The Odyssey

[Bernard Woolley]

EPIC!

Yes, that is my review. Go and see it! And see it in an IMAX if you can.

[Sukhoiman]

Agree wholeheartedly.

Couple flaws here and there, but they are minor.

Loved the greater interpretation Nolan brought to Odysseus w.r.t the Illiad that we dont find in Homer's work directly (though it is implied somewhat).

Wont give spoilers on that, highly recommended to watch to see what one makes of it.

[Bernard Woolley]

I think it could have done to loose 25-30 minutes, but I don't know what should have been chopped! Even the parts of the film that I thought were a bit flawed were still very good.

I was interesting to see the hints of real history that Nolan worked into the story. Especially towards the end.

As an aside, on top of my recommendation to go see it, when you do got to the cinema, be sure to check how close the WC are to your chosen screen! 2 hours 53 minutes can leave one with a real need to 'go' and you don't want the journey to the loo to be an odyssey!

[Simon Darkshade]

I have read that Nolan did not feature Odysseus' act of hubris as he fled following the blinding of Polyphemus. If that is the case, then we kind of lose the reason as to why he is buggered for the next 10 years through Poseidon's vengeance; it is kind of central to the story. It would be an odd thing to leave out, and it does leave me a bit uncertain as to whether to see it when it comes out online; there is no way I could afford to go to the cinema.

[Bernard Woolley]

It is in there, if not quite in the way it is in the poem. We do know that Polyphemus is the son of Poseidon, for example.

[Simon Darkshade]

The thing is that I don't really want to see Chris Nolan's spin on Emily Wilson's translation, or Clint Eastwood's, or Martin Scorcese's. The story is timeless, deep and brilliant enough, and the themes complex enough that it doesn't really need a fresh twist, just as a high quality steak doesn't need an elaborate and overpowering sauce.

The combination of the features/parts outlined in the links below makes me leery. To miss the purpose of something, or to change it that significantly would be like making Dunkirk, but then having the reason that the war between the Allies and Germany is occuring being, say, Herman Goering abducting Anne de Vere Chamberlain, rather than opposing Hitlerian aggression and facing down a ravenous monster.

https://apnews.com/article/odyssey-chri ... d7e8de8abe
https://www.inverse.com/entertainment/t ... pher-nolan

[Jotun]

I will certainly not waste my money on seeing this in a cinema

I certainly wasn't a rabid detracor of the movie, but certain choices and statements rubbed me the wrong way.

Lupita Nyong'o holding forth about the supposed shortcomings of Homer and the Iliad and Odyssey - while having stated to never havng read them before - while dismissing the concerns about at least a minimum of historical accuracy as inconsequenial because the Odyssey is 'myth'...the same Ms. Nyong'o who once pontificated on making fucking WAKANDA "accurate" is one of the things that made me lift my inner middle finger. She also judged a 2,500 year-old text by modern standards. Which is a cardinal error that is usually taught to be avoided like the plague in history class in school, not university. The historian in me basically started sharpening his ax.

What exasperates me is the blatant double standards. Homer's two epics are two of THE foundational myths of Greek and by extension European civilization. Was any respect rendered to it by any of the involved actors, the director or the studio? And legitimate criticism such as by Greek historians was brushed aside and lumped in with the rabid idiocy of certain parts of the internet 'public' as "far Right".

Now, just to compare, look at the reactions by the media to what Andy Serkis just stated about ethnic diversity in the upcoming 'prequel' to LOTR. Yeah...

I'll catch it on stream. Maybe.

[Bernard Woolley]

I have no idea what Lupita Nyong'o has said, but she was very good, IMVHO, as Helen.

[Jotun]

I have no idea what Lupita Nyong'o has said, but she was very good, IMVHO, as Helen.

She holds a Master's degree in Fine Acting from Yale. She spoke like a half educated activist.
She is a good actress but an abject idiot.

[Bernard Woolley]

All I really know about her casting is that Space Karen hated it.

[Belushi TD]

Space Karen?

I get the Karen reference, but don't get the space part....


Belushi TD

[Bernard Woolley]

A nickname for Elon Musk. See also Phoney Stark.

[Belushi TD]

Ah, thank you

Belushi TD

[Bernard Woolley]

Cross posting from Jokes.

[warshipadmin]

They had a segment on their ABC about the price of cinema tickets, inspired by $60 ($40) Imax tickets. An economist pointed out how weird it was that in general you pay as much to see a crap, short, film, as opposed to a long good one. The interviewer seemed to think it was a lot to pay for 3 hours. Meanwhile I'm paying $150 for ok seats at the opera.

[gtg947h]

the price of cinema tickets, inspired by $60 ($40) Imax tickets.

And that is one of the (many) reasons I don't go to the movies any more.

[Bernard Woolley]

Yikes, that’s expensive! Cost me just over £15.

[Nick Sumner]

(Rant mode on) I found it incredibly disappointing, neither the director or the script writer understood the character of Odysseus. Homer writes him as a self-confident man of action, who’s arrogance leads to his troubles, yet we were presented with someone who is introspective and traumatized. The chain of events that sets off all his problems, the taunting of the cyclops by telling him his name, is not even present in Nolan‘s version of the story. But at least they kept the spirit of the ending, which I feared was going to be softened and dumbed down for a modern audience.

I’ve never seen worse casting than John Bernthal as Menelaus. At least the plot was understandable, which is more than can be said for Tenet...

Clytemnestra poked Agamemnon's eyes out in a wood. She didn't stab him in the bedroom.

The final sequence owes more to Alfred Lord Tennyson's Ulysses than to Homer and I found the harping on about the Sea Peoples jarring. Homer doesn't mention them, no Greek text does to my knowledge and the only reason we know of their part in the Bronze Age Collapse is from Egyptian records.

I’ve read the Odyssey in a couple of translations, my favourite is the one by TE Lawrence, yes, THAT TE Lawrence. (Rant mode off)

[MikeKozlowski]

...Check out O Brother Where Art Thou - which puts some substantial chunks of The Odyssey in 1930s Louisiana. I do not exaggerate when I say this is one of the most delightful films I've ever seen, and the music is superb.

Mike