The Odyssey - More Than Just Controversy?

[00:00:00]Do aliens exist? Is Bigfoot real? Is a hot dog a sandwich? Can Chris Nolan cultivate something good enough to transcend culture war controversy? I can't answer all of those, but for the Nolan question, the answer is mostly yes. He can make that movie and kind of has. Try having an opinion, any opinion on the Odyssey, and you're guaranteed to hear something like this.

[00:00:20]>> Is the man [ __ ] I mean, I mean, >> shouldn't use that word, but sure.

[00:00:25]>> Developmentally disabled.

[00:00:27]>> The most frustrating thing about it isn't anything in the film. It's actually everything outside it. The battles being waged on Twitter about it tell me I wouldn't be able to win no matter how I felt about the Odyssey. If I love it, I'm a paid shill. And if I hate it, I'm a bigot or something.

[00:00:40]Whatever. Well, if you're looking for glazing, you can find that elsewhere.

[00:00:44]And if you're looking for blind hatred, there's plenty of that out there, too.

[00:00:47]And hell, if you're looking for my take on the culture war in this movie, there's a video on that as well. As far as the movie itself, there are things I really enjoyed and some things I have problems with. I don't think The Odyssey is close to a perfect movie like many are claiming, but I do think it's an entertaining movie with major flaws. Oh, I'll also avoid calling this movie epic.

[00:01:05]If I hear that word used to describe this movie one more time, I'm going to glitch out. When adapting the Odyssey with a $250 million budget, epic should be implied. Nolan's film is an adaptation of the original story where he actually keeps a lot of the themes intact. The longing for home, perseverance against impossible odds, but he also takes a lot of creative routes. I don't particularly agree with like replacing Adysius's hubus with stupidity which I'll go into detail about shortly. But yes, the movie is captivating in 15minute intervals followed by dull meandering characters spouting pretentious dialogue for long stretches. There are big action sequences and emotional moments even if the emotional beats are cheaply acquired. And it suffers from weak characterization with the lead role hell most of the roles written so thin that any actor could fill the void of Adysius Penelope Tmicus or even Sinnon the character created specifically for this movie in a role made as Oscar bait for Elliot Page. Basically this feels like the best and worst of Nolan meaning the highs are so high they often make up for his inadequacies elsewhere. Before we dive into the criticisms we might as well go over the plot real quick for the uninitiated. Don't worry if you're one of those people that completely forgot about the Odyssey and need a refresher.

[00:02:17]Don't feel stupid. So did I. I read that thing in high school almost 25 years ago, man. Like, what do you want from me? The movie is told in nonlinear fashion, as is Nolan tradition, and follows the story of Odysius, who wins the Trojan War by inventing the Trojan horse, accidentally creating the ancient world's first example of this seemed like a good idea at the time. His goal afterward is to get home. But with the lack of Apple Maps, his navigation skills are lacking. It'll be years before he sees home again. During his absence, his throne's been sought after by suitors trying to take the hand of his wife Penelopey, and they're plotting and conspiring to take the king's place.

[00:02:49]So, where has Adysius and his men been all these years? Sailing the high seas, of course, trying to make their way, but they pissed off Poseidon by blinding his cycloptic son, and he makes them spend the next 10 years as inconvenienced as possible. Oh, and he kills a lot of them, too. During the next decade, Odysius runs into an enchanting witch, terrifying sirens, visits Hades, and generally does all the things you'd expect from a story that define the hero's journey. He ends up the lone survivor that returns home, and John Wickstyle dispatches all the suitors trying to get his woman. By the conclusion, he gets the happy ending he's been hoping for. After decades on the sea, one dead crew, several traumatized mythical monsters, and like 6,000 catastrophes that could have been avoided if impulse control was a thing.

[00:03:32]Now, let's start with what worked in the movie because, you know, whatever. Why not be positive for a moment, right?

[00:03:37]Before we dive into those, the Odyssey is running wild like Hulkamania all over everything from the movie theater to video games. You know, Hollywood's convinced itself that every idea has already been done. Then, Heroes of History shows up and says, "What if King Leonitis teamed up with Einstein?" And Einstein had a laser gun. At that point, you have my attention. Add in mythical creatures and my brain just kind of stopped asking questions and went along for the ride. I genuinely love the concept of this game. It takes legendary and historical and mythological figures, throws them into one giant time travel blender, and somehow it makes it work extremely well. I've been playing the new great Odyssey event where Odysius takes on Sila, but this time he's got a few more options than the original poem gave him. My current party is Einstein, Pythagoras, Nia the cavewoman, and Leonitis. Somehow, that's just the starter lineup, and this version of Odysius looks so cool. They've done a fantastic job bringing the Odyssey to life with their own vision. What surprised me the most was how polished everything feels. The graphics look fantastic, the gameplay is smooth, and it's easy to jump in for a few minutes while still having enough strategy, city building, and hero progression to keep on playing. Check it out by using my link in the description or the QR code on screen. Enter promo code Movie C to claim a starter boost with 10 antimatters, 2,000 XP, and 20,000 food.

[00:04:49]You'll also unlock a limited five-star Odicius by logging in for 7 days during the Great Odyssey event. Just redeem the promo code under menu, profile, settings, redeem promo code. Thanks to Heroes of History for sponsoring this video. And now back to it, baby. So, first, without a doubt, the big set pieces absolutely rip. This is where Nolan truly shines. His technical prowess is unmatched, and I regret not being able to see it on an IMAX screen.

[00:05:14]I think a lot of us in this sphere, myself included, sometimes forget that movies are a visual medium, too, and underappreciate that part of filmm.

[00:05:21]Writing is the foundation, but the visuals carry a lot of weight in many people's eyes, and that's where Nolan shines. There's one scene in particular with pigs, yes, pigs, that is unrelenting and horrifying to watch.

[00:05:33]It's quite a feat to pull off what they did and it's extremely visceral. I don't want to spoil it, but if you know, you know. The creature design for the Cyclops is also incredible and highly original. However, Nolan pulled this off. It's amazing because the sounds this creature utters now haunt my dreams. The scene is somehow both my favorite and my most frustrating. More on that later. I also appreciate that a lot of the main theme remains intact.

[00:05:56]Adysius is longing for home. Nolan reframes it so he's kind of psychologically ambivalent about returning to his kingdom because of guilt, wondering whether he's even worthy of being king anymore. But he battles through and ultimately chooses duty over everything. This is what I consider a modern interpretation of Odysius while still maintaining the core desire to return home. It's Nolan's attempt at layering the character. So, you know what? Fair enough. Does it work? Now, that's another story. To get to that, we have to talk about the Cyclops scene. Yes, now it's time for the criticisms. While the Cyclops scene is technically impressive, there's dumbness at every turn. Like I was saying about Adysius, this version is more layered, as they say, than in the original poem. In this version, Odysius explicitly plucks the string of his bow to signal to his prey under the sake of fairness. It's supposed to be a defining attribute of Odysius right up until the film decides it's not. Spoiler right here, because it differs from the original story. So, jump ahead to the next time stamp if you don't want to know. All right. Three, two. After being trapped in the cave by the Cyclops, Adysius plays dirty when it comes to escaping and surprises the creature by stabbing it in the eye. Lucky for them, it doesn't go berserk and just kill them all. Plot armor, baby. Got to love it.

[00:07:09]So, yeah, the lack of consistency in his characterization isn't the only problem.

[00:07:13]It's the change from the source material. In the original, Adysius's fate was sealed by his hubris. Here, it's sealed by idiocy. In the original tale, they managed to escape because of how clever he is. He gets the Cyclops drunk, tells him his name is Nobody, then stabs the psychoptic colleague in the eye. When he starts shouting, "Nobody's killing me." The other Cyclops, is that right? They shrug it off. Then him and his men escape by clinging to the underside of the sheep as they walk out. Feeling pretty damn good about himself, he reveals his real name to the Cyclops and boom, big mistake, buddy. Like 20 years kind of big mistake. So yeah, pretty neat writing, right? only arguably the most iconic story ever. Well, here Odysius just uses brawn and wins a straightup fight, completely shifting the scene from clever to combat. Then in this version, when they make it out of the cave, Odysius fires a [ __ ] you arrow into the creature's eye one last time because why not? And well, that ends up getting like a third of his men killed.

[00:08:07]We went from hubris to jock like dumb real quick. It's just a change that's not for me. Another scene that's visceral but frustrating is the transformation scene where the witch turns Odysius's men into pigs. Instead of deciphering the problem, it's literally shown to him when he kills an animal and it turns back into a person.

[00:08:26]Not hard to figure out the rest from there, but it continues to be spelled out for him along the way. Anyway, while the scene is exciting, it could have been even more. His cunning might be replaced with Brun, but I say his badassery should have been saved for the end, unforgiven style. Instead, Nolan wants us to know Odysius is a tough some [ __ ] from the get-go. Speaking of Braun, that ending, man, it uh Yep, it sure is silly. Maybe it's just me, but Nolan isn't very good at staging fight scenes. Nah, you know what? It's not just me. That criticism's been following him since his Batman days. And the climactic fight is so dumb watching one guy fight off like 30 people at once.

[00:09:03]It's 29 of them just standing around waiting their turn to jump in and get their ass kicked. It's almost comical in some shots. I don't know how anyone actually took this seriously. I mean, look at this. The final act is also where the emotional beats are supposed to hit their apex. And to the film's credit, an emotional moment lands when Argus, Odysius's dog, finally gets to see his master. Ripped straight from the James Gun playbook, there's a quick flashback to Odysius holding him as a puppy that tugs at the heartstrings.

[00:09:29]It's cheap, but effective. When the film doesn't work though is when Odysius finally sees his son Tmicus in a scene that somehow falls flat because of poor dialogue and surprisingly stilted acting from two veterans. Speaking of poor dialogue, a criticism of Nolan's screenwriting ability is that he's basically the anti- Aaron Sorcin. He's hardly a wordssmith. Yes, he's come up with iconic lines like why so serious and let's put a smile on that face. But that's from one character from one movie. And who knows if those were actually words from Chris Nolan or his brother Jonathan. For the few memorable lines he has come up with, he's created a thousand robotic ones that feel foreign to the human ear. In Nolan movies, people don't speak how people actually speak, which makes his choice to go with modern dialogue and American accents in the Odyssey even more confusing. That means not only do we get Nolan's alien-like approach to human conversation, we also get a jarring blast of modernity in a film set in ancient times. After a little while, you kind of start to get used to it, but there's an uneasiness you'll feel throughout the entire movie. Like, at any moment, something jarring will be said that'll take you right out. I mean, in a movie taking itself deathly serious, it's really weird hearing the words, "Fuck off.

[00:10:38]>> Tell them to [ __ ] off."

[00:10:40]>> When it's set thousands of years ago, fantasy or not. And the dialogue leads me to the actors delivering it. And I'm sorry to say, but almost anyone could have filled any of these roles. You know how Robert Downey Jr. is Tony Stark?

[00:10:53]While Matt Damon is not Odysius, he's Matt Damon. Same for Tom Holland and Hathaway and especially John Bernthal.

[00:11:00]They just kind of play versions of themselves because the characters are blank slates with motivations. The canvas just never gets filled in. These are plug-and-play actors because Nolan struggles to balance spectacle with character. The drive is there. Odysius wants to get home. Got it. Tmicus wants to know what happened to his father. Got that. Penelope wants her husband back.

[00:11:21]See, there are motivations, but there's nothing building character. Oh, and John Bernthal is bordering dangerously close to me not wanting to see him in anything anymore. He just kind of plays the same guy in every role he's in. And that role is cool at first, but there's only so many times you can be Shane from Walking Dead before it gets old. Pick any big lead name in Hollywood and they could have played Adysius. Same with almost every character mentioned. Chris Nolan often picks actors he's already worked with, and that can be a weakness. He sometimes chooses comfort over who's best for the role. Now's probably the best time to talk about Elliot Page's role as Cinnon. Yes, Sinnon is basically Achilles by proxy. So, the criticism does fit that it's funny a 5- foot warrior is the greatest soldier Odysius has ever known. And no, they cannot successfully hide the fact that Elliot Page is 5'1 and weighs like 90 lb. I don't actually care that Elliot Page is in the movie. I'm just stating objective facts. The role is small, but it's made to subvert, so your mileage will vary on how you take it in. Regardless, yes, it's a distraction, but just a short-lived one, among many others.

[00:12:22]Another one worth mentioning is the music and sound mixing. As is yet another Nolan staple, you can barely understand what anyone is saying because the sound levels are so out of whack.

[00:12:30]>> Russian national.

[00:12:36]When you combine that with a booming soundtrack that's completely unmemorable, you get a horrible audible experience. It's ear torture at times.

[00:12:43]In the end, for me, the Odyssey doesn't land on either end of the extreme. It's squarely somewhere in the middle. It's hard to keep things going at a break neck pace for nearly three hours. And while Nolan definitely doesn't do that, he takes his time in between the exciting set pieces and big moments, creating a stopand go movie that can be a joyous slog to get through, if that makes any sense. The highs are so high, it's hard not to recommend you should just see it for yourself. The film received an a cinema score, glowing reviews across the board from critics and moviegoers. So maybe these critiques won't mean anything to you in the end.

[00:13:15]For me though, I just find it to be a flawed but entertaining movie that I really wish wasn't 3 hours long, but here we are. You can be epic without needing an epic runtime, just FYI.

[00:13:25]Anyway, that's just my two cents. I said in my previous Odyssey video that the movie is going to make bank if it was good, despite the controversy, and that's how everyone's taking it. So there you go. Just so you know, guys, the existence of my opinion does not mean yours is irrelevant. We don't need to agree for you to enjoy or hate the movie. I've said this since I started the channel. Like what you like. If you enjoyed it, rock on, man. There's a lot to like. If you hated it, hey, I have my gripes, too. Before I go, a quick shout out to everyone over on Patreon who support me. I really appreciate you guys as always. Make sure to check that out for more reviews and video essays like this one that are exclusive to Patreon.

[00:14:02]And there are even more videos like this one on my second channel, Cynic After Dark. Links to everything in the description. GG's.