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Too much of everything

terrible... so disappointed.

It’s sentimental, ridiculously long and only occasionally funny

Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

A big fat guy, who is supposed to be Zeus, can't get his thunderbolts to work. He draws in several women and a couple of idiot guys. They are of no help. Pretty soon people don't know what to do and the king of the gods doesn't seem to have any ideas. As is often the case, Melies blows up everything at the end. No wonder the world is in such a mess when these are the supreme beings.

In this brief film, Georges Melies depicts the Greek version of Jupiter: Zeus. There is no explanation for this shift in mythological focus, but the film is nothing more than an excuse for the Zeus character to fret and dance about while trying to figure out why his thunder balls do not work properly. In so doing, Zeus draws upon the muses to help him out it seems, but they do little aside from dancing about with him. The actual trick of the film is not featured until near the end, and it really is not much after all. This film is a one-note, one set film much like The Cake-Walk Infernal with the heavy use of smoke as a special effect. **1/2 of 4 stars.

The French call it "Le tonnerre de Jupiter " (The Thunder of Jupiter), but the character herein uses his Greek name, Zeus. It appears on a representation of the sun, as the film opens. Zeus is the leader of all Gods and also the God of Thunder. He appears to have put on weight, and has trouble getting his thunder to work. If intentional, this is a good bit of characterization. A man appears and dances, but Zeus still can't summon thunder. Next, Zeus conjures up some women. They sing and dance. Special effects fire appears. More dancers appear. The narrative suffers near the end. It's possible some of the film is lost.**** Le tonnerre de Jupiter (11/7/03) Georges Melies ~ Georges Melies

Jupiter's Thunderballs (1903) ** 1/2 (out of 4) aka Tonnerre de Jupiter, Le Mildly entertaining trick film from Melies has him playing Zeus, the Greek God of Thunder. Zeus is trying to get his magical lightening to work but he's having problems with it. A group of dancing girls show up to give him a good time but he's mean to them and soon there's a price to pay. This short runs just over three minutes and to be honest that's a tad bit too long since the track shot doesn't happen until the very end of the movie. None of the stuff with the dancing girls is very entertaining so that makes the film get off to a rather slow start. When the actual trick takes place it makes it well worth the way as the joke is pretty funny.