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Mini-Reviews: Films I’ve Watched Recently, Part 2

By Amazon, Reviews, TV, Online Streaming & FilmsNo Comments

Welcome to Part 2 of my Mini-Reviews of Films I’ve watched recently. The First part of this post can be found here: Mini-Reviews: Films I’ve Watched Recently, Part 1.

Immortals (2011)
Immortals (2011) is a brilliant film with a good mix of action and storyline. It’s about Hyperian a King who wants the bow of epirus to release the Titans. The Gods (Zeus etc.) and the Titans thought a war, with the Gods winning and the Titans being imprisoned. The death of Hyperian’s wife and daughter through disease has made him turn away from the Gods and become determined to release the Titans to kill the Gods as they wouldn’t intervene in his time of need.

Theseus is the main character and will only fight for what he cares about which at the beginning of the film is his mother. When Hyperian’s army arrive Theseus fights but he’s unable to save his mother who they kill. The soldiers catch Theseus and decide that he’s to work as a slave with some others in salt mines. On route Theseus meets the Virgin Oracle and they escape Hyperian’s soliders. The Gods are watching and Ares wants to intervene but Zeus won’t allow it stating they must have faith in mankind. They travel back to Theseus’ village (with a little help from Poseidon) so that he can bury his mother in the religious chamber, which is where he discovers the bow of epirus. Theseus and the Virgin Oracle are intimate removing the Oracle’s ability to see the future which she sees as a curse.

Theseus is ambushed and Hyperian gets the bow of epirus. Ares saves Theseus and Athena provides them with horses to get to Mount Tartarus. Zeus appears and is angry at Ares and Athena for disobeying him. Zeus kills Ares for saving Theseus and tells him he’s on his own. Then Zeus and Athena return to Mount Olympus.

Theseus and the others arrive at Mount Tartarus and tries to warn his King about Hyperian’s intentions but he doesn’t listen. The war begins with Hyperian using the bow of epirus to destroy the wall surrounding the city. Hyperian needs to get in to Mount Tartarus as that’s where the Titan’s are imprisoned. Hyperian releases the Titans and Zeus, Poseidon, Athena, Heracles and Apollo appear to fight them.

Theseus eventually kills Hyperian while Zeus destroys the bow of epirus. The battle between the Gods and the Titan’s goes well, the Gods are more than a match for the Titans but are overwhelmed by the sheer number of them. Theseus has been injured during the battle with Hyperian and is close to death. Only Zeus and Poseidon make it out alive before. Zeus takes Theseus and gives him a place in Mount Olympus as a reward before collapsing the mountain. The film ending is set several years later with the Virgin Oracle having Theseus’ child who is told he will one day have to fight evil.

It was a fantastic film which had brilliantly choreographed action scenes; good use of CGI and an epic story that is well paced and keeps you captivated throughout. It was one of those films that I really wished I’d seen at the cinemas, well worth watching.


Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol (2011)
I’ve previously watched Mission Impossible and Mission Impossible 2, but by the time the third film was released I was a bit like mission possible? Action films really aren’t my bag, but I thought I’d give the fourth in the series Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol (2011) a chance.

It was the same sort of storyline as the other films, Ethan and his team must stop the Russian’s from declaring war on the US. The US administration denying all knowledge of Ethan and his team are caught. The two aspects that made me finish the film were the cool technology and the humour from Simon Pegg who played a minor member of Ethan’s team.

If you really enjoyed the previous films, then you’ll really like this film. I found it too simliar to the other films in the series.

Skyline (2010)
Skyline (2010) is about a couple Jarrod and Elaine who go the visit Jarrod’s best friend Terry in L.A. when aliens attack. Terry’s made it big in L.A. with a swanky apartment and loads of money. Terry offers his oldest friend Jarrod a job in L.A, meaning Jarrod and Elaine would have to move. Terry hosts a party, Jarrod and Elaine get into a heated discussion about the move (Jarrod wanting to move and Elaine not). In the heat of the moment Elaine reveals that she’s pregnant. Later that night blue lights start to appear in the sky memorising anyone who looks at them and giving them the impulse to get as close to them as they can. Think moths to a flame.

Soon enough alien ships appear with the blue lights sucking up human beings all over L.A. Terry, Jarrod, Elaine and a few others are informed by the T.V that alien ships have appeared all over the world and are sucking up human beings with the blue lights. In L.A. alien ships are scanning buildings for humans they may have missed. The group realise they can’t stay indoors and wait it out. Jarrod notices that there are no alien ships over the seas. The group decide to head for open waters, but upon leaving the apartment block are attacked by aliens and end up back inside. The following day the remaining survivors of the group see the US Air Force fire a nuclear missile. At first they think they’ve won as the alien ship falls to the ground following the detonation. But it repairs in a matter of seconds and is back in the air.

After this the story got a bit far fetched. Jarrod and Elaine are sucked up by a blue light into an alien ship. Inside Jarrod’s brain is removed and put in an alien body, meanwhile Elaine is taken into another chamber where pregnant humans are kept. But Jarrod’s feelings for Elaine and his unborn child mean he fights other aliens and then carries Elaine to safety.

The CGI was incredible but the storyline could have been massively improved. Firstly, I had little care for the main characters. This could have been improved by seeing more of the relationship between Jarrod and Elaine prior to the alien attack. Secondly, it would have been good to give humans some advantage over the aliens. This would have enabled humans to have a fighting chance and mean’t the writers could have tapped into the emotional responses of the audience. Emotions such as hope, loss and love.


The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel
I was going to do a mini-review of The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (2011) in this post, but I enjoyed the film so much that I felt it deserved a full review on it’s own. So a review of The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (2011) is coming soon.

Write soon,

Antony

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Monday 3 September 2012

Apollo

By PaganismNo Comments

I love the greek god Apollo. He is a deity that I like what he stands for, creativity, lover of the arts, beautiful, admire of beauty (both physically, emotionally and spiritually). Here is some quick facts about Apollo:

Apollo’s Appearance: A young man with curly golden hair.
Symbol or Attribute: The Sun itself, the lyre (a type of musical instrument), the bow, and the chariot he drives across the sky daily.

Apollo’s Strengths: Creative, handsome, supportive of all the arts of civilisation.

Weaknesses: Like his father Zeus, Apollo is all too happy to enjoy the charms of nymphs, as well as the occasional youth, and his conquests number in the dozens.
(From http://gogreece.about.com/cs/mythology/a/mythapollo.htm, Last accessed: 30th October 09)

Yet believe it or not, I can’t find a good statue of Apollo for my altar anywhere in the UK. A statue that truly represents what Apollo means to me. My good friend Kay told me that I she was going on holiday so I showed her what sort of statue I wanted (from images on the Internet). When she went away, she picked me one up and here it is:

The photo took on my Blackberry Storm and it really doesn’t do it justice. On the photo you can’t see the detail and the true quality of the statue.

One of the main reasons that I love Apollo is because he is bisexual. He has had both female and male lovers. As a gay man I am most interested in his male lovers of which there were two. Here are the stories:

Apollo & Cypatissus

In Greek mythology, a myth set in Chios tells of Kyparissos (Greek: κυπάρισσος, “cypress”) — or Cyparissus (Latin: cupressus, “cypress”) — a young boy and son of Telephus. Though the mythic context and the setting is Hellenic, the subject is essentially known from Hellenizing Latin literature and Pompeiian frescoes.[1]

Apollo gave the boy a tame deer as a companion, but Cyparissus accidentally killed it with a javelin as it lay asleep in the undergrowth. The gift of a hunter’s prey is an initiatory gift in the sphere of the hunt, a supervised preparation for the manly arts of war and a testing ground for behaviour (Koch-Harnack 1983). The tameness of the deer may be purely Ovidian. In a late reversal of the boy’s traditional role, perhaps an interpretation applied by Ovid,[2] Cyparissus asks Apollo to let his tears fall forever. Apollo turns the sad boy into a cypress tree, whose sap forms droplets like tears on the trunk.[3] Cypress was one of the trees Orpheus charmed.

According to a different tradition Cyparissus was the son of Orchomenus, the brother of Minyas, and the mythical founder of Kyparissos in Phocis, which later was called Anticyra.[4] (From: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyparissus, Last accessed: 30th October 09)

Apollo & Hyacinth

Hyacinth, the young son of the King of Sparta, beautiful like the very gods of Mount Olympus, was beloved of Apollo, shooter of arrows. The god often came down to the shores of the Eurotas River, leaving his shrine in Delphi unattended, to spend time with his young friend and delight in boyish pleasures. Tired of his music and his long bow, Apollo found relief in rustic pastimes. He would take Hyacinth hunting through the woods and glades on the mountain sides, or they would practice gymnastics, a skill which Hyacinth then taught to his friends, and for which later the Spartans would become renowned. The simple life awoke Apollo’s appetites, and made the curly-haired boy seem more charming than ever. Apollo gave him all his love, forgetting he was a mere mortal.

Once, in the heat of a summer afternoon, the lovers stripped naked, sleeked themselves with olive oil, and tried their hand at discus throw, each vying to outdo the other. The bronze discus flew higher and higher. Finally, the powerful god gathered all his strength, and spun and wheeled and let fly the shiny disk which rose swift as a bird, cutting the clouds in two. Then, glittering like a star, it began to tumble down.

Hyacinth ran to meet it. He was hurrying to take his turn, to prove to Apollo that he, though young, was no less able than the god at this sport. The discus landed, but having fallen from such a great height it bounced and violently struck Hyacinth in the head. He let out a groan and crumpled to the ground. The blood spurted thickly from his wound, coloring crimson the black hair of the handsome youth.

Horrified, Apollo raced over. He bent over his friend, raised him up, rested the boy’s head on his knees, trying desperately to staunch the blood flowing from the wound. But it was all in vain. Hyacinth grew paler and paler. His eyes, always so clear, lost their gleam and his head rolled to one side, just like a flower of the field wilting under the pitiless rays of the noonday sun. Heartbroken, Apollo cried out: “Death has taken you in his claws, beloved friend! Woe, for by my own hand you have died. And yet its crime was meeting yours at play. Was that a crime? Or was my love to blame – the guilt that follows love that loves too much? Oh, if only I could pay for my deed by joining you in your journey to the cheerless realms of the dead. Oh, why am I cursed to live forever? Why can’t I follow you?”

Apollo held his dying friend close to his breast, and his tears fell in a stream onto the boy’s bloody hair. Hyacinth died, and his soul flew to the kingdom of Hades. The god bent close to the dead boy’s ear, and softly whispered: “In my heart you will live forever, beautiful Hyacinth. May your memory live always among men as well.” And lo, at a word from Apollo, a fragrant red flower rose from Hyacinth’s blood. We call it hyacinth, and on its petals you can still read the letters “Ay,” the sigh of pain that rose from Apollo’s breast.

And the memory of Hyacinth lived on among the gentlemen of Sparta, who gave honors to their son, and celebrated him for three days in mid-summer at the Hyakinthaea festival. The first day they would mourn his death, and the last two they would celebrate his ressurection.
(From: http://www.gay-art-history.org/gay-history/gay-literature/gay-mythology-folktales/homosexual-greek-mythology/apollo-hyacinth-gay/apollo-hyacinth-gay.html, Last Accessed: 30th October 09)

If I was to invoke a god (take a god or goddess’ spirit with in your physical body) in the future it would be Apollo.

Kay and I are planning a Psychic Party / Home Warming at the end of November and the invites have gone out via Facebook. So check your Facebook inbox for invites, should be a good evening of fun.

Write soon,

Antony

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Friday 30 October 2009
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