You know a movie's good, at least for me, when you're 'feeling' it the next day or two. Now, with the mixed reviews of this particular movie, I wasn't expecting anything — let alone the feeling of a movie — to sit with me for a week.
The Odyssey.
Anne Hathaway. Matt Damon. Zendaya. Tom Holland. Charlize Theron. Robert Pattinson. John Leguizamo (I love this actor, and was happily surprised when I saw him in it). And, of course, other actors and actresses that did an incredible job.
A friend of mine, one who shall remain unnamed, mentioned he loved the movie, but was disappointed that Matt Damon was in said movie. Why? He thinks Matt is one dimensional.
I've never thought that. In fact, he's one of my all-time favorites.
Yet, my friend, also said by ten minutes of watching Matt's performance, had lost all those I-don't-like-Matt thoughts, and was impressed that Matt became the character, and he no longer even thought of Matt as playing the role, and instead thought of Odysseus playing Odysseus.
It felt that way the entire movie for me. None of the characters were actors or actresses to me, and were as real as the people who once wore those robes.
This movie was truly an epic. Yes, long in duration, but long in memory, too, because this epic stayed with me, and felt as much as an epic as any I've ever seen.
Each scene brought home the time period. The boats, the weapons, the attire they wore, the people, the buildings, the everything. You were transported to the past, and you felt every inch of it. You rooted for them. Wanted them to live. You got angry at them. You did everything you would had this been a reality TV show.
One thing I particularly liked, and this isn't a spoiler to the few who haven't seen this epic yet, was the fact that Troy, the city sacked by several Greek kingdoms, was what kept the world in the light, in the peace, for all those years, and was the controller of the trade routes, and because so, when Troy fell, the light (this sounds AI) went with it.
The movie doesn't totally skip that part, which I like.
Now, the myths say the walls were built by Poseidon and Apollo, you know, actual gods building it for a Trojan king, and the royal line ran straight to Zeus. There was a wooden statue of Athena inside the city, the Palladium, that supposedly fell out of the sky. And as long as it stayed inside the walls, Troy couldn't fall. So Odysseus stole it.
(Not shown in the movie, instead, they show the head being cut off)
Anyway, Troy sat on the strait every trade ship had to pass to get between the Black Sea and the Mediterranean, and it taxed all of it, but kindly. Grain, tin, gold, and horses, and spices, and, well, everything.
So, when the Greeks burned it, they were burning down the toll booth of the ancient world, a toll booth that was actually fair to those being tolled (did I say that right?).
After they sacked Troy, the survivors of Troy scattered, and one of them, Aeneas, carried the bloodline to Italy. Rome came from Troy, but the damage had been done to the light of the world, and has since been trying to come back, even to this day. And it has come back, lighting the world, little by little with the stories and the movies and the books about this once wonderful city.
They skipped most of that, because you can't put ALL of that in the movie, but they showed that well through Odysseus's narrative, and through incredible imagery, that the death of Troy brought a heavy darkness into the world.
Okay...
So...
If you haven't seen the movie, I recommend it. Though, my sister didn't like it. But, don't listen to her.
