Okie dokie....
That was pretty good. Was it the most epic of things that I've ever seen? No. I liked Project Hail Mary more than this. But it was still good. Don't read if you plan on seeing but at this point there's been so much content on this thread I ain't jackin' with spoiler tags...just scroll past....
Best Scenes / Parts
1. The dog. Man that one hit me and my wife. I figured something like that was coming but the way they did it and having the dog give a little wag before he passed because he needed to make sure his master made it home...yup right in the feels....stupid onions....
2. Pretty much everything once Odysseus returns home. All the discussions, relationships, turmoil...all of that was top notch! Really liked how they did it with concealing his identity as well.
3. Every scene that Anne Hathaway was in. Personally I thought she stole the show. Every time she was on screen she was no doubt giving it her all in those scenes and I truly felt her portrayal of a wife yearning for her husband to be home for so long while dealing with the weight of leadership was perfect. She deserves an Oscar nod for this film.
4. Witch animal scene. Was really impressed with how they pulled that off and thought it was well done. Was wondering what my kids thought of it and it creeped 'em out a bit.
5. Trojan horse stuff. That was a really interesting take. I especially liked the attention to detail regarding the soldiers sticking swords in the horse, hitting a guy, and the quick thinking of another greek soldier quickly whipping the blood off the sword as it got pulled out.
6. Revenge build up. They did a really good job with building up the audience's hatred of the suitors so when Odysseus comes forward to string the bow and take the shot, that was oh so satisfying.
Not so Great Scenes / Parts
1. Tom Holland. Acting was fine he was just written terribly. Pretty much the entire movie with him it consisted of him getting his but kicked the entire film, getting rescued, or going on a pointless trip to look for his dad just to be a vessel for more flashbacks...they had no idea what to do with his character.
2. Cyclops scene. My kids loved it. But good grief put me in the "that was too dang loud" crowd. Maybe it's cause I'm finally 40 but with how loud that was I was just waiting for it to end.
3. Odysseus not wanting to return home. There were multiple scenes where it was said / mentioned that Odysseus didn't want to return home and this was the biggest departure from the original story IIRC. My interpretation of this was they were doing the PTSD angle where soldiers fear of returning home after committing bad crimes/acts during war...which if that was the intention it's an interesting take on this story but would've just preferred they'd kept his attitude towards getting home closer to the original. But if I'm wrong on how I'm remembering the original story let me know.
4. The fighting. Not all was bad. But man some of the fighting scenes just seemed clunky and off...like the stuntmen couldn't get the timing right on when to swing, block, hit, etc. And it didn't take long I remember the very first scene with Sinon and those white cloaked dudes riding up...right after Sinon got nailed to the horse one of them raises a sword to strike him and when the other goes to block it...man it just looked bad. Hard for me to point out certain scenes because they weren't all like this but it was enough for me to be a distraction.
Casting Hype
Good grief there was no reason to get so over-hyped on the casting for this. Do trans people trying to force folks to accept their transitions to be more than a simple mental illness annoy me? Yes. Was the casting of Ellen Page in this worth all the discussions online? No, not even close. Throw away character that yes was out of place, but the size and stature was kind of the point of the character that was supposed to be weak and kinda useless. Think there was even a line where when Sinon is having a conversation with Odysseus he says something like, "You can add more if you like" regarding his weak contributions to the cause.
Same for Helen of Troy. That was such a small thing I truly don't think I would have even noticed if it hadn't been talked about so much online.
Dialogue
Again...just not a big deal. I will say at the beginning I thought it was going to affect me liking the film because most of the dialogue where there's been critiques regarding things like "daddy" and stuff like that are right at the beginning....but once things got going it seemed to flow along just fine.
And I agree with whoever said the line in the trailer of Matt Damon yelling, "Let's go!" possibly being Nolan trolling the audience I can see their point...because in the context of the movie it worked just fine but admit in the trailer seemed REALLY out of place.
Overall, I'd give it a 7/10. Glad I saw it. Kids REALLY liked it. Had some great scenes and moments that were made for the big screen. All the "controversy" truly amounted to nothing. It's faults just lie on pacing issues with certain parts of the film and how some characters were written.
