Centurion

What did I just watch? I did not like this movie at all it was extremely gory for my liking but I do not think I would have minded it as much if the gore would have looked at least somewhat realistic. Other than that the movie was really boring the only parts that were not that bad were the ones were there was no fighting involved, which was not a lot considering most of the movie were action fight sequence with very fake gore. Some of the similarities that I noticed from The Eagle was that no one found out what really happened to them and that both legions were killed by theses vicious people.  But other than that there was not a lot that was similar to the movie.  Yes they both did have fighting sequence but the Eagle had more tasteful fighting sequence and there was an actual storyline to The Eagle.  I found myself constantly distracting myself from Centurion because a lot of the gory scenes made me uncomfortable while with The Eagle; I enjoyed a lot of the movie.  If I had to pick between the two I would pick The Eagle without hesitation.  Centurion was in my opinion just really bad, and though The Eagle was not the most amazing movie I enjoyed it a lot more than Centurion.  As for the visual aspect from both movies Centurion used a blue tint while The Eagle used a more yellow tint but there were a few scenes that used the blue tint.  One thing that I liked at the beginning of Centurion was that I thought that there was going to be a strong female character that was going to be amazing but those hopes were quickly smashed but then I felt hopeful again because I thought her anger was justified but I found almost no depth to her character she was just an angry woman that wanted revenge.  In the end I was left wanting more detail and depth to this movie, and I will definitely not watch this movie again.

The Eagle

I was a little confused towards the beginning of the movie because it seemed like the actors were trying to speak in an accent, then they seemed to have given up and then they would try to talk in the accent again.  That was the main thing that bothered me from this movie but other than that I liked it.  Another thing that I was not too happy with was with the casting, I think that they could have picked a better actor for the role of Aquila but maybe if he had worked a little more on talking with the appropriate accent I would not have minded as much.  My favorite character was Esca; I think he was really great all throughout the movie.  There were moments were I thought that the scenes could have been changed were they did not sound too ridiculous, for example when Aquila saves Esca, the way that he demands that everyone change their minds and let Esca live, I just laughed throughout that scene because it sounded really ridiculous, I think that it could have been done differently and still get the point across that the people of ancient Rome were easily influenced by a person of higher standard.  I did however like that this movie had so much detail from the religion to how the soldiers and I liked that for the first time the soldiers were not portrayed as these fearless men and I liked that they were humanized in this movie compared to how in the older toga movies they seem like nothing could go wrong and if it did they would come out of it looking better. I also liked that for once we see that not all soldiers were happy with Rome, that they were roman and were loyal to Rome but at the same time they did not agree with Rome completely.  Overall I liked this movie, I thought it was all right and if it ever was on TV and there was nothing else on I would watch it again.

Letters of Synesius to Hypatia

It was really interesting to read the letters of Synesius to Hypatia because they were about so many different topics.  In the movie, though it does not say why Synesius left I just thought of it being something that just happens, but through his letters I noticed that he was not happy where he was living.  He often wrote about how miserable he was and how if he could change where to live he would but that he couldn’t. It was also sad to realize that the movie Agora got all the killings right because I had hoped that it was something that was added purely for the film but it was not. I was however glad that I was still able to tell that he was a good person but was surprised to read that he was being faithless because he professes grace and harmony. It seems to me that if I would to go back in time and become a peace advocate I would have probably been killed. It is very evident through his letters that Synesius held Hypatia to a very high standard and that he trusted her implicitly. I can imagine that being a bishop would have been a career that if any small action was done that was not common that he would have been questioned. I was surprised to find out that Synesius had children because in the movie they make him seem like he was this virtuous bishop, which now that I think about it, he was probably portrayed that way because we would expect a Christian bishop to be virtuous.  All throughout when he was talking about his sons I kept thinking if it was his sons in the sense like a priest calls everyone his sons and daughters or if he actually had sons from his wife or from an affair, or maybe even someone he was courting before he became a bishop. I like these letters and would have loved to read Hypatia’s response to these letters and see if she felt the same way about Synesius and to especially to get a better understanding what it was like to be a female philosopher in that time era.
 

Agora

This movie was by far my favorite movie of the whole course.  Unfortunately, like in Cleopatra, the only female strong character ends up dying and everyone ends up hating her because she if a female that men, or just three men, look up to and respect. I was really upset when Hypatia died I was really hoping, with her being so smart, that she would convert to Christianity. I liked that for once Christianity was the one that was shown in a bad light but by having Synesius as representation of the good Christian that allowed for me to see that not all Christians were evil but that just particular group.  I definitely felt myself feel angry whenever Cyril would come on screen because I could not believe that someone who claimed to want peace on earth was twisting the bible into his word that would work for his advantage and I once again felt angry when he read that passage during mass directed to Orestes but then I noticed that I felt angry because I am so used to thinking that women can be whomever they want to be and are not oppressed or as oppressed by men anymore and it made me realize that being a philosopher in ancient Rome might not have been that bad but being a female philosopher in ancient Rome, especially a female that men of high standard admire and listen to would be considered scandalous and wrong.  I liked that even though there were fight sequences in this movie, they were not too gory and they were also not the center of attention of this movie.  I would have really liked the movie if in the end Hypatia would have accepted Orestes and married him and she would have converted and lived, but I am just one of those people that likes it when a movie has a happy ending.  I also felt that Davus was supposed to have a much more important influence in the movie instead of just being the one that killed Hypatia.  I also really enjoyed that all of the characters seemed a lot more complex then any of the other characters in the other movies; it was definitely something refreshing to see.