Cinema Issues: The Odyssey To Inject Modern Dayisms Into Fantasy

First they came for the Lord of the Rings and we were silent, then they came for the Wheel of Time and we murmured, then they came for the Witcher and voices started to rise, now they are coming for real world myths and fables and folks are angry.

(The above example is figurative) we were loud about all of these things bar the Wheel of Time as we actually care about fantasy. However, the point remains folks are really really angry about the Odyssey.

Elon Musk is arguing that Nolan is giving into DEI here despite previous saying he doesn’t want to take a political stance in his films for awards. However he could get them without this. He is also far too big to be succumbing to studio pressure. There is only one reason to cast a woman pretending to be a man as Achilles, and to make Helen of Troy black and that is because he wants to. There is a school of thought that Nolan may have always had these tendencies and have had to hold back or been held back by people yet now thinks that he can get away with it.

It is a conscious choice to inject modern language into the film or to have a rapper be an analogue to the bards of old in the film, whilst fiercely screaming about accuracy elsewhere. Or to do things like talk about diversity whilst a Latina man does white face, or to have the costumes look like they are from Spirit Halloween. Nolan seems to want to take a stand with this film for good or for ill and it could be his first flop.

The access media keen to always do what their studio masters want have already begun running ops for the film, incorrectly using mythology to explain it away or saying it doesn’t matter. A particular favourite is to point out that Jesus isn’t white and so that explains why Helen of Troy is now black, it doesn’t explain a damn thing it shows you they are floundering.

Nolan has started to make statements so far not attacking the audience but how long will it stay that way. We’d guess not long.

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The Sheep Detectives: Why Make This?

Summary: a group of sheep try and figure out their shepard’s murder.

One must question who this was for, the talking sheep themselves and their innocence seemed to point towards kids. Yet the subplots about sheep being forced to fight dogs and animal cruelty who seem to suggest adults.

The central premise of this film rests on how interesting the who dunnit is, and honestly the answer is not very. The answer is somewhat unsatisfactory, as it feels convoluted.

The cast both in terms of the sheep and also the human characters is a who’s who of actors sadly none of them are very memorable.

Overall, a bad idea for a film turns into a badly made film.

1.5/5

Pros.

A few funny jokes

It’s short

Cons.

The tone is off

The cast is wasted

The horrible subplot

The mystery is dull

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A Knight Of The Seven Kingdoms Series Overview: Lighter Game Of Thrones

Summary, a hedge knight tries to make a way for himself in the world.

In many ways this has a lot of interesting stuff around it, such as Summerhall, the Blackfyre Rebellion etc. However the issue centrally with the show is that Dunk’s journey isn’t all that interesting. It gets better when you have the accusations and the trail but the first few episodes are slow.

The comedy or the lighter aspects are what stood out for all the wrong reasons however, Game of Thrones and Westeros as a whole is a serious place. Yes there are sillier elements and yes the Dunk and Egg side of things explore them but having a shot of Dunk pooing within the first episode just feels try hard and juvenile.

Tonally a lighter show could work but it needs to read the room a bit more and to be able to take itself seriously at times too.

The idea at the end of the show that Dunk thinks he just brings bad luck and gets people killed and as such is sad, doesn’t work when he’s only known he’s people for about 5 minutes in some cases.

Overall, an interesting idea that needs a tighter execution.

3/5

Pros.

The world

The trial

The things it sets up

Cons.

The comedy

The slowness

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Highlander: Some Cult Classic Are Just Bad

Where to begin with this, having watched this as a boy and then again all these years later it does not hold up. You notice very quickly that the dub is out of synch with when the characters speak and the accents are noticeably distracting.

The plot makes very little sense and is told in such a way as to leave you for vast sections of the film without any knowledge whatsoever about what is going on.

The swordfighting is also really quite noticeable in a bad way with it missing the mark over and over again, it looks fake in important moments.

Overall, a waste of time.

0.5/5

Pros.

A great Queen soundtrack

Cons.

It makes no sense

The effects are awful

Its poorly made

It badly paced

It’s boring

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Iron Maiden: Burning Ambition: Titans Of Metal

Summary: one of the biggest bands in Metal History gets it’s own doc.

Musical documents can only go so far, they can’t cover everything which means they have to be selective about what they include. That leads to the first issue with the film some big events such as the Ozz Fest incident of 05 are not covered in the film. That said they do cover an awful lot of the most important moments.

It is interesting to see the behind the scenes stuff particularly the trip behind the Iron Curtain and what that represented both to the fans and the band. As well as the creation story behind Eddy that in and of itself is worth the price of admission.

Overall, a good band documentary that doesn’t go as far as you might want it to.

3/5

Pros.

The music

It gives you some good insight

You can see what the band means to each member

Cons

It doesn’t cover all of the important events

Pacing issues.

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Mortal Kombat 2: The Next Level

Summary: after surviving the assassination attempts in the first film Earth Realms fighters head to the Mortal Kombat tournament to determine the fate of Earth Realm.

First things first, we’ve seen some people on the right call this a bait and switch film or a girl boss film. They say this as Kitana is positioned as a prominent new character, however, the idea that she is the central character over Johnny Cage simply isn’t true. Rather than being a bait and switch narrative both Kitana and Johnny have parallel but interconnected heroes journeys. Both are vital to defeat Shao Khan at the end of the film.

The new characters, Jade, Kitana, Sindel, Johnny, Baraka are a mixed bag. Jade feels very one note and Tati Gabrielle cannot act to save her life, Sindel is barely in the film, and the choice to make Baraka a comedic support character is a bad idea. However, Karl Urban is great as Johnny Cage, and Adeline Rudolph is both emotive but also badass as Kitana. They will both be welcome additions to the roster going forward.

The fights are good for the most part though perhaps a little less impressive than the first film. The one thing that we would have preferred the film do which it doesn’t is make the deaths more permanent, yes you can have the zombie forms of the characters but to just bring back Kano so quickly seems a bit of a cop out. In the games they have to bring back the main characters game after game but here you could have let them die and then bring in other characters from across the rosters, there are more than enough.

Overall, a great popcorn film and if you like the games you’ll get a lot out of it.

4.5/5

Pros.

Lots of gore and fatalities

The new characters like Johnny and Kitana

The direction the series is heading in with annihilation seemingly the next port of call

The commitment to honour and reference the games

Seeing the Netherrealm.

Cons.

Jade, Baraka and Sindle are not well implemented.

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Punisher One More Kill: A Fear of Gareth Ennis

Summary: The MCU tried to adapt Welcome Back, Frank and does what it always does.

This is why the MCU can’t make a Blade film, sometimes people just want to see badass characters being badass, not processing trauma, not having a crying, just being cool. You’re making a comic book film/made for streaming one shot, for God sake.

The first half of this is Frank being sad, the amount of time wasted herein becomes more and more noticeable later.

The second half tries to give the people what they want but then just abruptly ends with no how do you do, to maybe be picked up in Spiderman Brand New Day.

John Wick understands the badass factor, Mortal Kombat understands the badass factor, the MCU is allergic.

Plus as has been memed heavily since there is a God awful CGI shot of Frank falling, wherein they swap the stuntman’s face with John’s and my my it looks terrible.

Overall, it’s about twenty minutes of goodness wrapped in 30 minutes of disappointment.

Pros.

Some cool Punisher action

It leaves you wanting more of the good bits

Cons

The sad Frank sequences

The ending

The CGI

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Rose of Nevada: A Very British Mystery

We were present at the BFI in 2025, wherein they showed this film, we then shelved this write up until the film was going to release wide which it is about to. -Editor note.

Possibly one of the best British mystery films ever made or certainly one of the best of modern memory. From the outset you can tell there is something not quite right about the world the film is in. It is hard to put your finger on quite what it is but you know when the ghost boat shows up that things are in motion.

The idea of the phantom passage of time and how the boat manages to take them back in time possibly in a loop fashion with the same events having to play out, or possibly with the idea of the characters morphing into these figures from the past is very interesting.

The high point for sure is the sound track and the use of sound with the idea of the sound existing in a liminal sense wherein it is not always synched up creating an uncanny quality that really adds to the atmosphere.

Overall, a wonderfully creative and imaginative horror film that does a lot to create chills that feel more existential than most films.

4.5/5

Pros.

The mystery

The sound design

The cinematography

The atmosphere

The scares

Cons.

Minor pacing issues

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Cinema Issue: TDS And The Boys

Straight off the bat the Boys isn’t anything like the fantastic graphic novel in any way, that was the first sign of things to come. The graphic novel had something to say this show is the safety most made by committee thing ever.

However, the thing that really began the terminal decline of the boys was when Eric Kripke decided to make it about his dislike of Trump. Homelander in the comics was never supposed to be a stand in for Trump, yet in the TV show it is pretty damn clear. Every week a old political event from serval years ago is trotted out, now done by Homelander, with the writing going you should be outraged.

The more and more the show has felt the need to fight the culture war the worse it has got. At least in the beginning they hit both sides but as the show went on it just went one way.

Even the fans that cheered on every Trump parallel and thought oh it was so timely are starting to call it out. A one trick pony becomes clear to everyone in the end . The final season so far is hated by many fans as they are starting to see it for what it is.

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Hokum: Americans Hated Abroad

A writer, a murder and a witch.

The lead in this film may well get a trophy for the most unpleasant protagonist of recent rememberance he is horrible to everyone around him, and is only nice to the young bartender as he wants her.

After she dies and the witch stuff starts to happen you don’t really believe that he cares about her enough to investigate her death or do any of that.

There is some great horror visuals within this section and it is nice to see it lean into Irish mythology however it doesn’t go far enough you get just a little bit and then it ends, it’s very disappointing in that regard.

Overall, an oddly stunted horror film that has some good ideas but doesn’t go far enough to make them meaningful.

2/5.

Pros.

A few good scares

The Irish mythology

Cons.

The lead is just awful

There is filler in it

The ending doesn’t feel like food closure

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