I Watched The Odyssey & Noticed Something Really WEIRD...Nolan Did That?

[00:00:00]I watched the Odyssey last night. This movie threw me way off. I did not expect Nolan to do this, especially when it comes to a specific character. I did not expect Nolan to go the places he did.

[00:00:10]I'm going to say this right now before we even get into any review. There is a huge problem with Nolan's recent films that this film is plagued by and it's something that needs to be addressed going forward because this seems this is just the style that Nolan is is using for all of his films. The Odyssey is one of the most controversial films of the year. Okay, it simply is.

[00:00:33]From the beginning, there were people like, "What the hell is this? What are these suits? Why are people talking like this? There's no Greek actors. The race swaps. What's happening? Is is Nolan gone woke? Elliot Paige in this? Why is Travis Scott in this?" This movie has been plagued with controversy. Film Twitter, which is not a real place by the way, does not reflect reality at all. I saw when I was in the movie theaters myself and I was seeing how real people talk. Film Twitter was going crazy over this. Elon Musk was like, "Yo, Nolan's a fraud." People were like, "Let's boycott this [ __ ] movie."

[00:01:02]Yeah, I made a whole video defending Nolan. I got a lot of backlash. People were like, "Oh, you're defending the Voke Savvy. You're part of the problem."

[00:01:09]Now, I was like, "Bro, I'm I saw 6 minutes of footage from this movie before the Avatar Fire and Ash showing."

[00:01:16]And I made a video on that. That 6 minutes made me kind of confident that this is going to be a competent film.

[00:01:20]and I trust Nolan. But I was like, "Okay, I'm just going to wait. We're going to wait until this movie comes out." People went off of me, okay? I've been taking a lot of hits because of my defense of this. I'm not going to act like I'm some scholarly expert about the audience. I studied it a couple times in high school. I don't remember a lot of that [ __ ] that happened, okay? I'm not going to act like I went into this film like, "Oh, that wasn't accurate with a fine tooth comb." No, that's not me. I'm a normal [ __ ] dude with a mask who does cocaine. I went into the Odyssey with an open mind trying to be as objective as I can because even though I'm a Nolan fan, I was one of the people who said I think Oenheimer is severely overrated and did not deserve that best film award at all. I can call it like I see. You know, he's made some of my favorite films ever, but his recent films I've had some issues with. Let's answer the questions. Did they woke it up? Is Nolan watched? Is this the worst movie of the year and worst movie ever?

[00:02:09]I'm going to say a resounding no to all three of those questions, but there's a caveat with the second one.

[00:02:18]Nolan, I feel like, has been getting a bit self-indulgent with the way he scripts, edits, and and and is structuring his films, and I think that came back to haunt him with this specific film. Let's address all the controversial [ __ ] right now so we don't have to [ __ ] get into it after. Okay.

[00:02:35]Lupita Niongo as Helen of Troy. They cast a black woman as Helen of Troy.

[00:02:39]People were freaking the [ __ ] out. I wasn't one of them. I can understand why people want some accuracy here. Is this something that hurts the film as a whole when I'm watching it? No. She's in the movie for a whole of 2 minutes. She does have an important role, don't get me wrong, but she's in the movie for 2 minutes. I don't I don't foresee a lot of people just getting completely just triggered by Lupita Nyongo's presence while watching this. No, she's in it for 2 minutes. She's good for the scene she's in. She's a good actress. Elliot Page, why are they casting a trans actor as a soldier for for under Odicius? This what the hell is it? How are we taking this guy seriously? This person would get killed so easily. Yeah, if you watch the movie and you know Elliot's role, which also she's in the movie for like 3 minutes, you know that I don't want to even say it. I saying I I'm trying to be spoilerfree here even though many people know the story of the Odyssey now for thousands of years. But the character that this person is playing, if some of you might laugh the moment you see what goes down, that's all I'm going to say.

[00:03:36]I don't think you're going to be too disappointed with Elliot Paige's presence in this film. Travis Scott, he's the first face you see when this movie opens up. Me and my friends laughed because we knew, look, we knew going into this Travis Scott was going to be in it and that's weird. Uh, he's in it for like 2 minutes, a minute chanting. He's barely even seen. Yes, it was still distracting because it's Travis Scott and he can't act for his life. So, I will say that. But does it ruin the movie? No. The dialogue, the weird dialogue that people are seeing in the Daddy. You're pining for daddy. MY DAD'S COMING HOME. LET'S GO.

[00:04:09]Is this something that affects the movie?

[00:04:12]For one of my friends, yes, it did severely. He did. He was like, "Why?

[00:04:16]Why? What does this modern speak?" But we all came to a conclusion. It was hard to get past at first, but you get used to it the more you get in sync with the sequences that are happening. You start to forget about that. Some of the sequences that are in this movie are very intense, very epic.

[00:04:32]The dialogue at certain point just didn't bother me anymore. At the beginning, it took some while to get used to. I'm just going to be honest about that. And I knew from the trailers, I was like that that's worrying me a bit. It doesn't seem it doesn't seem authentic. It doesn't seem you know when you watch Lord of the Rings, right? There's a certain thing when people are talking you feel like this is beauty. This is poetry, right?

[00:04:53]In this you don't feel that. and you and maybe you should did take some time to get used to, but does it ruin the movies as a whole? No, I wouldn't say so. The casting, this was another big one besides the race swapping and the ones that we just mentioned. I always thought Matt Damon and Tom Holland and Zenaia were odd choices, especially Zenaia, which we're going to get to now. People were like, "Oh, no Greek actors really."

[00:05:12]I This wasn't really a problem for me when Clash of the Titans or Wrath of the Titans came out and they casted most of like English actors.

[00:05:18]I'm just going to be honest, nobody was talking about it during these films.

[00:05:21]They are now. I think that's just the state of the culture wars discourse personally. Does it have negatively affect the movie that they cast white English actors to play some of these roles? No. Could they have cast as more Greek actors? Sure. Yes. The representation for them is always a good thing. So, I will say that in terms of the specific actors, Tom Holland, I still think is a miscast. When I'm watching the film, I'm seeing Tom Holland, not the character of Telmucus or whatever the [ __ ] the name is. That's just me personally. Zenaia. Zenaia was bothering me a lot. I'll be honest, throughout this film, whenever she was in, I was like, why is she she's just ruining this? It's just I know it's Zenaia. I see Zenaia. She's not Athena.

[00:05:57]Why is she playing Athena? You know, this this was what was going on in my mind.

[00:06:01]By the end of the film, something is revealed, and I'm going to get to it later. It makes sense why Odysius is seeing her. That's all I'm going to say.

[00:06:10]They do explain it, and I'm like, okay, I'm actually I'm I'm very relieved.

[00:06:16]That makes a lot more sense. If you know, you know. Robert Patterson, he does what he needs to do in this, which is play the most pathetic man in existence. An absolute [ __ ] weasel who will literally sit as a suitor at a house and feast until he can tap Anah Hathaway's ass and get the control of the throne. He has no honor, nothing.

[00:06:32]He's ab he's a pathetic wuss and he plays it very very well. Yes, his some of his dialogue is a bit it sticks out cuz I'm like nobody would be saying that. But it's all good. Robert Patterson plays the weasel well and you really want him to die. That's what he needed to do and he did it. Anna Hathaway, I would say, is the one that feels the most like dramatically she's the best. I believed her in the role the most. I didn't see Anna Hathaway. I saw Penelopey. And Matt Damon is a very good Odysius. Very, very good. Again, this was a casting choice where I was like, why would they cast Matt Damon? It makes no sense. But okay, it's Matt Damon. I have no problem with Matt Damon. [sighs and gasps] He's very good in the role. And I will say for those who were worried that this would feminize the masculine hero, they don't at all. In fact, this guy has unlimited aura in this film at one point. I'm Christopher Nolan and Matt Dam were aura farming the [ __ ] out of the camera, especially during the third act of this.

[00:07:28]Is the movie good? That's the one question I haven't answered yet. Yes, it is good. It's very good. I don't think Nolan is capable of making a terrible film. Some of you might disagree with that, but in my opinion, he has not made a terrible film yet. He's probably made films that are mid, films that are very disappointing, and films that you may not understand and might not want to see again. This movie is good. There are pros and cons to everything, though, and I'm a fair man. I'm going to assess everything fairly. I know a lot of people didn't want to hear that this movie was good. My opinion, you can watch it and figure it out for yourself.

[00:07:58]You don't have to beat lament on this opinion and act like it's the end all be all. Obviously, not. My opinion counts for nothing in the grand scheme of things, but still, I made these videos for a reason, right? This is what I believe to be the truth. Let's get to the pros and then we'll get to the cons after cuz this movie does have problems.

[00:08:10]Cinematography and the shots are great.

[00:08:12]Everyone People were complaining, "Oh, this looks so dull and gray." Guys, I don't know who's bitching and moaning about this. The scenes, the cinematics, the everything about this film on a technical level was great. The score was good. It doesn't stand out as much as his past Nolan films. I think this is probably one of the scores that I didn't care for as much. Like Oppenheimer, Inception, Interstellar, those scores were amazing, right? This doesn't really have a score like that, but it works for the sequences it needs to. For the most part, I think everything was done well.

[00:08:35]I like Adysius a lot in this. He's a very flawed, complex character. They're not trying to glorify him. They're not trying to make him weak or pathetic either. He is a very flawed dude who's not necessarily the hero you think he is. And it's about demystifying him.

[00:08:48]They're doing the Oenheimer treatment where they're really trying to build a complex character who you see the guilt, you see the war, the anguish, the torment in him, right? Matt Damon plays it very well. Let's just get to the [ __ ] thing that everyone talks about when watching this. The Cyclops sequence is great. It's terrifying. People I think people are overplaying. Oh, it's this is a horror movie. No, it's not.

[00:09:07]This is not by no means the scariest scene you're going to see this year. Not even close. But it's creepy as [ __ ] The cyclops is something. The way this thing moves and the sounds it makes. I'm telling you, bro, I was thinking of the shy guy from SCP lore. I'm not the only one. Tell me, guys, were you not thinking of some SCP [ __ ] like this when you were watching this scene? If you watched it, this is some SCP [ __ ] I could make a whole video on this. In fact, there could been this whole sequence could have been its own horror movie. That's how I was really liking it. I actually wish they had stayed there longer to be honest. There's a body horror sequence with Cersei's character. If you know, you know. A very disgusting and well done bar body horror. This is the first time I'm seeing Nolan do something like this. It was pretty cool. There's a sequence where they're fighting giants. Pretty badass. Pretty gory. The only thing I will say though is the time we get from sequence to sequence.

[00:10:01]there's not enough time built up to them so that you can feel the emotion you should. They enter into these sequences and they exit it really fast. And we're going to get to some of the pacing with this movie later. But that did kind of take away from the experience for me, but the film-wise, fight-wise, choreography wise, effects wise, it was amazing. The Trojan horse sequence that I talked about, the six minutes of footage that were that was released is my still my favorite sequence besides something that happens in the third act of the film. It's awesome. them. You see them [ __ ] themselves, pissing themselves in the water, drowning in the water in the Trojan horse as they have to infiltrate this [ __ ] city. And then they infiltrate the city and they have to open the gates for Agamenon's army. It's sick. The entire sequence is awesome. Agamenon, again, I'm going to say this is the definition of aura. The third act is one of the crazier third acts you're going to see this year. It's it's the confrontation. It's the final confrontation. It's the return. It's the It's the climax, right?

[00:10:59]It's great. It has the most aura farming of the year, too. If you're a fan of aura farming and you're a fan of characters that have aura, I don't know how you can hate on this sequence. It's pretty cool. Odysius goes Odysius turns into John Wick at one point, bro. I'll be honest. He turns into Arrow Oliver Queen. And I will say the ending is very satisfying. The themes, the messages that are going forward, the arc for Odysius and his son, I will say the ending is a very satisfying one. what they're really trying to say. I liked it all. Now, we get to the cons. It's not like this movie has a bunch of cons.

[00:11:31]It's like there's like one big con, but we're going to get to some gripes I had.

[00:11:36]Sila, I was I'm I'm a monster fan. I'm very excited for Monsters, right? Sila, first of all, barely has any screen time. If you're expecting, oh, you if you're one of these guys, and I don't think there's a lot of them, but like, oh, I can't wait to see Sila or the underworld, right? You're you don't really get what you want. Like there is a sequence with a creature that is Sila.

[00:11:56]It looks pretty cool. I would love to know more about that creature the way it is designed. It's all CGI. The first time I've seen Nolan do something all CGI like that. It's barely there. It's barely seen. The sequence with him and the nymph Calypso, right? There's an entire story line where he's with her on this island and he has to remember. I didn't really care for this because it's riddled with exposition and the development of Charlie Sin's character is like non-existent. And that's where we're going to get to the main issue with this movie. It's the pacing, guys.

[00:12:25]The pacing of this film. I'm not saying it's slow or boring. It's actually quite it's neckbreak at times. Nolan has to condense such a big story in a film. 2 to three hours. He has to speed to things. And when you can't show everything, you need to talk about it.

[00:12:43]There are tons of exposition. Charlie Theren has a whole arc in this where she falls in love with Odysius. This is not shown to us at all. It she just tells us it. That's one example. I fell in love with you, Adysius. We just gloss over it. There's a scene where the fate of Agamenon, who's a very important character of this, by the way, is explained to us in entirely exposition out of no, it's almost like out of left field. It's like, "Oh, hey, Odysius, by the way. You should know this blah blah blah blah blah blah." And we're like, "Whoa, whoa, what? What?" We're thrown so much exposition at such a fast point in time that it's really hard. You're just like, "What the fuck?" You know what I'm saying? Like, okay, I guess that's something that happened and we're moving on to the next thing. Sequences that are epic. When we move from sequence to sequence, it's moved so fast that you don't have time to feel what you really need to feel. I think there's a lot of because of the nonlinear way Nolan makes his films now. We're cutting between past, future, and present. And the exposition dumps that lead us there, you're missing out. You're basically creating flat dialogue. There are cases where Matt Damon is just doing plain exposition and he's talking like a robot. And there's not the emotional connection you want with these characters as a result of that.

[00:13:51]Structurally, that's a problem. The in my opinion, the dialogue being modern, them saying dad and all the stuff isn't the issue. The issue is Nolan is telling the audience everything with these exposition dumps. And I truly believe part of the reason he wanted to go modern is because he knew there was a lot of exposition dumping that would need to happen. And doing it in a way that was them speaking in Greek or more ancient would have been harder to write, I guess. So, he just did it in modern. I think that's the reason he did it and that's that's that is a problem in my opinion that way of storytelling basically how I summed it up well this is a series of go this movie as a whole is a series of goated sequences peaks cyclops scene the giants fight the Trojan war invasion [ __ ] the final fight right this amazing [ __ ] but they're connected by awkward writing and exposition in a story that's just it feels just flat a little bit and that's the problem that stops this movie from reaching the heights of greatness. It's a very good movie, but it doesn't reach the peak Nolan. There's one scene, right, where Odysius figures out, okay, he realized, I have to go home. He had his adventure where he's defying the gods and and he's put through a bunch.

[00:14:59]He's gone, he goes through hell, basically. And then he has the realization with Charlie, I have to go home. And him getting to home is done like this. If you've seen the movie, you know it's very rushed. Like, okay, listen. I don't remember much about the Odysseies, so maybe that's how it happened there.

[00:15:14]The way it's done, it's like you don't feel by the time he gets home and you have your final confrontation, you don't feel the impact. You don't feel the emotion of that event because him getting home was done like this. The emotional weight of a lot of these scenes is lost because of the way it's paced and structured. That's a big problem I had with Oppenheimer as well.

[00:15:31]That's a problem with a lot of Nolan's recent films. I feel like his kind of obsession with nonlinear storytelling and time, his self-indulgence, it's kind of taken the emotional weight out of his storytelling. Spoiler talk, Elliot Paige gets killed like the first scene she's in. I I didn't expect this to happen at all. She gets brutally killed, stabbed.

[00:15:50]She has an important thing later because she's actually related to Robert Patterson's character and we see her in the underworld. We see her speak to Ratt Damon and give him a message, talk to him about her brother who's [ __ ] corrupt as hell and trying to ruin everything, right? Agamenon comes out of nowhere and says, "Oh, by the way, Odysius, my uh my wife, the the twin of Helen of Troy," which I didn't even know there was to be honest. She killed me.

[00:16:14]She She wanted revenge for what I for what I did to our daughter by sacrificing her to Poseidon, so she killed me. We're shown all this. This is like a literally dump to us in exposition. We're like, wait, what?

[00:16:24]Okay. But that gives Odicius a reason to put on his disguise and go to Ithaca.

[00:16:30]Ithaca as a beggar. When he goes to Ikitha as a beggar pretending like he's a pathetic nobody while all these elites and nobles and suitors laugh at him. He is aura farming like crazy. Tom Holland gets mogged by this brother at every single turn. And by the way, I'm going to say this right now. Mammon's a [ __ ] ripped He looks like a ripped Greek god in this the way his physique is, bro. He worked his ass off for this role. And you can tell he got so much, man. He literally There's a sequence where Alan Hathaway is like, "I will marry the person who does Odysius's famous bow and arrow trick. Nobody can do it. It's like lifting Thor's hammer, right?" Odysius does it. He does it with his hood on as a beggar. Everyone's laughing at him. It's a dude that no one thinks anything of. He's the one that surpasses everyone. It's that type of archetype, right? And he does it. And then Robert Patterson shits himself.

[00:17:19]Everybody shits himself. And then he just starts going to town and killing everybody like Oliver Queen. I was like, "Bro, what the Okay, we're getting right into this. I'm going to tell you this right now. Tom Holland is pathetic in this scene. This guy has one job. Okay, he has to take out one dude who's [ __ ] Odysius over by giving all these other suitors weapons to fight him with, right? All Tom Holland needs to do is kill this guy. Tom Holland takes 30 minutes to kill one guy. Matt Damon.

[00:17:44]Matt Damon's Odysius is handling 70 men at least by himself or 50 if I'm underscoring it. 50. What are we Tom? What is wrong? I'm st I I'm frustrated because and granted it's part of the it's part of the way the sequence is done. It's very very well done. Matt team is putting on a John Wick clinic.

[00:18:03]This guy the fight scenes are great. Tom Holland is getting ragged by one dude and I'm like bro Tom can you like help him? What are we doing? Odicius is carrying this movie on his back, bro.

[00:18:13]The third act really did tie everything together. Okay, Odysius is speaking to Penelopey about his experiences and how he's changed, how the war on Troy and their invasion of Troy changed him.

[00:18:25]Basically, what happens is Odysius narrates what his experience was that this movie has been building up to. By the way, this this is one thing that wasn't rushed in my opinion. It it still is an exposition dump, but I was okay with it because of they built up this sequence throughout the film. Basically in Troy when they came they slaughtered everybody including the women and children. Odysius saw firsthand all the women getting slain. And there was one girl who looked like Zena who was killed and beheaded in front of Athena's altar.

[00:18:53]And because Odysius saw that and felt guilt about it he starts seeing Athena the spirit of Athena everywhere as the victim of the girl that they killed. So he's not actually seeing the the Greek goddess Athena herself is in Zenaia coming down him. It's his guilt being in the form of this illusion that he calls Athena.

[00:19:10]And I was like, "Oh, that's why Zenaia is playing her. Okay, do they need to cast Zenaia?" You know, no. Of course, she has a big name. That's why no one cast her. But I was like, "Okay, I feel a lot better about this casting then because that's what this character is there for. Okay, it's his guilt for what happened to Troy. All these women getting pillaged and rworded and killed in front of him, right? That I was like, "Okay, that's a very creative choice."

[00:19:33]And I like that we I didn't know what her purpose was throughout this entire thing. I was like, "She doesn't need to be here." And then at the end I was like, "Oh, okay, that makes sense." We did not know what throughout this movie, we don't know what Odicius really went through on Troy until the end. And when it happens, it's wrapped, it wraps up everything nicely. And it ends on the theme, Matt Damon's final quote, like our mistakes will be forgotten. like the story, the myth of Odysius and all this will live on. But the things that we were had to do along the way, what I had to do that screwed over my crew, all the things we did to the people of Troy, we broke Zeus's law when we gave them that gift of the Trojan horse and came out and invaded their city. We broke it for Agamemnon, a dude's pride, right, to his revenge.

[00:20:13]I thought that whole thing was great. I thought the ending was great. And then Tom Holland becomes king and I'm like, "Bro, can you please learn to fight, bro? Please." Overall, where would I It's still It's still very green, right?

[00:20:25]I would rank this still middle of the road in terms of Nolan's films. I would rank it probably alongside Oppenheimer.

[00:20:29]A lot of people might go crazy cuz how dare you say this is as good as up. I thought Oppenheimer's overrated to be honest, but still, it's there. If I'm not allowed to tie it, maybe I'd put it under. I will say though, man, the Odyssey has a lot I think the Odyssey ended in a way that was more satisfying to me than Oppenheimer. Oppenheimer maybe has more rewatchability for the first half of it. After that, I don't really care to. With with the Odyssey, I have to give it time. Maybe I rank it higher. I don't know. But I'd probably Listen, a lot of people already think I have no credibility because of The Dark Knight. It's one of my favorite movies ever, man. I don't think it's number one anymore, by the way. Another movie has taken my number one spot for all time favorite movie. But a lot of people like just like, how can you rank Dark Knight ahead? But it's just my opinion. For me, Odyssey is probably still middle of the road for Nolan's films. Not his best, not top five in my opinion, but very good. I'd highly recommend seeing it in IMAX, guys.

[00:21:24]The culture war, the culture wars, political nonsense stuff. The people saying this movie is going to bomb. This movie is not going to bomb, by the way.

[00:21:29]I already know this shit's going to make a billy. I I I think it will. Um, and you saw the people were like, "Oh, the critics of course are going to rate this." Well, Zafy's probably paid. Oh, we'll wait for the audience scores to come out. Yeah, the audience likes it, too. I was there in the theater, man.

[00:21:45]I I wasn't seeing a lot of negative reception to this movie. Let's just say that people like this.

[00:21:51]Get off the internet and watch it. Have your own watch it for yourself and see what you think. Maybe you don't like it.

[00:21:56]I think my criticisms of this movie you can agree with though. Personally, I think that's the one thing people are going to walk away with and be like, I wish that could have been done better.

[00:22:04]Cuz technically, I think this movie is brilliant. The sequences are great. It's just together this this doesn't tie together perfectly. Those are my thoughts on that, guys. I'm going to do a whole video on the [ __ ] Cyclops, though.

[00:22:17]Oh, yeah. That's an SCP villain. Bye.

[00:22:21]Ladies and gentlemen, we are on a mission to take over Hollywood. [music] But the army must keep growing.

[00:22:34]If you want to suggest video topics to me [music] or talk about your favorite movies or favorite film theories in a community with like-minded individuals, join [music] the Zafy Discord now. Link is in the description and the comment section as well. Join us.

[00:22:50]This movement is [music] just beginning.

[00:22:54]We're taking over Hollywood one [music] coke line at a time.

[00:23:02]Heat.

[00:23:05]Heat.

[00:23:09][music]