Tag: Marwan Kenzari

The Return/Itaka: The Return (2024) | ♫ Odyssey, Ya See ♫

Premiered at TIFF in 2024, The Return, here called Itaka: The Return, to make more clear this is indeed about The Odyssey, that one from Homer.

Directed by Uberto Pasolini (uncle of cinema maestro Luchino Visconti and mostly know for producing the 1997 Peter Cattaneo directed cult comedy The Full Monty), The Return is a retelling of the last chapters of the epic, with Odysseus washing up naked to Itaka, the island he once ruled before getting involved in the Trojan War, only for it see having been overtaken by arrogant sultors to the queen Penelope, whom she keeps rejecting, buying time with the loom scheme, but their son, Telemachus is also facing death as the sultors see him as a treat to their ambitions.

So Odysseus, posing as a vagrant, visits the city, and despite being traumatized by the horrors of the war, he eventually rises up to the challenge in his characteristically crafty fashion.

We know the story. This retelling opts to focus on the “Journey To Ithaka Arc” and eskew any mythology, doing away with gods, magic and monsters to center of the familial and human drama of a father coming home to see it defaced by strangers, a king his kingdom brought to ruin, his relationships with the son he never saw before already compromised, and his reluttance to shed blood (even for justice) as we focus on him suffering basically from PTSD.

This is where i say there’s a “small” issue that ultimately undercuts the whole idea… but actually no, the more realistic-gritty tone works without defacing or changing the events chosen to be retold this way, even if the pacing suffers a bit it sticks to the canon, the acting by Ralph Fiennes and Juliette Binoche in particular are terrific, making for absorbing drama.

[EXPRESSO] Black Adam (2022) | Avenging The Stone

Dwayne Johnson first foray into actual superhero films happens to be in the DC Extended Universe, and it also happens to be very, very bad, but not for the reasons you’d think.

As in, i will argue that Morbius is still worse, but you could also counter with the premise of that movie having some potential, where in Black Adam there’s no effort put to anything, to the point where its way too generic, sharing the same symptoms seen in the regular cut of the Justice League movie, but actually worse, as the new group of heroes are blatant knock offs of Marvel’s roster (even if the characters themselves originally weren’t), with some straight up copying the Marvel’s shtick and mannerisms, when they don’t remind you of the X-Men.

Or the movie it’s just speedrunning every superhero movie cliches and recurrent flaws to the ground, with overly long exposition dumps, deranged abuse of slo-mo, predictable and unsatisfying narratives with the twists seen coming MILES away.

Do not forget a villain so lazy and boring you’ll pine for Justice League’s Steppenwolf.

The plot centers about the titular anti-hero Black Adam, an ancient egyptian man born slave than was bestowed incredible powers by the mage Shazam, and later sealed.

When he’s summoned back by a woman trying to stop a criminal empire, he unleashes his rage, prompting Amanda Waller to sick the Justice Society of superheroes to stop him, as he does not subscribe to the non-lethal kind of superhero combat.

The movie has some funny/cute scenes, and it tries to say something about the need for violence to fight the oppressors, etc, but as with everything in Black Adam, it’s mediocre at the very best, but always completely superficial and so generic it hurts. Even with Dwayne Johnson doing his thing.