Everybody Remembers Classics.....and the Hercules from Disney

         I have a question for you: Do you know who Hercules is? I’m sure you do. Hercules is probably the most famous character from the Greek mythology, even more than another god, demigod, or mortal; even more than Zeus itself. Why he is so famous, like he is sometimes considered the main character of mythology; meaning that for those who do not really know much about mythology, the first thing that comes to their head when you ask them about it is Hercules. I guess that is maybe for his unbelievable force what makes him so popular.

            Furthermore, I’m sure you have seen the Hercules movie from Disney, at least once. I have seen around seven times at least (haha). It is for sure the first mythological movie I saw. If you would ask me, I think it is an awesome adaptation of a little piece of Greek Mythology into a child’s cartoon movie. The movie is conformed of most of the important facts of mythology. I mean if a kid would watch it he would just be like: Oh! So awesome, I want to be like Hercules mom! However, the movie does include mythological characteristics. For example, the cult from the mortals to the gods, the gods having their awesome parties in their bronze-made palaces (over the sky), banishment of Hades from the Olympus, his thirst for revenge against the Olympians, and of course the moral that every movie on mythology wants to transmit: Being a Human makes you stronger than a God!

The Clash Becomes the Wrath

PlayTraiIers. 2011. video. Youtube, USA. Web. 28 Apr 2012. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mQckuXV6DRA>.

   

     This just released film is the sequel of The Clash of the Titans. In this second part, the story has changed a little bit, different girl, new demigods, and our hero is a father. However, the main characteristic of the series is still there: family problems and misunderstandings. Moreover, this time the enemy alliance is formed by Hades and Ares. If you can recall, you will remember that Perseus was the son of Zeus. So, that fact sort of makes him Ares’ brother. My point with this is to make clear that this movie is all about brothers’ revenges. Hades wants to kill Zeus for betraying him in the first movie; and Ares wants to kill Perseus because he is just jealous that Zeus gives more attention to Perseus than to him. Wait, there is more, this time the bad guys are not just trying to fulfill their dreams. This time the two gods are going big, they want to release Cronus, most powerful titan ever and father of Zeus and Hades, in order to destroy their brothers. Anyways, I’m going to tell you something; if you watch the trailer, it is awesome, like I would even nominate the trailer for best movie of the year, and it is not even a movie. The movie, on the other hand, is not really what I expected to watch. It just lacks some sense of what a human, even a demigod, is able to do. For that I mean that Perseus being the only one able to kill Cronus is not quite believable, even for mythology or science fiction.

Zeus' Pupil, Theseus

              The Immortals is a recent mythological movie that just came out about three months ago. Being honest, when first saw the trailer, I knew this movie was either going to be really good or that it was going to be really bad. I don’t really know why, it just came to my mine that way. I guess I was looking at it in that way because the trailer seemed like those trailers that are awesome and then the movie is totally disappointing. Anyways, the movie turned out to be pretty interesting. In this movie, the main character is Theseus, one of the biggest heroes of Greek mythology, who does not really have a birth connection with the gods, he is totally human. However, he was touch by the gods, and according to the movie he was one of Zeus’ favorite mortals. Moreover, the fact that I liked the most about this movie, which is actually true in the Greek mythology, is that they call the titans to be no more than gods. In the movie, they explain how in the war fought by the Olympians against the rest of the gods (war known by the name of Titanomachia), the defeaters came to be call the gods, and the defeated came to be called titans. 

Perseus Jackson, Son of Poseidon

Percy Jackson and the Olympians is a series of five books created by the writer Rick Riordan. However, only the first of the five books, Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightening Thief has been release as a cinematographically film so far. When I first heard about the movie, I was really excited about it about watching and reading all the books. However, when I watched the movie, I turned really disappointed about the series.

The movie is based on a version of Greek Mythology being turned to these days, meaning 2010. In this world, the gods live in the United States and the Olympus is located right over the Empire State, in the floor six hundred. So, it happened to be that the gods started having offspring with the mortals of the United States. Moreover, these new group of demigods have supernatural skills and characteristics, which makes them superior to the mortals.

Furthermore, the story centers about a son of Poseidon, the god of sea. This talented kid has an interesting destiny that could either kill him or turn him to be one of the greatest demigods in the history.

I know from this point the plot does not sound bad at all. Honestly, the books are pretty amazing. The first movie, however, is not so good.

Clash Between Gods and Mortals

The Clash of the Titans is a movie released in 2010, with the casting of Sam Worthington, Liam Neeson and Ralph Fiennes. This film about Greek Mythology recounts the story and myths of Perseus, the demigod and son of the great king of the gods, Zeus. The movie starts with Perseus birth. In addition Perseus was actually a bastard. His mother was once the queen of Argos. She became involved with Zeus by accident. It was a trap from Zeus to get Argos’ king’s wife pregnant. This trap was all because Acrisius, once king of Argos, was cursing over the gods and turning his followers against the gods. Moreover, Acrisius threw his pregnant wife into the ocean, but Perseus survived and was found by a fisherman and his wife.

            Furthermore, what I find particularly interesting about this movie is that Perseus, being half god and half human, does not want any relationship with the gods. He even rejects the help from the gods more than one time, just in order to prove that human beings are as strong and superior as the gods. Also, in this movie, the gods are physically shown. This movie represents how in the Greek Mythology the gods would fight their wars and misunderstanding through the humans.

Greece, Troy, and the Gods

Picture gotten from Warner 
Bros. Pictures. 2003. poster.
 n.p. Web. 27 Apr 2012.
<http://upload.wikimedia.org/
wikipedia/en/b/b8/Troy2004Poster.jpg>.

        I'm sure everybody can remember the spectacular release that was the movie Troy in 2004. In my opinion troy is the best mythological movie ever created, and I'm sure I speak for millions of people, when I say that Troy was a complete success. The Movie of Troy with Brad Pitt, Eric Bana, and Orlando Bloom, was published on 2004. It was based on Homer’s poem, the Iliad. In addition, Homer was the one to make a collection of poems, or we could also call stories, about the real myths of the Greek mythology. In other words, from him come the base and all the branches of Greek mythology. Anyways, the movie centers on the legendary war of troy. The war of troy was a ten years-long war fought between Greece and Troy. In the movie, the gods don’t really appear themselves. However, they take sides in the war. This characteristic was much known among the Greeks. Ancient Greece respected and veneered their gods, and all of them fear for the gods’ actions. So they always tried to be in good relationship with them. In the movie, we can see how the different characters think and care about this, and how they end up by the end of the movie. In my opinion, this particular movie has been the best mythological movie so far because it respects and follows the actual events of the Greek mythology; it is pretty accurate.