Some Odyssey thoughts (part 1?)

Here is what happens to Odysseus:

Right before the Trojan War, O and Penelope have a son, Telemachus. Penelope doesn't want O to go to war, and instead asks him to sail with her into the west.

We learn that Zeus's Law is the golden rule, and binds a host's conduct to a guest, and vice versa. The penalty for breaking Zeus's Law is death or exile. 

O makes a cunning plan to give the Trojans a gift, you know the one, which will violate Zeus's Law and defeat the Trojans. He tricks Eliot Page, who is on his side, because Eliot "needed to believe it", that the gift really is a gift. Eliot Page dies. Once O is inside the city, he lets Agamemnon and the Greeks into the city, and follows behind Agamemnon. The Greeks massacre the Trojans, including, especially, noncombatants and priests. O realizes he has broken Zeus's Law for everyone forever. He no longer wants to return home.

He sees himself as a follower of Agamemnon, which makes him sick, and also as a sui generis leader, responsible for the whole affair.

When it's time to sail home, O doesn't want to sail behind Agamemnon anymore. He'd rather take riskier uncharted routes, see new stuff, pick up some more loot, or so he tells his crew. He is tricking them, and maybe himself, because in truth he simply doesn't want to go home again. They sail for a while (on the north coast of Africa?), looting and killing all the way. Odysseus is more frustrated with the people they pillage, for not extending Zeus's welcome, than remorseful of his actions here.

One day the crew expects to enjoy the hospitality of a shepherd who lives in a cave, but the shepherd is a monster who traps them and eats some crew members. Odysseus most of them out by dressing the men up as animals, sheep. He nearly fucks everyone when he shoots an arrow at the monster after they have left the cave, but nobody important dies, and nothing comes of it.

More bad luck and scary ports follow. O loses the support of the crew, who stage a minor mutiny. They are turned to pigs by a witch. The witch tells O that she simply revealed their inner nature as greedy animals, and that they would have killed her, and O cannot control them. O seems to want to take all responsibility for their actions, while saying that they are not that bad, while she tells him they are really bad. He gets her to turn the men back.

O talks to some dead people. Eliot Page is angry that O tricked him. Agamemnon meanwhile says more trickery is necessary, that if O comes home openly he will be killed like Agamemnon was. O promises to honor the dead by sailing west of Ithaca. He repeats this promise a fair deal. I won't bring it up every time, just remember it.

O hears the sirens. They remind him of his past misdeeds, but don't bring about any dramatic character change. Well acted scene though!

O tricks his crew into mutinying against him. The circumstances are complicated but really who cares; his point is that if they act according to his secret plan, 6 of them will die, while if they act according to his apparent plan, or if he simply tells them the truth, all of them will die. It's not satisfying or likely.

O has totally lost the support of his crew. He tells them if they land on a certain island and eat certain cattle, they will all die. Maybe they believe him, maybe not. They land, and eat the cattle, and die.

Up to this point, every time O tricks someone, they die.

O is rescued from shipwreck by Charlize Theron, who drugs him to calm his mind. He lives with her, banging it out for 7 years, until eventually he realizes he wants to remember who he is and what happened. She talks him through the events of the story so far. He now wants to return home. (Why?) He gives up control of his fate, and thereby does return home.

When he gets home, he tricks (or tries to trick) John Leguizamo, Telemachus, and Penelope, to test their loyalty to him. Also he tricks the suitors, who are nasty. His son realizes who he is. O speaks to Penelope and explains why O hadn't wanted to return home. He explains that he and his men are the dangerous "sea peoples" who terrorize the coastline. (This concept is lightly touched on earlier with other characters. It hasn't been brought up with or around O before.) Penelope is touched, and maybe sees through his trickery. O alone kills all the suitors. He has violated Zeus's Law, again, but nobody else has. Thus, when he reunites with Penelope, the two of them can go on his exile into the west to honor the dead, and leave Telemachus in charge.

O has not decided to respect Zeus's Law, but rather calculated a way to break it while incurring the lightest possible punishment.

O and Penelope reflect on events, and O predicts that nobody will remember their mistakes. Not surprising, as even he didn't understand his mistakes.

I thought the photography, effects, and most of the acting was top-notch. It's incredible to watch a 3 hour movie with good pacing. (Except for the final fight scene, which was risible.) The movie opened up so many interesting threads, but didn't close any of them to my satisfaction. It's fun and ambitious. 4/5. Most people will probably enjoy this.