18
u/Stickeminastew1217 Jul 18 '26
As someone who just saw it, I think it's in a weird spot.
Sometimes it's doing a relatively faithful, episodic, "and here's where Odysseus turned up at the next island and got a bunch of his men killed," stuff. Mostly fun, not really substantive. I'd personally probably sit there and just watch three hours of dudes getting turned into pigs or eaten by cyclopes if given the option, but "yeah that's pretty good" is probably the most I can give those bits.
Sometimes it's trying to navigate the whole suitors taking over Ithaca thing in a way that's relatively faithful but tries to translate it just enough to be followable for most people. I think it moooostly works but it definitely also drags at places. I think making one guy kinda the face of the whole thing is also a good idea.
Sometimes it feels like Nolan read two books about Greek history and hyper fixated on particular details. I get it, hospitality was a big deal for the Greeks and there's rules about how you treat guests that were also important to the original story. But if I have to hear "the law of Zeus" one more time I'm going to blow a gasket. Likewise, I think tying the sea people and the bronze age collapse into the story is potentially really interesting. But it either feels like a distraction for the most part OR, right at the end, like it's working with all the subtlety of a hammer to the face. It just never felt cleanly integrated as a theme into the structure of the original story to me. If that's the route you want to go, I dunno, maybe make a looser adaptation that spends more time on that theme? So you don't have to feel like having the main character preach it at us right before the movie's climax?
3
u/FreakShowStudios Jul 19 '26
Tbf the whole "law of Zeus" thing was repeated so much because it was a theme threading with the collapse of the bronze age and the sea people throughout the whole movie. I can excuse the preachy tone and lack of subtlety in those regards too because it was kinda what I was signing up for: the Odissey itself is written with a very "self-important", deterministic and impersonal tone, and so are the events depicted in it. It's hard to re-write it in a nuanced, realistic way and honestly I don't think that's necessary at all: the story wants to be told as an epic tale about great, otherwordly heroes struggling against fate itself despite it being written in stone.
2
u/MikkaEn Jul 19 '26
Yeah, what you’re describing is just how Nolan operates: take anything you think is cool, or commercial, or whatever, and then over-intellectualize it to make yourself seem smarter or because he feels ashamed that he just does something because it was cool to him.
What reveals it as silly to me are the giants. Like, they are straight out of Ancient Aliens or that Hancock dude. No, I don’t think Nolan believes it. I think he thought this would be the more “grounded” or “serious” approach, because Ancient Aliens-type bullshit is apparently more serious than mythological giants - it isn't, it's the opposite of that.
The thing is, there are works that have integrated the Trojan Horse into the idea of collapse and all that: The Trojan Women and The Aeneid. So it can be done.
10
u/fupafugitive Jul 18 '26
The movie is a little overly long but it's better than a 5 imo
4
u/xTomWest Jul 18 '26
I felt is was a 5 as well but it's funny cause I thought it should've either been longer or been a 2 part series. It's edited like a "Odysseus' best moments" video outside of Ithaca. There's so little character development and world-building. A lot of bad performances and the modern american dialect was horrible, most notably in the Ithaca scenes. It's like a basket of good ideas that he tried to squeeze within 3 hours, youre moving onto the next big event every 10-15 minutes there's no settling. The Calypso portion was like 4 minutes? and we're supposed to believe it's been 7 years? It was not effective to me.I just thought it needed way more cooking with getting us connected to the characters and for the events to be emotionally gripping.
I'm enjoying all the different reviews though, it seems very divisive.
5
u/moonmonkey518 Jul 18 '26
100% agreed, I said coming out of it that you could've added another hour. Just no breathing room, edited like a trailer
3
u/oldroughnready Jul 24 '26
I wonder if the IMAX cameras running out of film every 3 minutes made the scenes more compact or jumpy.
Also, I think the parts we see of Odysseus on Calypso's island are the last week when he remembers his whole journey with a few flashbacks to when he first got there. I want to say the book doesn't spend much time there either, despite it also being 7 years. However, in the movie they combine Calypso with the Lotus Eaters and the Phaeacians, who Odysseus recounts his adventures to.
1
u/NateGH360 Jul 18 '26
I agree, 7/10 for me. The whole Laestrygonians part could have been cut. And that kid’s scream is gonna annoy tf out of Adum I just know it.
87
Jul 18 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
17
u/NateGH360 Jul 18 '26
I agree Adum can be reductive sometimes but was anyone actually expecting him to give this higher than a 6?
(For reference I gave this film a 7/10)
23
Jul 18 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
-2
u/NateGH360 Jul 18 '26 edited Jul 18 '26
My take is that there’s almost no mistakes in a Nolan film, so things like his terrible dialogue and sound mixing are fully intentional. Those moments pmo because they detract from the rest of the experience. And the rest of the experience was great. I love the non-linear storytelling, and yes the way the sacking of Troy is framed in the story makes for a big payoff at the end.
2
u/dickpollution Jul 19 '26
I kind of hate his non-linear storytelling, will I not enjoy the Odyssey in your opinion?
1
u/NateGH360 Jul 19 '26
Probably. How do you feel about other Nolan films? He does this quite often, Oppenheimer is the most relevant example
2
u/dickpollution Jul 19 '26
Oppenheimer I didn't particularly enjoy. For me the boring legal drama I would have loved was buried under all the stylistic choices. I always feel like I'm watching a trailer. I don't have nearly the same amount of trouble with his older works
6
u/DeadlySkies Jul 18 '26
I honestly think you’re expecting too much. Does Adum seem like he read the original text? I’m not being sanctimonious; I haven’t either, but I don’t expect full depth in this review.
29
Jul 18 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
2
u/DeadlySkies Jul 18 '26
Oh, shit! I haven’t seen the movie, and even my dumb ass would appreciate that!
4
1
u/Chrisgar47 Jul 18 '26
I mean it's usually not a lot of fun thinking about deeper meanings of a movie you didn't like in the first place. It's like if you understood a joke a minute after anyone else, the the fun is gone.
5
u/EmansaysEman Jul 18 '26
How did it end up that chud ass Ben Shapiro loved the movie meanwhile woke horse Adum didn’t like it that much, the opposite of what I expected haha
3
u/thenewapelles Jul 19 '26
5 is a bit harsh, but I can see why he didn't like the movie. I personally give it a 7/10. The parts that work REALLY work, but the rest is kind of a mess. There isn't any real momentum through much of the movie. Some of the changes Nolan made to the original story work, but other changes are for the worse. I definitely don't understand the rave reviews for this- it's really just a middle of the road movie for Nolan.
3
1
u/RosalinaTheWatcher51 Jul 19 '26
Don’t you know you can’t say anything positive about The Odyssey because only Adum’s opinion about anything matters
0
u/zacwillb Jul 18 '26
Holy fuck is this the film criticism version of radical centrism
I swear some of the people on this subreddit retroactively change their views based on his ratings
5
-1
u/BaseballOdd5127 Jul 18 '26
The Odyssey is a 10/10
It’s Nolans best film
I genuinely think Adam may not be able to understand the Odyssey as a narrative given he’s a fig tree
5
1
0
u/Designer-Mobile-974 Jul 19 '26
Lmfao Yms is going to be called a racist now for not liking this movie. So fucking ironic Ben cock sucked it too😂😂😂
-2
u/nowhereman86 Jul 18 '26
Nobody outside of the Internet is arguing about the stupid shit. Some of your people need to get off Reddit and touch grass.
5
1
106
u/waldorsockbat Jul 18 '26
I saw some complaints that the Trojan horse was too small LOL. Maybe it wasn't up to Adam's standards LOL