Intro: Back in July I was supposed to go and watch this movie at the Irish Film Institute -- my first time there. I booked my ticket for the 70mm IMAX show (because that's how the director intended the audience to watch the movie) but karma had a different plan in mind.
A few days before the show, my sight went double and I got hospitalized for a while to run some tests. I got discharged on the day I was supposed to go and see this movie and, obviously, I couldn't make it. It took another week before my sight went back to normal and only at that stage did I decide to give this movie another try. No more IMAX experience tho, just the regular one.
Film 2499: "The Odyssey" (2026), directed by Christopher Nolan
Watched: At the movies
Language: English
Watched with: Niamh
Thoughts: I think it was important to explain what happened to me before I went to see this movie because the issue with my eyes had an impact on my perception of this film.
I'll start with the positives: I think "The Odyssey" is masterfully crafted and shot and, overall, it is indeed a cinematic experience. Possibly the true definition of a movie event -- more so than the new Spider-man, which is part of a massive franchise and extremely recognizable IP -- Nolan's new epic adventure dominated the mainstream conversation for weeks (ahead of and after its release) and took the box office by storm. In this regard, this is truly an amazing feat, considering how hard it is to bring people to the theaters nowadays, even more so if it's a film not attached to any previous franchise or saga and, like in this case, it's taken from an epic poem based on ancient Greek literature.
In this scenario, I think Nolan would play the intellectual property: he's one of the most recognizable and successful directors of our time and all his movies have seen an insane amount of success (box office and award-wise). So it comes as no surprise that people would be immediately interested in seeing his new movie, not to mention the follow-up to "Oppenheimer", the film that won Nolan the Academy Award for Best Director. Add in the insane amount of Hollywood A-listers that are playing big and small roles here and... I think it comes as no surprise that people were quite interested in checking "The Odyssey" out. Me included.
All of this taken into account and digested... it's time for me to admit that I didn't particularly like this film. For a variety of reasons. Maybe a list would make it easier, so here we go:
1. The reviews. As we know, good reviews create expectations. This film got crazy good ones, so I was expecting to be blown away, almost like my life was meant to be changed by this masterpiece. Needless to say, this had an impact on me.
2. I struggled to follow. I didn't know the story well enough from the get-go: I knew bits and pieces, but not the whole thing, and I have to admit I struggled to follow the story quite a lot, especially at the beginning. It's like I couldn't get into the story's rhythm. The many characters, the amount of dialogue, the time jumps, the unfamiliarity with the source material... So much to take in so quickly, and I felt like I had no time to process what was shown to me, nor was I given enough tools to follow along. As a non-English native speaker, I am aware that this isn't necessarily the movie's fault but, still, I think the story is a bit confusing. And this gets me to the next point.
3. The time jumps. I have no issues with a story jumping back and forth in time, but I believe it should be signaled somehow. I feel like here it's very much left to the viewer to realise where exactly in the story we are. There's no added text on the screen to signal location or time and -- what I found to be the most shocking part -- there's no real progression (or regression) of time visually. Or at least that was my perception. Anne Hathaway looks always the same throughout the whole 10 years this story covers, Tom Holland never loses his baby face and if it wasn't for Matt Damon's beard, I don't think I would have gotten any indication that some time had passed between the scenes. So confusing.
4. The characters. There are way too many. I realize that the source material has even more, but even as a movie adaptation that runs for 173 minutes there's way too much going on that cannot be addressed properly and in full.
5. The dialogue. This is what bothers me the most about "The Odyssey", especially because it's such a long movie: the dialogue is constantly rushed. Two things in particular stood out to me: a) there's never time to sit with what the characters have just said and b) the back and forth between characters is so fast that sometimes their answers feel unnatural because of how quickly they banter with each other. If something is said to a person that has an impact on them, you would expect them to take a moment to process that information and then react accordingly. Here there's none of that: the first line is said, then immediately we get a reply, then the subsequent reply and so on. And once the conversation is over, off we go to the next scene with no time to process what we just heard and watched.
6. The pace (aka editing). This doesn't refer to the whole movie, but sometimes the film jumps from one scene to the next in such a rush that -- yep, you guessed it -- there's no time to take in what was just shown.
7. Sound and visual effects. This could be just me because of my personal issue, but I thought everything was amped up to the maximum: the volume is crazy loud and some scenes show intense lights or flashing that I found so overwhelming I had to close my eyes and disengage for a moment. The sound especially I thought was too loud and overpowering.
So, because of these reasons, I really struggled with "The Odyssey". Technically, it is quite impressive and I love how much of the marketing campaign revolved around the behind-the-scenes and the technical skills that went into creating this film. I think it's so refreshing to put the artistry that made it all possible front and center, use it to draw people in and make them curious to catch this film at the cinema. That said, I won't lie: I miss sci-fi Nolan. I miss intricate plots and plot twists, I miss space and dream sequences, magicians and superheroes. I loved "Dunkirk" but wasn't super fond of "Oppenheimer" and I feel like this new entry follows a very similar path to these two previous movies, but in a way that has further taken away the fun and excitement that used to come with a new Christopher Nolan film. I mean, don't get me wrong, people are still extremely excited every time this director adds a new creation to his filmography -- me included -- and I'm still gonna go and see whatever he comes out with next, but I am a bit nostalgic for that era when a new Christopher Nolan movie meant new world building, the creation of the impossible and an original story that would take you on a journey.
Ps. It's pretty early to say, but I think it's safe to say that this movie will do great at next year's Oscars. Maybe it won't win it all, but definitely the technical categories are locked, possibly even Best Director for Nolan.
Cast: Matt Damon, Tom Holland, Anne Hathaway, Robert Pattinson, Lupita Nyong'o, Samantha Morton, John Leguizamo, Jon Bernthal, Himesh Patel, Bill Irwin, Elliot Page, Benny Safdie, Corey Hawkins, Mia Goth, James Remar, Travis Scott, Zendaya, Charlize Theron.
Box Office: $1.721 billion (as of today)
Worth a watch?: Definitely not my favourite Nolan movie, it doesn't even make the top 10 to be honest. It's long, loud, overly stuffed and a bit overwhelming at times, but just because it didn't work for me, it doesn't mean it's a bad movie or you shouldn't give it a go (if you didn't already). And especially because this film was so successful and drove much of this Summer's movie conversation, I'd suggest you make your own idea about it.
Awards: /
Key word: Zeus's law.
Trailer
#HollywoodCiak
Bengi
A few days before the show, my sight went double and I got hospitalized for a while to run some tests. I got discharged on the day I was supposed to go and see this movie and, obviously, I couldn't make it. It took another week before my sight went back to normal and only at that stage did I decide to give this movie another try. No more IMAX experience tho, just the regular one.
Watched: At the movies
Language: English
Watched with: Niamh
Thoughts: I think it was important to explain what happened to me before I went to see this movie because the issue with my eyes had an impact on my perception of this film.
I'll start with the positives: I think "The Odyssey" is masterfully crafted and shot and, overall, it is indeed a cinematic experience. Possibly the true definition of a movie event -- more so than the new Spider-man, which is part of a massive franchise and extremely recognizable IP -- Nolan's new epic adventure dominated the mainstream conversation for weeks (ahead of and after its release) and took the box office by storm. In this regard, this is truly an amazing feat, considering how hard it is to bring people to the theaters nowadays, even more so if it's a film not attached to any previous franchise or saga and, like in this case, it's taken from an epic poem based on ancient Greek literature.
In this scenario, I think Nolan would play the intellectual property: he's one of the most recognizable and successful directors of our time and all his movies have seen an insane amount of success (box office and award-wise). So it comes as no surprise that people would be immediately interested in seeing his new movie, not to mention the follow-up to "Oppenheimer", the film that won Nolan the Academy Award for Best Director. Add in the insane amount of Hollywood A-listers that are playing big and small roles here and... I think it comes as no surprise that people were quite interested in checking "The Odyssey" out. Me included.
All of this taken into account and digested... it's time for me to admit that I didn't particularly like this film. For a variety of reasons. Maybe a list would make it easier, so here we go:
1. The reviews. As we know, good reviews create expectations. This film got crazy good ones, so I was expecting to be blown away, almost like my life was meant to be changed by this masterpiece. Needless to say, this had an impact on me.
2. I struggled to follow. I didn't know the story well enough from the get-go: I knew bits and pieces, but not the whole thing, and I have to admit I struggled to follow the story quite a lot, especially at the beginning. It's like I couldn't get into the story's rhythm. The many characters, the amount of dialogue, the time jumps, the unfamiliarity with the source material... So much to take in so quickly, and I felt like I had no time to process what was shown to me, nor was I given enough tools to follow along. As a non-English native speaker, I am aware that this isn't necessarily the movie's fault but, still, I think the story is a bit confusing. And this gets me to the next point.
3. The time jumps. I have no issues with a story jumping back and forth in time, but I believe it should be signaled somehow. I feel like here it's very much left to the viewer to realise where exactly in the story we are. There's no added text on the screen to signal location or time and -- what I found to be the most shocking part -- there's no real progression (or regression) of time visually. Or at least that was my perception. Anne Hathaway looks always the same throughout the whole 10 years this story covers, Tom Holland never loses his baby face and if it wasn't for Matt Damon's beard, I don't think I would have gotten any indication that some time had passed between the scenes. So confusing.
4. The characters. There are way too many. I realize that the source material has even more, but even as a movie adaptation that runs for 173 minutes there's way too much going on that cannot be addressed properly and in full.
5. The dialogue. This is what bothers me the most about "The Odyssey", especially because it's such a long movie: the dialogue is constantly rushed. Two things in particular stood out to me: a) there's never time to sit with what the characters have just said and b) the back and forth between characters is so fast that sometimes their answers feel unnatural because of how quickly they banter with each other. If something is said to a person that has an impact on them, you would expect them to take a moment to process that information and then react accordingly. Here there's none of that: the first line is said, then immediately we get a reply, then the subsequent reply and so on. And once the conversation is over, off we go to the next scene with no time to process what we just heard and watched.
6. The pace (aka editing). This doesn't refer to the whole movie, but sometimes the film jumps from one scene to the next in such a rush that -- yep, you guessed it -- there's no time to take in what was just shown.
7. Sound and visual effects. This could be just me because of my personal issue, but I thought everything was amped up to the maximum: the volume is crazy loud and some scenes show intense lights or flashing that I found so overwhelming I had to close my eyes and disengage for a moment. The sound especially I thought was too loud and overpowering.
So, because of these reasons, I really struggled with "The Odyssey". Technically, it is quite impressive and I love how much of the marketing campaign revolved around the behind-the-scenes and the technical skills that went into creating this film. I think it's so refreshing to put the artistry that made it all possible front and center, use it to draw people in and make them curious to catch this film at the cinema. That said, I won't lie: I miss sci-fi Nolan. I miss intricate plots and plot twists, I miss space and dream sequences, magicians and superheroes. I loved "Dunkirk" but wasn't super fond of "Oppenheimer" and I feel like this new entry follows a very similar path to these two previous movies, but in a way that has further taken away the fun and excitement that used to come with a new Christopher Nolan film. I mean, don't get me wrong, people are still extremely excited every time this director adds a new creation to his filmography -- me included -- and I'm still gonna go and see whatever he comes out with next, but I am a bit nostalgic for that era when a new Christopher Nolan movie meant new world building, the creation of the impossible and an original story that would take you on a journey.
Ps. It's pretty early to say, but I think it's safe to say that this movie will do great at next year's Oscars. Maybe it won't win it all, but definitely the technical categories are locked, possibly even Best Director for Nolan.
Cast: Matt Damon, Tom Holland, Anne Hathaway, Robert Pattinson, Lupita Nyong'o, Samantha Morton, John Leguizamo, Jon Bernthal, Himesh Patel, Bill Irwin, Elliot Page, Benny Safdie, Corey Hawkins, Mia Goth, James Remar, Travis Scott, Zendaya, Charlize Theron.
Box Office: $1.721 billion (as of today)
Worth a watch?: Definitely not my favourite Nolan movie, it doesn't even make the top 10 to be honest. It's long, loud, overly stuffed and a bit overwhelming at times, but just because it didn't work for me, it doesn't mean it's a bad movie or you shouldn't give it a go (if you didn't already). And especially because this film was so successful and drove much of this Summer's movie conversation, I'd suggest you make your own idea about it.
Awards: /
Key word: Zeus's law.
Trailer
#HollywoodCiak
Bengi
