The Odyssey - Movie Discussion - Spoilers

Release day

We have users in the theatre now so we can have this as a spoilers thread and keep the other thread spoiler free.

One of the more polarizing pre release movies in TD history, curious to hear everyone's opinions that actually watch the movie.

Hopefully it lives up to the pre-release ratings/hype.



Movie Review *Spoilers*


Overall it was a very solid movie. Just a pretty impressive accomplishment overall by Nolan and one of the better theater experiences I've had in my life. I think I've only ever went to see a handful of movies twice in the theater on it's original release (LOTR TT & ROTK, The Dark Knight, Dune) but I will be seeing this a second time for the experience alone. The Cyclops scene itself was worth the price of admission.

Highlights: The adaption itself. Nolan took a story that seemed impossible to adapt but made it feel quite realistic. He had artistic liberties like every adaption, but most all of them complimented the story very well. For instance, in the poem the first few books are essentially Telemachus telling suitors "Stop eating our food!" A pretty boring part of the poem. But the added drama given with the suitors and in particular Antinous made for a more interesting and believable beginning. The first 1/4 of the film was still probably the slowest but not as slow as I was expecting, the flashbacks helped with that.

The visuals. One of the better looking movies I've ever seen. No doubt about it. The lack of CGI was noticeable and just showed itself throughout the movie as being an excellent choice by limiting it. Felt more like LOTR The Two Towers than it did The Hobbit. Cyclops was obviously a highlight but there were other equally impressive visuals throughout. Circe's scenes were straight out of a horror movie and incredibly well done. Everything about the Trojan Horse was better than any previous adaption of it before. The actual horse itself but also the POV from inside the horse was awesome. Not sure who it's up against but it will almost certainly win for Cinematography.

The acting. I would think there are going to be a lot of nominations for acting, but I don't know if there are any winners. Tom Holland as Telemachus for best supporting actor if I had to guess, he was a highlight for me and showed he's going to do a pretty good job of breaking away from just being known as Spiderman. Robert Pattinson as Antinous would probably be another highlight, he played a very good coward. Jon Bernthal as Menelaus might have been my favorite though.

Things I'm mixed on:

Matt Damon and Anne Hathaway. I think if you like Matt Damon you will think he did a good job and if you dislike him as an actor, you'll think he wasn't a good fit. I will say I think there were better options out there but he didn't hold the film back at all for me, he just doesn't have a ton of range like some others. I thought Hathaway as Penelope overacted at times but when I got out of the theater I had a text from my buddy that said Anne Hathaway better win an Oscar for that. So maybe I'm in the minority there.

Really wish the Gods were more noticeably involved. I think that was probably impossible to do, actually portraying Zeus, Poseidon, etc., but it would have been cool. Though I understand the reasons why he didn't. But even Athene and Calypso were kind of less involved or powerful as I was hoping. In the beginning of the poem Athene is actively helping Telemachus get ready for his journey and she is noticeably absent in the movie. Telemachus told a few people "You have the eyes of Athene" hinting that that person might actually be Athene but one of the earlier guys he tells that later dies in battle so we know that was not Athene, unless I missing something. I would have preferred they went with the poems version of why Odysseus was there with Calypso so long and that she offered him immortality.

I would have liked to have seen the Phaeacians. That is a highlight of the poem and it was cut entirely. I guess he really only wanted you to see the struggle of the journey and not a peaceful visit. Also the movie would have had to of been four hours if he included that so some things had to go.

On to the things that people cried about pre movie without seeing the movie:

Travis Scott. Maybe one minute total screen time and he played a bard/poet with no back and forth dialogue. The ending credits song was actually very fitting. It wasn't a rap song and you wouldn't have even known it was a Travis Scott song unless you were told before hand. Should be a complete non factor for not seeing this.

Ellen Paige. I personally thought it was awesome that a terrible casting for a soldier ended up playing just a terrible soldier. She had maybe 2-3 actual screen time minutes. I am assuming Nolan had Odysseus talk to a dead Sinon instead of Achilles just because he wasn't wanting Achilles the movie at all. Ellen Paige as Sinon and not Achilles aside, that was a fantastic scene.

Lupita N'Yongo or however you spell it. Terrible casting but as we found out before, she was, like in the book, a non factor for this movie. Maybe 5 mintes screen time total, probably less and only a handful of sentences spoken.

Costume and set design. People saw still shots of Agememnon and went crazy over it. But I'm sorry his armor was badass. It was not era appropriate in the same way kilts weren't with Braveheart for me. It looked awesome, but I can see how some would dislike it. But overall, the costumes were incredible and even better were the sets. The sets were as impressive as you can get.

Dialogue. Matt Damons dialogue at times was wooden. The "dad" and "daddy" lines were early on in the movie and if that distracts you then it's going to distract you. But i don't think the language is going to take you out of the movie but for a few brief moments. Overall still had a very epic feel to it.

Sound/sound editing/score. Some people are going to dislike it because that's the thing to do now. He's had his lowlights for sure, especially Tenet, but this was a highlight for me. On the way home Mrs. Iwy said she hopes they win an Oscar for the score and how well it built the tension. I looked over a few times, especially with the Laestrygonians and she was literally biting her nails because of the tension. I asked my 72 year old dad when we got out if he could hear the dialogue ok and he said "O shite yea man, I had to take my damn hearing aids out it was so loud"

8.5/10, will see again.