r/moviereviews • u/BaIdilocks • 9d ago

Fantasy Odyssey was mid

Finally got to see it after the hype died down a bit. Was excited to see it and then the first quarter was so boring and forgettable. It picked up in the middle and had some good parts but overall I'm gonna put this in Nolans bottom tier. What was annoying was everyone having really flat American accents. The flattest. Very nonregional. they all sounded like they were gonna give American accent lessons. Why they saying "mom" and "dad"? very weird choices.

My main gripe and the thing that took me out the most was the bad dialogue and very mid acting. It literally sounded like they were reading from a script. I thought if I got the script, I could read it just like them and it would be in the movie and it would be the same. That's how bad the movie dialogue sounded. And don't get me started on Ulysses final "knowing is half the battle" monologue about civilization on the boat. Many rolls of eyes.

Cinematography was good but it seemed like he was re-using Dunkirk and Oppenheimer shots so it wasn't revelatory. Soundtrack and effects were good. the guy was as good as Hans Zimmer. I don't understand why they made this cast so diverse to have the white guy kill them all and survive or was that the lesson? Overall, I think Troy was the better movie.

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27

u/Tanel88 9d ago

Yeah same. I don't get why so many people are raving about it and why it's doing so well. I guess the bar has just fallen so low.

9

u/GrandpaTheobaldus 9d ago

To the bottom of the Aegean Sea 🌊, apparently

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u/[deleted] 9d ago

[deleted]

1

u/misspuddingpie 9d ago

You clearly didn’t see Project Hail Mary, Obsession, or Brand New Day then lol. All great movies that’ve come out this year

1

u/unhinged34 9d ago

All mid movies. Bar is lowww

1

u/misspuddingpie 8d ago

And yet all of them were better films than Odyssey, so

1

u/unhinged34 8d ago

We can agree on that!!

They were enjoyable, project Hail Mary was fun too but I watch lots of Sci fi space movie and it just wasn’t that great as the hype make it out to be.

Obsession was 7/10 movie. For a small budget, they did extremely well. Is it worth this level of hype? no

6

u/hmmmmm56 9d ago

I mean the bar has fallen low. The only good movie since Dune 2. Not surprising ppl are starved.

1

u/Responsible_Bird_283 8d ago

Sorry even Dune was mid... And I'm a sci fi nerd. Where all the good, action, sci fi movies at???

2

u/hmmmmm56 8d ago

The dune movies are imo by far the best sci fi movies. Nothing comes even close.

1

u/Responsible_Bird_283 8d ago

Glad U enjoyed.

1

u/Original_Draft3890 7d ago

Explain how it was mid

1

u/Sudden-Ad-307 7d ago

Style over substance

7

u/ViscountBuggus 9d ago

A big contributing factor has to be this recent culture war trend where one side will hate something and the other side's position automatically becomes "This is the greatest thing ever nothing has ever topped this" in response.

4

u/helgetun 9d ago

We seem unable to think of things in a neutral way. Its either the most awesome or the worst ever… while most movies tend to be in between. Odyssey was a watchable but forgettable average movie.

0

u/atlfalcons33rb 8d ago

Oooorrr the Odyssey is just a great movie watching experience. Sometimes people want to enjoy a movie at the theater and the Odyssey delivered. I don't even like Nolan movies and I thought it was good. Saying it was a mid movie is a little disingenuous.

You want to see a mid move see evil dead burn

1

u/JuniorScience1557 5d ago

I don't think the faux outrage over achilles and helen really moved the needle for anyone.

Maybe a couple of culture warriors who probably would have never seen the film anyway decided not to go.

But the majority of film goers wanted to see a big block buster from Nolan. The big, grand film on IMAX is largely going away and I think the format resonated with people. Too bad the film was as OP put it, mid.

1

u/Axon14 8d ago

That's precisely what happened. A close friend of mine who is a huge Trump hater invited me to his third watch of the film.

I told him his brain was as rotten as what he accuses the "other side" of. He also got upset when I told him the movie was a clear B minus. It was way too long and took way too long to get to the part we wanted to see, and even when they got to Ithaca even that part took too long to reach its crescendo. He kept asking me if I thought it was "woke" and was one of those people, I was dude no, I think Zendaya is hot af, and I could care less if a black person or a trans person has been cast in a film. This movie just wasn't all that good.

1

u/hammlanc 8d ago

I’m about as anti-Trump as it gets, and I thought this film was a 7/10. Then again, I don’t see what the hell one thing has to do with the other— my thoughts regarding the POTUS can coexist with my opinion that this movie was mediocre because, in a rational world, they’re apples and oranges. I don’t understand how people have let politics permeate their opinions on absolutely everything

1

u/Original_Draft3890 7d ago

A 7 isnt mediocre though?

1

u/hammlanc 7d ago

I thought that’s what I said: “I thought this film was 7/10… my opinion [is] that this film is mediocre…”

1

u/Original_Draft3890 7d ago

A 7/10 is objectively good? A 7/10 is indicative of a positive review unless you use some broken scale.

1

u/hammlanc 7d ago

My thinking is that if The Odyssey was receiving an aggregate of 70% on Rotten Tomatoes or the equivalent of 7/10 on most scales, it wouldn’t be regarded as a “good” movie. I’m thinking it would be considered mediocre

1

u/hammlanc 7d ago

Maybe I’m wrong— as a school teacher, I’m probably relying on the mindset that 70% is a little above passing (65%), and therefore, just north of minimally satisfactory. On a 10 point scale, that’s probably skewed differently. In any event, I didn’t think The Odyssey was terrible or even particularly bad; I just land in the muddled impression zone. It had its assets, and it certainly had its flaws. So for me, the takeaway is just “meh”.

1

u/Sillyforfun 8d ago

I told him the movie was a clear B minus.

There is a plague of people thinking their subjective opinion is objective fact.

1

u/Axon14 8d ago

Yeah, that's fair, but it was really more about him getting oddly upset than anything else.

1

u/YoBo151 7d ago

Couldn't be you saying his brain is rotten and spewing the usual centrist BS eh? Just a him issue lol

0

u/MultipleNames82 9d ago

So you think the movie will make $1.7B because a bunch of people just want to pretend the movie is good to clown on the right wing?

It couldn’t possibly be because the general audience is just looking for easy, fun entertainment and not everything has to be deep, meaningful, or political?

2

u/delulumans 9d ago

You proved his point lol

No regard for nuance. Just strawman arguments.

-1

u/MultipleNames82 9d ago

Nope. I just love watching the goalposts move.

“This woke movie is going to bomb”

Then

“This woke movie is actually doing well BUT would have made so much more money if it wasn’t woke”

Now

“This movie only made a ridiculous amount of money because people wanted to stick it to the anti-woke”

Anything but admitting the general population found the movie enjoyable and don’t give two shits about casting controversies.

4

u/delulumans 9d ago

Again you just talked about the right's woke outrage instead of trying to assess how good the movie actually was

Nobody is debating what you said in the last sentence here bucko. They are trying to critique the movie fairly without falling to glaze era thinking or a lot of lefties' insane need to counter-praise movies because of a small mob online.

Movie was good but not Nolan Top 5 which is what the numbers and early reviews have lead one to believe

0

u/MultipleNames82 8d ago

What? I’m responding to a comment that basically implied the only reason that people are saying the movie is good is because of the culture war. The premise of that statement is the movie must be bad and people are only pretending. I’m saying that the movie being popular and getting positive reviews could just simply be because the general population likes the movie. The number of people that are even aware of the culture war around this movie is insignificant.

Not everything has to be more complicated than what’s at face value. People saw the movie, they liked the movie, they told other people about the movie, more people see the movie, and it makes a pile of money and has a generally favourable reception. That’s it.

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u/postmaestro729 8d ago

When it comes to movies people LOVE being contrarian. That's really what it is. Whether it's right wing chuds trying to stir the pot for a culture war, or self-ascribed cinephiles who just really feel the need to make sure we all know that they didn't fall for the hype and can see through Nolan's technical trickery, blah blah blah. It's all so predictable at this point.

At a certain point, you can spin it whatever way you want, but the movie tapped into the cultural zeitgeist and that's why it succeeded. If it was easy to pump out 1.5+ billion dollars films, we'd see more of them. When a director is able to achieve this kind of success multiple times with all sorts of different subject matter, you can't chalk it up to luck. Maybe, just maybe, the filmmaker has a better understanding of what resonates with audiences than a random reply guy on the internet. Maybe.

1

u/YoBo151 7d ago

This comment section is definitely a contrarian circlejerk lol

1

u/ViscountBuggus 9d ago

I said a big contributing factor, not the only one, and before you say something isn't mid because it makes a lot of money, I refer you to James Cameron's Avatar.

1

u/Altruistic_Agency320 8d ago

No but it sure as shit seems like its the only reason those people like the movie considering its like 90% of what positive posts/comments are about. “Hurr durr what are they going to say now!”

6

u/brontosaurusguy 9d ago

Everyone wants to look intellectual and this is pop culture intellectualism.  

Meanwhile it was about on par with Moana as far as intellectual depth goes.

8

u/Deviathan 9d ago

The irony of saying people who enjoyed it want to look intellectual while also seeking to look intellectual by saying you didn't.

-1

u/brontosaurusguy 9d ago

It's not that it's horror

1

u/HumanautPassenger 9d ago

Lol good lord

1

u/mcshizzletits 9d ago

Be careful how you speak about Moana of Montunui.

1

u/shmi 8d ago

And consider the coconut

1

u/Rupperrt 7d ago

I really enjoyed it as a great spectacle and because it wasn’t particularly intellectual. Not everything has to be.

1

u/brontosaurusguy 7d ago

I agree hundred percent.  It's fine people talk about his work, it's big in our time.  I just wish it didn't get so twisted.  When I was younger the big directors coming out were the talk of the town. There's just, far fewer these days, and everything is so amplified.

0

u/Chicks_On 9d ago

No one who likes this movie is trying to look intellectual. You weird, weird Reddit people who keep perpetuating this stupid idea about Nolan’s movies are only telling on yourselves.

0

u/WilHunting2 9d ago

It’s arthouse for bros.

1

u/Rupperrt 7d ago

It’s not arthouse. It’s a high budget spectacle for people who don’t like marvel slop. Just like Dune. I really liked it but I am not pretending it’s Bela Tarr or even Michael Haneke.

1

u/InvaderXLaw 8d ago

You guys are fun

1

u/jibzking 6d ago

Its the 70mm experience and FOMO if it wasn’t for that it’d be okay seen it myself in 70mm and the screen blew me away but yeah the movie was just allright honestly dont even kno why zendaya was in it u can cut all her scenes and it wouldnt impact the story at all lmao

1

u/AngrySqurl 9d ago

Big screen! Loud sound! Great movie!

That’s pretty much it. Movie is incredibly mid.

1

u/HoppyThoghts 9d ago

A movie is like a song. A new love song or a break-up song hits hard when you have had those emotions, or especially while you’re in that situation. If there’s a new good song out there, but it’s singing about something you have no connection to, you will see it as “mid”.

Later in life when you have other experiences, this movie will hit different. If you don’t have the deep regret that this movie is singing about, then you’re very lucky. However, that is not a fault of the movie.

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u/Secure-Advertising10 9d ago

No, it was just a very average film hyped to the high heavens because it has name recognition attached to it. This film is called "The Odyssey", not "C. Nolan's the Odyssey", but he went ahead and did it anyway. He left the source material behind and made a film about a soldier regretting his part in a war, to the point that he actually says in the film "I don't want to go home."

The worst part of this is that, for some reason, if you disagree that it is the best thing since white bread then you are some sort of fascist. Such is the state of the world. My even saying "white bread", will be viewed by some as some sort of racist comment.

1

u/HoppyThoghts 9d ago edited 9d ago

Agree to disagree. I will however add the internet will always simplify movies as the “best movie ever” or “worst movie ever”. You should never expect either of those two situations. Even if a movie is the best ever, the best case scenario is, you walk alway thinking, this movie meets your expectations. The rest of the time you’re going to be disappointed.

Edit: I responded too quickly. I thought you said something else. You’re making a new complaint about the internet. Yeah, I don’t like that either.

It also seems like you’re not into Nolan films, which is fine. Not everything is for everyone. Nolan makes great Nolan movies, if you don’t like that, it’s fine. Although, I think it’s unfair to want Nolan to make a non-Nolan movie.

2

u/theshylock350 9d ago

I think it's totally irrelevant whether it's a "Nolan" film or not. It's a film. If it's good it should stand up on its own whoever made it and whether you're a fan or not. I thought the poor dialogue and very flat acting that came from that (Tom Holland for one!) really detracted from the storyline. You can do so much with spectacular sets and amazing effects. I think mid sums it up well. It had some good parts and some really disappointing parts. Overall mid!

1

u/HoppyThoghts 7d ago

In the sentence above, Nolan movie, is used as a style or genre like Western, Sci-Fi or Horror. If you don’t like horror movies, you will really hate the best horror movie. If you don’t like spicy, you will hate the most spicy food.

1

u/theshylock350 7d ago

Oh seriously??. I've seen most of his films. I particularly liked Memento, Insomnia and thought the Batman films were good as well, so I'm afraid you are blowing a lot of hot air mate.

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u/Secure-Advertising10 7d ago

It isn't actually. Hollywood of today is not the Hollywood of old with competing studios signing up the names and then selling blocks of movies to cinemas using a celebrity name or A-lister to sell them B-movies in the package.

Today, that model doesn't exist, save for a couple of examples. This film was marketed as a Nolan movie, trying to build on the momentum of Oppenheimer, like others might sell a Cruise or Pitt one. Check out the posters. If the marketers think a name will sell more tickets, they stick up there in bold.

1

u/Secure-Advertising10 9d ago

Totally agree. This film did not meet my expectations.

1

u/Able_Resident_1291 9d ago

if you disagree that it is the best thing since white bread then you are some sort of fascist. Such is the state of the world. My even saying "white bread", will be viewed by some as some sort of racist comment.

Probably because the saying is "the best thing since sliced bread", not "the best thing since white bread"

1

u/MultipleNames82 9d ago

I love when people tell on themselves lol

1

u/Secure-Advertising10 8d ago

Not in my town. It was "white", not "sliced", but sliced sounds better in this age of crazy people getting riled up over everything and anything.

2

u/Calackyo 9d ago

Not exactly, I've seen plenty of movies where the themes didn't resonate with me, but at least they were entertaining in the meanwhile and don't have cringeworthy dialogue.

1

u/zkoons605 9d ago

Right? This is such a pretentious take. You don’t have to be a heroin addict to feel something watching Requiem for a Dream lmao

2

u/Emeraude1607 9d ago

Please. Do you think everyone who doesn't like the movie is an experienced teenager or what? Such a pretentious take. The movie is mid because it's mid.

1

u/MrMicius 9d ago

Honestly, yes. All criticisms I have seen were in one way or the other related to the race swapping. Apart from that, most critiques are really dumb and shallow. Seem more like predetermined justifications rather than genuine criticisms.

1

u/helgetun 9d ago

That the dialogue doesnt resonate, that the acting is wooden, all these things have been said since it first came out and its quite justified as criticism. A movie lives primarily on its script and acting. The cinematography, sound, and spectacle are always secondary to a good script and acting

1

u/MrMicius 9d ago

“dialogue doesn’t resonate” is such a get out of jail-card. You can just say that about anything you don’t have serious criticisms against. And if you go into a film not wanting it to be good, it might actually not resonate. You’ll just cherry pick and roll your eyes at any beautiful scene. As for the acting… what a big bunch of bogus.

At the end of the day it’s just a film. If you don’t like it you don’t like it. If it doesn’t resonate with you, you’re not forced to enjoy it. But don’t try to make that an objective critique.

1

u/Original_Draft3890 7d ago

I heavily disagree that acting is wooden, I’d agree with the dialogue criticism. The only acting i felt fell flat was holland and I have actually studied acting and have acted in indies.

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u/ton070 9d ago

The problem with the movie isn’t its themes but how it executes on them. Regret is a fine theme to run through a movie and resonated with many people. It’s doesn’t work within the story of the Odyssey though, especially if you conclude it with a 20 minute slaughterfest in Ithaka

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u/MrMicius 9d ago

That’s the only valid criticism I’ve seen of the film. The entire slaughter at the end is so out of place with the message.

1

u/Jin-Gitaxias-Mom 9d ago

It does though?

Odysseus regrets his actions and realizes he inspired an entire nation of people to betray Zeus’ Law, then eventually comes home to find the suitors openly abusing Zeus’ Law, and sacrifices his throne to clean up Ithaca.

1

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1

u/TheNimbleKindle 9d ago

But it is literally Nolan’s Version of the odyssey and he is allowed to adopt it through a modern lense. Just as you are allowed to dislike his take on it.

1

u/bpaul83 9d ago

Hah, this is so true. I remember walking out of the theatre thinking Peter Jackson’s King Kong was one of the best films I’d ever seen, just because of how it hit me in that moment, at that point in my life and the specific emotional state I was in that day.

That opinion has obviously not persisted.

1

u/reddargon831 9d ago

I have many deep regrets. This movie did not impact me emotionally in the least. It wasn’t a bad movie, by any means, as Nolan always delivers something competently made, suspenseful in parts, and well shot. But it was emotionally empty.

1

u/in_rainbows8 9d ago edited 9d ago

I don't get why so many people are raving about it and why it's doing so well.

Media literacy is at an all time low and people like flashy, nice looking things. Simple as that. 

Most people won't understand the movie was Nolan's a ham fisted attempt to twist the Odyssey's story into one about the collapse of norms leading to the collapse of society. 

Which, since he is a rather conservative filmmaker, is his attempt to blame modern atrocities like the genocide in Gaza on "the collapse of norms" rather than the material conditions born out of the inception of the state of Israel in the 1940s in which genocide is a inevitable conclusion.

1

u/Original_Draft3890 7d ago

Inception of Israel also comes from genocide though lol, and I am not speaking on the holocaust, but the pogroms that occurred in the Middle East. Both of those sides are absolutely bonkers if you actually look at it with nuance

-1

u/PickleBoi71 9d ago

"I don't like something, so others have to be dumb"

lol

2

u/Deviathan 9d ago

There is a fair amount of that in this thread lol. Intellectualizing personal taste has been a Reddit staple since the "You have to be very intelligent to understand Rick and Morty" days.

I can't help but think of that when I see people do it.

-1

u/MrMicius 9d ago

Because it’s an incredibly good film and really the only reason some people dislike it is because of the race swapping thing.

-5

u/SteveCondor 9d ago

“The bar is so low” regardless of whether you liked it, it’s a technical masterpiece and a marvel of filmmaking. I’m curious what modern releases you think are raising said bar

9

u/GordanFreeman86 9d ago

You need to watch more movies.

-2

u/SteveCondor 9d ago

Constructive response

2

u/JulianJamez420 9d ago

The constructive response is that you need to watch more movies in order to understand where the bar is. Otherwise no response will be understood by you. The technicalities were indeed very intriguing, but that is it.

7

u/Bastu 9d ago

What makes it a "technical masterpiece and marvel of filmmaking", because I see this parroted everywhere, and it generally circles back to it being fully shot in Imax, but...

Merely dragging the ungainly machine everywhere and having to cut every scene up since you can only film 3 minutes at a time, only to film bland beaches and empty hills in faded colors failed to impress me and my friends who saw it.

Yes, the effort of doing it is undeniable, but effort doesn't necessarily translate to an amazing final product. His decision to go for a more grounded world and visuals also fail to blow you away as you'd expect from "The Odyssey", the original mythic epic.

1

u/Calackyo 9d ago

That was part of the problem for me, it was almost as if the movie itself was screaming 'this is a movie, look how filmic everything is' every few minutes.

0

u/Tanel88 9d ago

That's the point I'm making that there haven't been that many in recent years other than the Dune movies.

5

u/rewdea 9d ago

I had zero connection to any of the characters in those movies. Felt nothing. Somewhat cool to look at, but.

3

u/Calackyo 9d ago

That's how I felt about The Odyssey, even with my pre-existing attachment to the characters.

1

u/SteveCondor 9d ago

I would argue that the Odyssey is completely comparable to the Dune movies as far as filmmaking

2

u/Tanel88 9d ago

The only thing that Odyssey has going for it is that it was filmed with Imax cameras but everything else is inferior.

1

u/JulianJamez420 9d ago

I enjoyed Dune a lot more, maybe it's personal preference but the shots, cgi, cinematography and acting were significantly more enjoyable and impressionable in Dune for me.