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.

WW1984 trailer 1 - Dec 9

Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks. In addition, no, I am not talking about the Donald and his impeachment, which goes nowhere fast – Ms. Pelosi was able to use the hoopla surrounding it to prevent the Democratic party from breaking apart into several new parties, (all of which just as hostile to each other as they are towards the Republican party), so that’s it. She did the best of a bad job, but it was still bad. North Korea is still mocking USA, whereas Russia…

Well, the Russian bear had been insulted badly by WADA’s decision, and if it did want to abide by the Western rules, now would be the perfect time for it to start to come to its’ senses – but the problem that the RF’s president Putin doesn’t care about this at all – he just wants to bring the West down, and so he’ll continue to drive his country in this direction until he dies of his own causes, i.e. old age or he is offed. There had been variations of this chiaroscuro conclusion of the Russian rulers’ life, but not many and very rarely, so it is safe to say Putin will rule until he dies himself, or he is killed by someone else who’ll succeed after him… or not, because there’s always the Revolution. Contemporary Russian government is deathly afraid of the Revolution of 1905 and 1917, which is why they lost their shit over Ukraine when it experienced its’ own… hybrid of Revolution and Perestroika… but what does the West do?

Begin to dismantle NATO, that is what. Somehow, in all the excitement of the Russian bear getting punched in the face – hard, and the Donald being insulted by Korea’s great steersman of the state – comrade Kim – also hard, it was overseen as to what happened in Denmark. Something is rotten there, it looks like…but it is the U.S., again. An American critic of the Donald and his regime was supposed to participate in the NATO summit there, so the U.S. Ambassador to Denmark told him (it was a man), that no, you are no longer invited, period. Harsh! Moreover, the government of Denmark told Mr. Ambassador this, on top of ‘if this is how you’re behaving, then we’re done with NATO for now’ – and now there is not a peep about this piece of news on news’ channels and websites. What gives?

…EU has achieved the next stage of its’ being self-sufficient and independence from the U.S., that is what. NATO, just like UN, is still largely an American organization; EU is not. While WADA was punching the Russian bear in the muzzle, the leaders of France and Germany talked to Putin of RF and Zelensky of Ukraine with nary an interest in WADA. WADA is not impotent, but it is limited, it looks like. Now what?

Well, firstly, Putin fears EU the way that he does not the U.S. He has no interest in instigating WWIII – yet and so he is willing cooperate with EU at least to a point in a way that he is not willing to with the U.S. The problem that on the other side of the coin EU is not a big fan of the U.S. anymore – just read the news. While they have little to no in common with the regimes of North Korea or Iran, (China is different, let’s be fair here), again, they are also fed up with the way that the American government was doing things… since the infamous 9/11, while the U.S. sent its’ troops into Afghanistan and beyond. Surprisingly, cough, the only other major Western power that supported them properly was Great Britain. (Again, let us keep Israel out of the equation – but yes, it makes the situation more complex). These days, not surprisingly, Great Britain actually wants to leave the EU, (and remind me as to why did they want to do that in the first place, since obviously that isn’t Russia’s fault, even the Brits themselves admit it), and they got problems, again. I.e. Epstein was very much an American, not a Russian double agent or anything, and also? Prince Andrew of the U.K. was a good friend of his, apparently. The Royal family and co are denying everything, of course, but his highness was kicked out of the family regardless, his children – princess Beatrice and princess Eugenie – aren’t keeping the stiff proverbial upper lip either and the clouds are gathering over the fair isle of England and co. all the same. What is next?

As above as below, as in big things, so in the small – the actor who played the husband in the Peloton ad, (we have talked about it earlier this month) has received death threats, and his female counterpart, who played the wife, (aka Grace from Boston), did not fair too well either. The Hell? Yes, the ad was insensitive, stupid and vapid, but nothing more, and – death threats? People have time for this sort of thing. On with the show?

Yes, since the ad brings us back onto the other side of the silver screen, and to the upcoming ‘WW84’ movie trailer. What can be said about it?

It is funky, it is DC’s response to MCU’s ‘Captain Marvel’ film (set in the 1990s, remember?), and it got content. Most important, it got two new villains for WW to defeat – one is her archnemesis, Cheetah, aka Dr. Barbara Ann Minerva. The second is not as clear-cut: he’s Maxwell Lord, sort of a rip-off Lex Luthor in the original DC comics.

…Yes, there was a Maxwell Lord character in the first seasons of ‘Supergirl’, maybe there still is one, but by now it’s obvious that whereas Marvel is bringing all of its’ depictions to one source, DC doesn’t. There is a Maxwell Lord from ‘Supergirl’, there was a Maxwell Lord in the ‘Smallville’ TV series, there’s going to be a Maxwell Lord in DCEU, and so on… but he may not be the final big bad of the movie. Why?

Because this is how it went down in the first WW movie, where the final villain was Ares, the god of war, aka a male deity. Yeah, deities have a different relationship with gender than us mortals do, but in the first WW movie, Ares was very much male. And, since in this movie’s trailer we already see WW riding lightning, maybe we will get a visit from the old Zeus himself? First WW film – Dr. Poison, her German handler, Ares. Second film – Cheetah, Maxwell Lord, Zeus? And keep in mind, that as far as villains go, Maxwell Lord is usually a telepath/mental controller of some sort. Bring on Orwell’s 1984 dystopia!

No, seriously, one of George Orwell’s best novels is ‘1984’, and it was a Stalinist dystopia. These days’ people do not differentiate between communism, Stalinism, Trotskyism and socialism on top of it…plus they are beginning to thaw towards Russians again, so we probably will not get any Cold War vibes from the second WW movie. That said, we do see her destroy a camera as she is fighting, cough, a couple of robbers in a 1980s’ shopping mall, and later on she’s fighting more people in the White House, so – ‘big brother is watching you’, maybe? Something is rotten in the state of Denmark… and this brings us back to real life. It sucks, unless you are Bianca Andreescu, who had won another tennis trophy. You go, girl! Show the world what Canadians and Canada have!

…Apparently, it is just the right scenery for the upcoming ‘Ghostbusters: Afterlife’ film, which was shot, in part, in southern Alberta. Already it is shaping up to be a different film from the previous ‘Ghostbusters’ reboot, which it ignores, at least in this trailer. It will be interesting to see as to how this particular film will unveil itself… especially since Warner Brothers’ ‘Kong vs. Godzilla’ movie has hit yet another snafu – some photos were leaked, (mostly of Kong fighting Godzilla on a ship), so now team WB is doing its’ best to bring them all doing, citing copyright and what else have you. How great for them. Did I mention that real life sucks?

…This is it for now – see you all soon.