. Just like Wilson’s translations, his adaptation changes the details of Homer’s epic, but keeps the main narrative the same. Right?

No. Some plot elements are outright removed, like Aeolus and the bag of winds, or Odysseus’s own parents, who play important roles in the epic. Other elements are conflated – like Calypso, the lotus-eaters, and the Phaeacians. The third are just simplified, like Polyphemus (Nolan’s movie does not name him), or Circe. All of those changes make Nolan’s Odyssey into something else… something not unlike MCU’s ‘Thor’ or DCEU’s ‘Batman’ franchises, just kind of, sort of, less tied to a particular franchise – much less tied…

Then there is the movie’s conclusion. Not only some suitors survived, but also Odysseus and Penelope leave in self-exile. There is a remnant of an apocrypha for Odysseus had to wander even more, till he found a place that didn’t know what an oar was, and so he buried his oar and went home at last, but it’s an apocrypha for several reasons, including ones where both Odysseus and Penelope are ambitious and power-greedy people on top of whatever else they are. Odysseus is coming home; Penelope is waiting for him; but Ithaca, its’ throne, are a part of the Odyssey as well. In Nolan’s film it is rather downplayed, again – Nolan sought to modernize the Odyssey, supposedly, and what did we get?

Well, in part we already answered this – a movie not unlike those made by MCU/DCEU, but also a movie where music sometimes overwhelms the dialogue, and so it’s hard to figure out who’s saying what – but it’s not important, you know the general details and plot beforehand, and everything else can be figured out without words. The plot of Nolan’s Odyssey is quite simple. The plot and the reasoning of Nolan’s Odyssey are secondary to the emotions. The acting, the visuals, the music, they all assault the senses, and the actors’, um, acting, deals the rest. Nolan’s Odyssey is an impressive movie… and as depressing as Tartarus; the only other piece of mass media that had as much angst is… MCU’s Zombies’ mini-series, seriously! In both this show and Nolan’s Odyssey, whenever possible, wherever possible, the worst choice was enacted, and the senses, the emotions, rather than the mind, were affected. MCU’s Zombies attempted to re-introduce Riri ‘Iron Heart’ Williams, after her own show failed; this attempt did not deliver either, and so, Riri does not seem to appear in the Avengers: Doomsday trailer. However, that is another story…

In this one, Nolan’s Odyssey works, but it works because it is a one-time – there is no sequel, no threesome between Odysseus, Penelope, and Calypso, for example. Once the characters and the movie are done, they are done, and we can move on.

Real life sucks. Nolan, apparently, agrees, even though he is famous and rich. I have to admit – I did not see this coming. Ah well, see you all soon!

About Nolan's 'Odyssey' - May 7

 Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks, so what does Mr. Nolan do? Plans to make an ‘Odyssey’ that will make RL even more so.

What is the biggest beef of people with the ‘Odyssey-2026’ (upcoming?). The American accents of the characters/cast and the contemporary language. Mr. Nolan openly refers such pieces of modern movie history as MCU and DCEU, (the latter is somewhat defunct now) as his role models. Pause.

MCU, in particular, tried to ground itself in realism, especially the first three phases, but it was ‘realism’, not ‘reality’- Pause. Stop.

Let us look at the trailer again. What do we see? For example, Antinous, treating Telemachus how Jaime Lannister could be treating Jon Snow (in the opening episodes of GoT). The problem here is not in Antinous treating Telemachus badly, but that it was already done in this style, Mr. Nolan is not creating something original, but borrowing someone else’s ideas.

Look at Mr. Nolan’s ‘Odyssey’-related interview. He is referring to Ms. Emily Wilson’s version of the ‘Odyssey’ as his source material. Stop.

Ms. Haynes – remember her – claimed to re-tell some original myths from a supposedly more woman-friendly approaches, but she did it in a manner that was inoffensive and intellectual. Yes, in her novels, (non-fiction is somewhat different) women are good (with exceptions), and men are bad (with exceptions), but those exceptions undercut her entire narrative on one hand, and on the other by offending no one, she is winning no one’s approval either. People, especially literary critics, are singing her praises, but pretty words butter no parsnips and all.

…Ms. Wilson’s re-telling/translation of the ‘Odyssey’ feels a lot like a sister project to Ms. Haynes’ novels – it allegedly might be more gender-equal, woman-friendly, but in reality, it is just another re-telling/translation of the ‘Odyssey’, as a translation/re-telling isn’t the same as writing an original work; Hollywood might be struggling with original works, but so does literature, it seems.

Moreover, just because Mr. Nolan is reading Ms. Wilson’s version of the ‘Odyssey’ does not mean that he will adapt it directly – since his characters are already talking like an average American does – he will not. In translations of the ‘Odyssey’, the characters – and the narrator – do not talk as modern people do; that is the epic’s charm. Well, a part of it anyhow. In Mr. Nolan’s film this will not happen – people are talking in modern American English, referring to the modern American culture (i.e. GoT), to begin with. Huzzah.

Pause. Aside from the language, my main problem are the Lestrygonians – what did they do to them? Listen, if for Homer the Phaeacians were the elves, the Seelie court, then the Lestrygonians were their opposite, the orcs/the Unseelie – and Mr. Nolan is ignoring it; his take on the ‘Odyssey’ already feels ‘inoffensive’ – just like Ms. Haynes’ novels, just like Mr. Serkis’s ‘Animal Farm’, (you didn’t think that I’ll forget it this soon?), despite his words and his allegedly politically progressive opinions, he isn’t trying to convert/convince anyone to join the party; he just wants to make a buck.

No, seriously, the books, the TV series, the movies, the mass media of the centuries past tended to be opinionated if not controversial; each work of fiction, (or non-fiction) tended to push/promote the views of the author (and their cohorts, sometimes), and now this isn’t happening. In the past, mass media often stirred the pot on purpose, and now it does not. Instead, it stirs the pot unintentionally – just look at the Lestrygonians. Just who was the idiotic genius who came up with the medieval knight/Robocop™ idea here?

Alternatively, look at Mr. Nolan’s Scylla. It is supposedly a cephalopod-crustacean creature, according to him. Right, well, the crustaceans – crabs, lobsters, crayfish, and woodlice – are arthropods; they are related to spiders, scorpions, and insects. The cephalopods, on the other hand – octopi, squids, and cuttlefish – are mollusks; their relatives are snails and oysters, (broadly speaking). ‘A cephalopod-crustacean’ creature is just as unreal and mythical as the centaur or a harpy is. (Not the harpy eagle, ok?). Mr. Nolan is trying to be original. He is failing.

What else? No, this is pretty much it. Just as Ms. Haynes, Mr. Nolan is trying to be inoffensive, just as Mr. Serkis tried with the ‘Animal Farm’. The latter was a tire fire that everyone is ignoring, unlike ‘Prada-2’, because ‘Prada-2’ is actually well made from a technical angle; so are Ms. Haynes’ novels. Only, because ‘Prada-2’ is also much more visible than Ms. Haynes’ novels are, it is being discussed more than the latter…

In addition, consequently, will be Mr. Nolan’s ‘Odyssey’ – already people are divided about it, and that is just the trailers. Of course, there is also the final trailer for the latest ‘Minions’ movie, and for the love of Zeus, why would anyone release this abomination on the screen? By now, it is the minions vs. the monsters based on Howard Lovecraft’s works, and this is just wrong. When the Western cinematograph tries to come up with something original, this is the best they can come up with? Maybe they should adapt Ms. Haynes’ novels instead – they’re just bland, the ‘Minions’ are worse… That is real life, however. It sucks.

Well, this is it for now. See you all soon.

PJO S2, take 2 - Jan 13

 Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks, so let us return to PJO S2 once again.

We start with ‘the Sea of Monsters’, obviously. Riordan’s novel was one thing, and Disney+ went with something visibly influenced by the PotC franchise – remember the entire Depp vs. Hearst RL story? Yes, that PotC. Disney is continuing to play fast and loose with its properties – guess the Sequel Trilogy of SW did not teach them anything…

No, really, let us expand. In the SW 7-9 films, Disney tried to push female power and other progressive politics onto the movies’ audiences, and failed. The state of affairs where Disney/SW just swung back and forth between bending backwards to appease the viewers to flat-out defying them (Witcher S4 style) to elsewhere made it worse. In PJO S2, this state of affairs is not present, instead we have POCs, especially young women of Afro-American origin, being the main characters – mostly. Circe took over for Medusa here, (sort of – out of the two, Medusa is the more appealing character), and PJ (who is played by an Anglo-American male), and Grover, (who is a POC, but male, rather than female), are still important to the plot. However, otherwise? Athena is depicted here as a POC. Not a problem – she is a goddess; in Homer’s ‘Odyssey’ she tended to alter her appearance constantly whenever she was in the mortal world – she could appear as anyone, male or female, as well as human or bird. Right now, we behold her as a woman of color, just as Zeus is an Afro-American man – but that does not matter at all. Zeus courted Europa as a bull, Danae – as a shower of gold, Alcmene – as her legitimate husband, and Leda – as a swan to name a few; right now he looks like an Afro-American man; in the next moment he can look like an animal, an inanimate object, or, Tartarus, even a woman – he seduced and impregnated Callisto in the shape of his another daughter, Diana slash Artemis of the hunt, so, clearly, the divine equipment is different from the mortal on many levels…

Athena, of course, is supposed to be a virginal goddess. Pause. In the second series, Riordan made it so that Minerva is a virginal goddess, but Athena isn’t – and now, in ‘The Court of the Dead’, there are ‘legacy demigods’ of Minerva too. He is clearly doing his best to adapt to whatever Disney is doing with his franchise, for what else is there?

Calling it quits and leaving with some originality and integrity intact. As king Midas showed, you cannot have all the money in the world, and Croesus showed that you could be rich, but still have an unhappy ending to your life. (Neither appeared on PJO yet). Riordan has 15 books on the Greek-Roman myths, 3 on the Egyptian, and another 5 on the Norse – plus oodles of supplementary books. That is quite enough for a single person; the royalties for them should last him a lot – and then there are the ‘RR presents’ YA novels – but we’ll talk about them another time. Right now we reach the point that Riordan’s characters can be POC or WASP and move to the fact that Disney is trying to pull an ‘Ironheart’ here – Annabeth, Clarisse, even Thalia (in the flashback), all are POCs, and they almost steal the show from Percy, who is not. The show is good, but now the fans have reached the acceptance stage – they do not care about the race bending, (good for them), or about anything else. They just watch the episode of the week, and move on. Riordan and Disney tried to reinvigorate the franchise. It does not appear to have worked. Of course, if they kill Clarisse, (rather than Luke) on the show, I will be sad and disgruntled for one, but that is unimportant. I believe they are trying to make Clarisse almost like a mentor/big sister to Percy and that, again, is original content. Pause.

There is nothing wrong with original content; Hell, Tom Holland’s ‘Spider-Man’ movies are full of it, and if original content is delivered correctly, (in those movies it is), it works. Otherwise, you have ‘Ironheart’ or even ‘Marvel Zombies’, where it does not work. What next?

Clarisse’s heartfelt speech in the scene with Scylla. Of all the depictions they could have taken with the sea monster, this one was disappointing – a watered-down version of the PotC Kraken. Seriously, they just could have made her a giant squid and be done with it, ‘cause why not? In addition, on another note, it is Epic: the Musical. What?

In JRH’s version, Odysseus sacrificed a random half-a-dozen of his crew so that he, and the rest, could get through and to Ithaca, eventually. In Homer, Odysseus prepared to fight Scylla, but since six heads can be smarter than one, Scylla launched a surprise sneak attack and stole six of Odysseus’ crew before Odysseus could do anything. In addition, here, in PJO S2, we have Clarisse and co. doing their best to save Clarisse’s crew (who are not entirely human themselves, but Scylla does not care)… with mixed success, but still. I honestly wonder if the script of Epic: the Musical, (there the Scylla episode is something of a response to the ‘Survive’ song set in Polyphemus’ cave), hadn’t influenced Disney’s PJO script writers and they went the other way…

Polyphemus, of course, is Polyphemus, (just as Tyson is Tyson). Here, the PJO script did something different from the book again – the Tyson vs. Polyphemus fight, for example. Clearly, the PJO scriptwriters felt that they needed to do something different from the book (and the movie) here, and they did. It was certainly dramatic, too. Good for them. Pause.

Do I like the PJO S2? It is not bad. It is full of progressive politics, just like Ms. Haynes’ books, and as I wrote before, Ms. Haynes seems to be doing her best to be noticed by Disney and co. – but she does not appear to have much luck in this direction. As it was written earlier, her writing usually does not have any passion, any investment – it is not written by an A.I., but that is not necessarily an improvement.

What is the advantage of A.I.? It allows you to bounce your ideas around, to see what they look like as a draft.

…Ok, it can enable you to do a lot more – write an official letter, an essay, explain a complex myth to your child and so on. The A.I. is here to stay, but you must learn how to handle it precisely – a slight mistake and the result is nothing that you wanted. If this sounds familiar, it is. It is Athena and her wisdom – she can help you see clearly, (or clearer), what you want, but nothing else. You are in charge, in fact, you decide where to go from there, what to do with this advice, and so on. The ‘Odyssey’ shows this clearly – Athena, disguised as Mentor, (a man – therefore, for all that we know, she was hanging around Annabeth regularly, Annabeth just never knew that it was her mum), helps Telemachus to organize his thoughts, make up his mind, design his plan, and go off to execute it. It is clean, precise, methodical, and not exactly humans – but the gods of Olympus are not exactly human to begin with, and neither is A.I. I am not saying that Annabeth is the daughter of a divine Skynet, but wouldn’t it be cool if it were?

Back to PJO… it was not written by A.I., or at least – not purely by A.I., and neither were Riordan’s original YA novels, and therefore, the PJ franchise feels more emotional than Ms. Haynes’ works. Her non-fiction works are something else, and ‘1000 ships’… well, it has Odysseus and Penelope in it, and so it is a much more interesting read than ‘Stone’; as for ‘House’ (her upcoming 2006 novel), we will just have to wait and see.

For now, though, this is it. See you all soon.

 

Quarantine entry #90 - June 19

Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks. What else is there?

The Donald is revving for a fight against his niece, against Bolton, against anyone. How marvelous! The man doesn’t understand that things have moved beyond even his control, he is already being judged, and woe betide (him), if he is going to be found wanting – the elections-2020 are almost upon the U.S. What next?

It is hard to say. People are claiming that an especially virulent and violent version of the fire ant has appeared in North America, after the giant hornet (and the giant hogweed). I admit I have no idea what to say specifically – the term ‘fire ant’ describes several ant species from the genus Solenopsis, which includes more than 200 species of ants worldwide; maybe those ‘volcano ant’ are just a different species from the ‘regular’ fire ant…

Of course, the term ‘regular fire ant’ is a misnomer – those particular ants are introduced species in North America, (especially in the U.S. – they don’t appear to thrive in the Canadian winters at all, period), and as such, while they are able to establish colonies of their own in the U.S. regularly enough, they’re also exterminated regularly enough, without anyone regretting about them. Invasive ants do not have any sympathizers, it seems. What next?

Well, someone on the net had suggested that part of Odysseus’ – and we are talking the original character of Homer’s epics – tribulations have come from his marriage and the relationship to the house of Atreus.

Here is how the thing went. The children of Atreus, Agamemnon and Menelaus, married daughters of Leda, Helen and Clytemnestra, (who were either children of Leda’s mortal husband, of Zeus, or of both – take your pick). Odysseus’ wife Penelope was the cousin of the abovementioned duo, not to mention that the entire marriage of Menelaus to Helen happened with Odysseus’ help.

Then, Helen ran away with Paris to Troy, (rather than to Paris, say). Menelaus and Agamemnon began to assemble their posse. Re-enter Odysseus. Why? Because the entire fraternity/order/agreement that all the failed grooms of Helen help the lucky bastard who married Helen was his idea, and without his presence, this document wasn’t worth the paper it was written upon.

…The Greeks’ assembly and journey to Troy was very slow and hard, possibly because no one but Menelaus and Agamemnon wanted to go there initially; Odysseus himself, in particular, pretended to be insane once Agamemnon’s representatives arrived on Ithaca, and came there only after one of them – a certain Palamedes – called his bluff. (This did not go well for Palamedes – Odysseus set him up to be killed by the Greeks themselves after they arrived at Troy). So what?

Well, according to my friend’s theory, Odysseus began to reign on Ithaca as an ally of Menelaus and Agamemnon, who were the most powerful kings of Ancient Greece at that time, not quite a vassal, but something similar. Keep in mind, that the ‘Odyssey’ shows that Odysseus and his family were not too popular on Ithaca, so if Agamemnon especially were to withdraw his support from Odysseus, the man would not last for too long. Ergo, to keep Agamemnon’s favor, Odysseus had to come to Troy, because he had no better alternative, and if he were to betray Agamemnon, (and Menelaus), he would quickly reap some bad karmic comeback; at least, that what he thought and didn’t want to risk it – for good reasons.

…And then the Trojan War ended, Agamemnon came home and was murdered by his wife and her new lover, while Menelaus and Helen were lost at sea. Having lost his support from the sons of Atreus, Odysseus had to lie low; his wife, who was a blood relative of Helen, Clytemnestra, and their earthly relatives, was more confident and entertained the suitors, or rather – they entertained her, you can see traces of that even in the canon.

Finally, Menelaus (and Helen) returned to Sparta and restored their rule. Telemachus visited them – in the canon, to learn news of the Odysseus; in this theory – to restore the political relationship between them and his father’s dynasty, and once that happened and Odysseus got his assurances, he came back, killed all the suitors, and restored his rule. The end.

…Or not quite. There’s a version of Odysseus’ story where Circe, (yes, the witch-goddess that turned men to pigs and pegs to men), had a son by Odysseus, and the latter, when he grew up, went to Ithaca, killed Odysseus, and became the ruler of Ithaca, and Penelope’s husband. Telemachus, meanwhile, married Circe instead and took over Aeaea, (Circe’s home island). Considering that we never know for sure if Odysseus and his family existed for real, this theory – that Odysseus was a vassal of Agamemnon and Menelaus, not a very likable man, and was killed by his sons, (or one of them, at least) – makes as much sense as anything else does. What do you think?

…For now, though, this is it. See you all soon!