THE ODYSSEY FULL SPOILER REVIEW | Film Threat

[00:00:02]I saw The Odyssey for a second time and here are my second thoughts. Uh we did our out of the theater review this week and I was very mixed. There were things that I happen to love, the horror aspects, such as the Cyclops scene, the scene where Circe turns uh Odysseus's crew into pigs.

[00:00:28]Uh there was some uh satisfying action towards the end, but the movie dragged.

[00:00:35]The modern language, I think uh basically diminished the events in the film.

[00:00:43]I think that some of the castings were distracting.

[00:00:47]And having seen it a second time, my opinion is solidified. This uh I would describe this as kind of mid-Nolan. And if if forced to give a rating number rating, I'd give it a 5.5er uh six. Five to six in in that range uh for a couple reasons. What did I notice on the second viewing? A couple things.

[00:01:12]So many of the great elements of the original story were not included.

[00:01:20]One of the things about Odysse- and the biggest thing is the character of Odysseus himself and Matt Damon's portrayal. For example, in the book, Odysseus as is described as cunning.

[00:01:35]He's clever.

[00:01:36]He can get out of situations. He's smart.

[00:01:41]And in this, he kind of fumbles through things and situations. With the Cyclops, one of the things that Odysseus does is the Cyclops uh or the Cyclops a- asks who is there, and Odysseus describes, "I am nobody."

[00:02:00]And then when the when the Cyclops asks for help from other giants, they ask him, "Well, who's in there with you?"

[00:02:07]"Nobody."

[00:02:08]It's a very clever way to make other giants on that island go away.

[00:02:15]And then he stupidly, in his arrogance and filled with hubris, Odysseus gives his real name, which then, of course, creates the curse from uh Poseidon, which derails them from their journey.

[00:02:31]It's really his rejection of the gods and arrogance and hubris, along with cunning and and being clever, that gets him out of situations. And those things are missing from it until the very end, when we see how Odysseus deals with the suitors.

[00:02:51]And I felt the character of Odysseus was not there for me. It was Matt Damon. He didn't even find his groove until the very end of the film. Why is the Why was Odysseus such a great warrior?

[00:03:07]We didn't see enough of that. The second thing is uh the movie's rated R.

[00:03:12]Why?

[00:03:14]>> [laughter] >> I'll Can I tell you why? Cuz the violence is bloodless.

[00:03:19]There's implied chopping heads, but we don't see it.

[00:03:23]With all with that kind of uh sword fighting and spears, you would think there would be arms being chopped off, legs, gutting.

[00:03:34]The reason this movie is rated R is because the F-word, [ __ ] is said three times that I remember. Might be four times.

[00:03:45]Why is this rated R? He could have cut the word [ __ ] and the word [ __ ] is not even necessary. You wouldn't miss it if it wasn't there. What I did miss is brutal violence. This is a brutally violent time. It would have made It would have made the events and the appreciation for life and coming home all the more meaningful if he had survived this brutal, horrible, bloody war. It wasn't any of that.

[00:04:15]This movie was made, I think in many ways, some of theorize that the use of modern language and adding the stars and the modernization of the tale is so that this can be shown to kids in school. Like, you know, they have educational versions of movies that are shown in school and that that Nolan's true reason for giving it this modern take is to reintroduce the Odyssey into schools, which is which from my understanding, this book is not even taught as part of the required curriculum in many schools now. I read it growing up, of course, a scholastic version, and that may be the intent.

[00:05:05]In addition, the the light commentary, it's there if you're looking for it, it's it's barely noticeable about society's breakdown because of other fatherless children.

[00:05:19]The suitors are mostly the the sons of the soldiers who left Ithaca to go off to war. And now they've been brought up without dads and they have no values.

[00:05:31]They have no virtues.

[00:05:33]And they need to bring a civilized society back. That's what Odysseus does in the end by dispensing with the suitors in a way that does elicit cheers from the audience.

[00:05:47]Uh you know, that theme is there if you're really looking for it. It's kind of a in a way like a he Trojan horse Nolan Trojan horse this theme into the film about fatherless children and what they become as adults.

[00:06:07]They become as adults people that lack values.

[00:06:10]And Odysseus is but but it's not it's there if you're looking for it.

[00:06:15]It's not as strongly stated as I'm out loud saying it now.

[00:06:20]In the end, it's mixed bag for me.

[00:06:25]Are there are there parts that are epic?

[00:06:29]It's on the cusp of it.

[00:06:32]But I felt that the desaturated color really is a turn off.

[00:06:37]I I found it like disappointing cuz all movies seem to look like this now. The stars are distracting.

[00:06:45]And my opinion is while I don't agree with Alan that he he thought it was it was just awful and boring.

[00:06:56]I do think there are parts that that are and the movie is a five and a half for me.

[00:07:04]Alan, any any >> Yeah.

[00:07:06]>> thoughts at all?

[00:07:07]>> Yeah, I have second thoughts. I have one question for you though is do you recommend The Odyssey?

[00:07:14]>> Ooh, that's tough.

[00:07:15]>> Yeah.

[00:07:16]>> I mean it it's a I will say this, because it's a cultural event. I mean it's almost like if you haven't seen The Odyssey you you would be shamed for not having seen it. And and I'll say if you want to be part of the if you want to be part of the discussion you need to see you need to see The Odyssey.

[00:07:37]Would I go see this movie again because of my own volition? The answer is no.

[00:07:42]Make of that what you will. You make your own choice. [laughter] >> I want to I want to quote you just what you said. Uh if you have not seen The Odyssey, you will have been shamed for not seeing The Odyssey.

[00:07:52]I have seen The Odyssey.

[00:07:55]And I'm being shamed for having seen The Odyssey.

[00:07:57]>> [laughter] >> Okay.

[00:08:00]>> All right.

[00:08:01]Um yeah, there's you know, my review pretty much says it all. I'll add this.

[00:08:07]Um I just felt that this is such a grand fumble in terms of filmmaking.

[00:08:13]Uh you know, the from the opening moments Oh, okay. Let Let me back up and say that I did read the Odyssey as in elementary school. The problem was is I'm severely dyslexic. I basically faked my way through The Odyssey without ever having read The Odyssey. And that's how I survived elementary, junior high, and high school is when I couldn't read something, I just figured it out. And and passed the class. And that's what happened with The Odyssey. I So, I go in not knowing a lot about The Odyssey. I know the events that occur in The Odyssey, but I don't know The Odyssey.

[00:08:49]And so, watching this, I felt like um like So, having seen The Odyssey and having listened to people talk about The Odyssey, its themes, its stories, I thought to myself, "Whatever you saw, I didn't see it."

[00:09:04]Or whatever you saw, I think you saw it because you know the story. And I'm saying that people who don't know The Odyssey, for example, uh Zendaya as Athena.

[00:09:14]Uh I don't understand the importance of Athena. She To me, she appeared like a ghost throughout all this. And then at the very end, there's a twist that involves Zendaya. And I'm like, "So, what is Athena then?" You know, and and I get what that moment was meant to be, but it's like I I don't have zero context because she really doesn't do much throughout the movie. She's just kind of appears as someone for Odysseus to talk to.

[00:09:44]And then and then the the basically the toxic masculinity ending that she she's a part of um was just you know, I and and my point there is I haven't read the book. I think people who don't know the book are not going to understand the characters because I believe there is an assumption that you have to know who these characters are before you go into the movie such as Calypso, such as uh Circe. Like Calypso, I I just thought she was a girl who a woman who who's kind of into Odysseus.

[00:10:14]As opposed to what the story that I ultimately found out was who she was.

[00:10:19]Um and and I think that these complaints are are complaints of a bigger problem.

[00:10:27]Watching this movie, the sense that I got was Christopher Nolan shot 8 hours worth of this movie and had to cram it down into 3 hours.

[00:10:38]Uh and that's why the editing is so awful because the editing feels like it's all highlights. Like anything you can cut that wasn't important or pertinent to the moment, cut it. You cut it. And so that's why things move quickly.

[00:10:52]That's why you're you're jumping from one scene to the next. That's why the battle with the Cyclops feels like a highlight reel as opposed to an actual battle with the Cyclops. The whole world world pool thing, there's no tension and no danger in it because it was cut down.

[00:11:08]You know, you don't get the sense of danger. All you know is there's a world pool there, they're on a ship. Uh better avoid it.

[00:11:14]And then you have the attack that occurs afterwards that people are saying is great. Um no, I mean I seen Ray Ray uh Ray Harryhausen do that a whole lot better than than what I saw there. Just felt like CGI slop at that moment. CGI slop at that moment.

[00:11:30]And so I don't know. I for someone who has never read The Odyssey, I I don't You know, I I'm not going to say I speak for everyone, but I just can't imagine you understanding this movie and and feeling feeling the depth Look, and and all this to say finally is that Um you know, when when I walked out of Lord of the Rings, you know, there was this sense of weight. There was this sense of inspiration. There is also the sense that I need to be a better person.

[00:12:01]When I walked out of The Odyssey, I got none of that. All I got was what I felt like was a telling of a story that I've heard before from uh other people. But what was the message? I mean, father wants to go home, kid wants his dad back.

[00:12:17]I mean, I've seen that. I I don't know that I felt the weight of that.

[00:12:20]>> Well, the thing is Nolan put his own message in the movie that wasn't in at least my recollect It wasn't in my recollection Right. The Odyssey that I read.

[00:12:31]>> Right. But to your point, it just felt so convoluted that I didn't even get Nolan's message. But But honestly, the message that I got was that ending moment with Athena. That that whole flashback about the Trojan War. To me, I I'm like, I've gone through 3 hours. I see this message. And it's like, so that's what this movie is about? You know, it's about toxic masculinity.

[00:12:53]Uh it's just You know, I have seen Christopher Nolan movies. I have liked a lot of them. I have been meh and passive about others.

[00:13:03]Uh to me, this is profoundly the most awful movie he's made.

[00:13:08]>> Well, I disagree. It's As I said, it's not a disaster, but it's it's The The thing is this What's weird is you brought up Lord of the Rings. I never read Lord of the Rings. I love those movies.

[00:13:23]>> Yeah.

[00:13:23]>> I've read The Odyssey, and what bothers me about the Odyssey is the fact that Nolan left out some of the best parts.

[00:13:32]And truthfully, if you were going to make an accurate Odyssey, this is probably best told as a TV mini-series.

[00:13:40]Or >> Yeah, I feel like he could make a TV mini-series.

[00:13:43]>> You could easily I mean, they have, right? So >> I'm sure there is an 8-hour cut that you can make a TV series out of.

[00:13:49]>> You could do it.

[00:13:51]But all I'm saying is does this work as a movie?

[00:13:55]Not not entirely for me. And while there are parts that I love, mostly on the on the spectacle scale, the things that are the flaws just make it a mid movie for me. I'm not going to not recommend it to people. Just know that going in uh opinions are mixed. Any final thoughts before we go to comments?

[00:14:22]>> Yeah, my my final thought about this is um what was what was the message? What was I supposed to walk away with? And why did I have to sit through a 3-hour epic to get that message? Because, you know, maybe I got the message, but it definitely wasn't it was it wasn't had no weight needed to see this movie.

[00:14:44]>> Well, you're forgetting the biggest message that it is Chris Nolan's although it's dropped this this graphic is slightly out of date.

[00:14:53]>> Yeah.

[00:14:54]>> 97% on Rotten Tomatoes. It's actually 96.

[00:14:58]>> it's plummeted to 96%.

[00:15:00]>> It's plummeted. Yeah. No, it's not going to go much down. And the audience score is around the same.

[00:15:06]>> the same, yeah.

[00:15:06]>> I don't see it drop. It may drop by a percentage or two. I mean, a little bit, but it's his highest-rated film with both audiences and critics. And here's all of his movies actually in a chart here. Tenet being at the lowest at 70.

[00:15:23]73% Interstellar. Actually quite like that movie. It's aged well. I don't know that The Odyssey will age well in my opinion.

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