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Greek Mythology Movies

Deck Rickard

Eyes Up Here.
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I recently watched Troy: Fall of a City (it’s a few years old but the quarantine has been digging pretty far back into my Netflix queue), and it got me thinking about Greek mythology on film. That series was decent but it left me craving something bigger and better.

I know we have some cheesy classics like Jason & the Argonauts and the original Clash of the Titans, but I feel like there’s still so much untapped potential there. More recent efforts like Troy (with Brad Pitt) and Immortals had their moments, but they never quite reached the potential that films about the Trojan War or the Theseus/Minotaur myth could have. For the most part, the acting in those films is solid; I know people poked fun at Brad Pitt’s accent but I liked his intensity and overconfidence as Achilles. And I liked Henry Cavill as the noble, badass Theseus; I wish he would bring that kind of fire to some of his more recent roles. But where both of those films faltered was that they just felt small to me. Troy had a big budget and plenty of extras, but it reduced the 12-year Trojan war to like a week-long battle, and removed the fantastical elements entirely. Immortals seemed restricted by budget; the whole movie almost feels like a really well produced stage play. Though that might have just been Tarsem’s style.

300 fairs better, although the depiction of the Persians is downright offensive and it makes me unable to watch it anymore. Though Gerard Butler delivers an amazing performance (the one and only time that’s happened IMO) and the fight sequences are awesome.

These films are all a million times better than the Sam Worthington Clash of the Titans film; not only did it lack the fun and beauty of the original; it was hampered by Worthington’s wooden performance. I can’t blame it all on Sam though... the script was absolute garbage. And don’t get me started on the effects... I saw that **** in the theater and I believe it was the first post-production 3D conversion. I remember a mountain in the background suddenly looking like it leaped out of the screen and the entire audience gasped. Never bothered with the sequel.

Anyway, all that is to say that I feel like now that we’re running out of superheroes and young adult novels to adapt, Greek Mythology deserves another look. The technology now exists to make these films look fantastic, and hopefully if it does happen, they’ll learn from past narrative mistakes.

In the meantime though, I just found out about this old movie where Tom Hardy (clearly taking any role he could get at the time), Candyman and Roy Batty take on the Minotaur. It looks like an episode of Xena directed by Eli Roth.

 
The lack of Greek mythology films is something I often lament.

I'm also waiting for the day they make a Greek mythology movie where Hades is NOT depicted as a clear antagonist.

Yeah, Hades is typically just subbed in for Satan in most films.
 
He did abduct Persephone, which is villainous in nature. But as God of the Underworld he was a strict, sometimes cruel, but fair ruler.
 
He did abduct Persephone, which is villainous in nature. But as God of the Underworld he was a strict, sometimes cruel, but fair ruler.

Yeah, but all the gods did some ****ed up stuff. None of them are particularly good. That’s what makes them so interesting; it’s a scary thought that beings with that much power can be so petty.
 
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Oh I agree there is SO much untapped potential with Greek mythology on film, but I did like its inclusion in the first Wonder Woman movie.

Hopefully Marvel start utilising their version of the Greek pantheon soon and with more video game movies hopefully coming, God of War is surely ripe to be adapted.
 
I hated Immortals and the recent Rock Hercules for the fact they tried to make them “realistic”. Do not strip the fantasy from mythology! Do not make the Minotaur just a big guy in a helmet. It’s pointless. The fun is the fantasy aspect mixed with history. Verisimilitude.

What Ray Harryhausen always got right, and why his adaptations are still the most well known film versions, is because he never forgot that!
 
He did abduct Persephone, which is villainous in nature. But as God of the Underworld he was a strict, sometimes cruel, but fair ruler.

Also, its only slightly revisionist to say "In a Greek cultural context, 'abduct' can also mean 'elope'. After all, an unmarried girl is not supposed to be allowed to marry without her parent's consent and approval." I don't 100% know if anybody interpreted the tale of Persephone that way prior to the modern day, but in the overall context of the rest of the Greek myths, it certainly does make sense. Especially since, when Hades otherwise is virtually always portrayed as fairly sensible everywhere else, he's now suddenly going to not only kidnap some unwilling woman to rape because he's horny. . . but do so with not just any woman, but one of the small list of women where pissing off their relatives is potentially world ending bad? When even *Zeus*, high champion of "Its not sexual assault when its god on mortal", has demonstrated prudence to avoid pissing off other deities ( the golden apple affair with Eris )?
 
Heck, Zeus was the one who told Hades to abduct Persephone (who was Zeus' daughter) in the first place.
 
I hated Immortals and the recent Rock Hercules for the fact they tried to make them “realistic”. Do not strip the fantasy from mythology! Do not make the Minotaur just a big guy in a helmet. It’s pointless. The fun is the fantasy aspect mixed with history. Verisimilitude.

What Ray Harryhausen always got right, and why his adaptations are still the most well known film versions, is because he never forgot that!

yeah I just don’t get why you would take stories that are fantastical and feel the need to strip them of what makes them so fun.
 
I wish mythology films were a bigger deal. They are totally my thing but unfortunately they are a big risk as they usually require a big budget and come without a guaranteed big audience.
 
I hated Immortals and the recent Rock Hercules for the fact they tried to make them “realistic”. Do not strip the fantasy from mythology! Do not make the Minotaur just a big guy in a helmet. It’s pointless. The fun is the fantasy aspect mixed with history. Verisimilitude.

What Ray Harryhausen always got right, and why his adaptations are still the most well known film versions, is because he never forgot that!
Totally agreed on that. Harryhausen had a passion for brining the fantastical elements to life and his films will live on a lot longer than the modern attempts.
 
I hated Immortals and the recent Rock Hercules for the fact they tried to make them “realistic”. Do not strip the fantasy from mythology! Do not make the Minotaur just a big guy in a helmet. It’s pointless. The fun is the fantasy aspect mixed with history. Verisimilitude.

What Ray Harryhausen always got right, and why his adaptations are still the most well known film versions, is because he never forgot that!

Yeah, I hate that too. The Minotaur thing in Immortals really didn’t make any sense when you consider that you had gods and Titans going to war in that movie. But a Minotaur is a step too far? Would it have been that hard to make it an actual monster instead of a guy in a bull helmet?

I tried watching Rockules once but got bored and turned it off. Why bother making a “realistic” version of Hercules? It was so stupid.
 
It is odd to me that Hollywood hasn’t jumped at this seeing how any studio could do it since it’s all public domain material.

I think there could be some great movies.

There's a lot more they could do with that whole mythology than just having them repeat the likes of Robin Hood, King Arthur, or Dracula for the millionth time.
 
There's a lot more they could do with that whole mythology than just having them repeat the likes of Robin Hood, King Arthur, or Dracula for the millionth time.

All of this. I guess their logic is that Robin Hood/Arthur/Dracula are more well-known and that translates to better box office results but... the last few adaptations of each of those have bombed.
 
It is odd to me that Hollywood hasn’t jumped at this seeing how any studio could do it since it’s all public domain material.

I think there could be some great movies.
Especially now with the content wars. A big budget show could also work. It’s nice that one of my passions (CBMs) exploded and sci-fi was well served for a long time, but I do feel let down on the mythology/fantasy front.
 
It might not be everybody, but I'd love to see a live action version of Blood of Zeus which is easily the best thing to come out in years that's Greek mythology related IMO.

As much as I love 300 its not like that movie can't be topped, but with Immortals and both Clash of the Titan movies failing I can't say I'm surprised that Hollywood isn't riding that bandwagon anymore.

We definitely need a EPIC GOT esque movie or tv show though, because I feel like unless its some big studio like Warner Bros or Disney or HBO it won't get production values that will do it justice.
 
It might not be everybody, but I'd love to see a live action version of Blood of Zeus which is easily the best thing to come out in years that's Greek mythology related IMO.

As much as I love 300 its not like that movie can't be topped, but with Immortals and both Clash of the Titan movies failing I can't say I'm surprised that Hollywood isn't riding that bandwagon anymore.

We definitely need a EPIC GOT esque movie or tv show though, because I feel like unless its some big studio like Warner Bros or Disney or HBO it won't get production values that will do it justice.
Is this an animated film? I didn’t know about it. Will have to check out.

Yeah, definitely need one of the big guns involved. Many of these projects would require scale that can’t be done justice on too low a budget.
 
I do love mythology, and it's a shame that no studio has a writing team that's of yet capable of bringing it altogether.

Imagine a shared cinematic universe that tells the story of mythological gods; Greek, Mayan, Egyptian, Aztec, Norse (etc etc) and their individual power grabs over humanity and infighting within them.

I know some films have touched on it, as have some series (Stargate with the Egyptian and Norse Gods), American Gods covered some of the Greek (and others).
 
Watch Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters.
I prefer all out mythology based in legendary times or on a separate world rather than the ones based half on the modern real earth with teenagers in jeans lol. I still find them entertaining but they don’t quite give me what I’m looking for in that respect.
 
Watch Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters.

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Nah.
 

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