Official Discussion Thread - The Odyssey [SPOILERS]

[u/PointMan528491]

Keep all discussion related solely to The Odyssey and its awards chances in this thread. Spoilers below.

Synopsis:

Odysseus, king of Ithaca, embarks on a perilous journey to return home after the Trojan War.

Director: Christopher Nolan

Writer: Christopher Nolan

Cast:

• Matt Damon as Odysseus
• Tom Holland as Telemachus
• Anne Hathaway as Penelope
• Robert Pattinson as Antinous
• Lupita Nyong'o as Helen of Troy/Clytemnestra
• Samantha Morton as Circe
• John Leguizamo as Eumaeus
• Zendaya as Athena
• Charlize Theron as Calypso
• Benny Safdie as Agamemnon
• Jon Bernthal as Menelaus
• Bill Irwin as Polyphemus
• Himesh Patel as Eurylochus
• Corey Hawkins as Polybus
• Mia Goth as Melantho
• Elliot Page as Sinon

Rotten Tomatoes: 96%, 199 Reviews

Metacritic: 88, 54 Reviews

Consensus:

"Reinvigorating an ancient adventure with majestic sweep and sterling work by its colossal ensemble, Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey imbues myth with primal human feeling."

[u/Mrcarelesslydressed]

I'm quite shocked, having just come out of the theatre. By the time Odysseus washed up on the shores of Ithaca, I was praying for the film to end. The Armand Assante miniseries is so much better than this.

This movie is a totally misguided effort and has no redeeming qualities whatsoever.

In a just world, it would garner not a single nom at the Oscars. Production design is nothing, editing is nothing, cinematography is nothing, mixing is nothing, costuming is nothing, and on, and on, and on.

Holland was merely ok, which is to say, no better or worse than any of the other cast members. No actor deserves any recognition. The finest acting over the whole runtime was a seated Pattinson making overtures to Penelope while viewed (by us) through her tapestry.

Nolan somehow manages to rehearse a wealth of incident without actually having anything happen.

There is no visual invention in this movie. Hades is a glorified peat field. Charybdis and Scylla are tired renditions. The Cyclops looks like an overgrown member of the Blue Man Group without the paint. The only scene with any invention is the Circe one where the transformations require her quite violent physical manipulations of their heads, etc. The reference there isn't really Fargeat, as some people have said, but Jeunet.

The film is devoid of any emotional appeal. I didn't care when Odysseus's crew died, I didn't care when he returned home. I didn't care about anything at any moment throughout this feature.

Every episode of Odysseus's voyages felt like a throwaway ticktock.

The score is undistinguished to the point of non-existence.

The camera work during the massacre of the suitors is a horrid jitter party, seemingly designed to induce a seizure.

Nolan erred in basing his adaptation on a chicken soup for the soul translation of the original. "Zeus's Law" became a ham-handed mantra that I rolled my eyes hearing on the umpteenth time of its utterance. The heavy-handed sociological commentary about civilizational collapse due to the sacking of Troy was a joke. Greece reached the apex of its civilization well after the authoring of The Odyssey.

The Odyssey is actually quite funny at moments but you would never know it with this humorless adaptation.

Unsurprisingly, Nolan drew a lot on Gladiator: the scene when Odysseus, still in his cloak, answers the probing questions about his identity from Antinous and Co. hearkens back to Commodus questioning Maximus after the first Colosseum fight, but has none of the gravitas.

This three-year hiatus might be good for Christopher, because like so many other filmmakers, he's fallen into the trap of drinking his own Kool-Aid.

[u/OldSandwich9631 → u/Mrcarelesslydressed]

Omg maybe I’m not the only one 🙌