The Odyssey: does Christopher Nolan’s adaptation live up to expectations? | The Latest

[00:00:00]Film critics like to applaud movies that are cinema with a capital C and it's sort of seen as a legitimate superhero movie, but this is a kind of super classy version.

[00:00:10]>> Yeah, this is a big old poem. [laughter] >> That >> What did you think of it?

[00:00:15]>> I didn't like it.

[00:00:19]>> Arguably the most hotly anticipated film of the year, Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey, officially released today.

[00:00:25]Katherine Shaw, you are the Guardians film editor. It's a bit of an understatement to say that this story has been around for a while, right? It's like 3,000year Greek poem. Why all of the hype around this adaptation of it?

[00:00:40]>> I think it's a combination of things. I think Christopher Nolan, he it's his first film since Oppenheimer, which made a billion dollars almost and it's crazy.

[00:00:49]Uh but it's just been overtaken by the Michael Jackson biopic as the really most successful biopic ever. But anyway, pretty good until that came along. Uh, it won seven Oscars, which the Michael Jackson biopic won't do. So, yeah, huge film. People love Christopher Nolan. The fans are very, very impassioned. It's massive. It's been filmed in IMAX in a sort of revolutionary way. Uh, Nolan built all the sets. It's no CGI, so there's really a Trojan horse. There's really lots of battles. I mean, there's not all the death, but apart from that, it's pretty realistic. And also, it's just a very sort of resurgent box office. This year is is huge.

[00:01:27]unexpectedly huge things like Back Rooms, Obsession, have made loads of money. So, everybody is now going to the cinema and the the marketing has very strongly positioned this as the film if you're going to go to a cinema this year when everyone's going to the cinema, go and see this film and everybody sort of got that message and is going to do that.

[00:01:44]>> No one could stand between me and home, not even the gods.

[00:01:53]keep us free.

[00:02:01]>> And it's that kind of epic scale of it as well, isn't it? I think it was filmed in six countries, you know, it was it's kind of the cast all saying, you know, this is the toughest shoot they've ever had to do. So, the hype around it is that like almost as epic as the poem itself, right?

[00:02:15]>> Yeah. Exactly. Exactly. They're very much uh Yeah. pushing that line. And those themes, you know, that that the poet that the Odyssey like brings back to us all are like such kind of central themes that we know in all of these different stories and all of our favorite films. You know, this idea of the hero and the homecoming. Do you think it has those themes that are relevant to what's going on in the world today? And that's also kind of, you know, grabbing people.

[00:02:37]>> Yeah. I mean, it tries very hard to push that idea that it's newly relevant. So, it kind of goes on a lot about PTSD. It doesn't say PTSD. Homer didn't mention that, but uh that's that's what it puts in there. And there's sort of lots of lines about is civilization falling and and where does where's the line between heroism and barbarity. So lots of sort of hot button topics. Whether or not those were exactly what they were in Homer, I'm not sure. But that's okay.

[00:03:04]You're allowed to interpret for modern audiences. That's fine.

[00:03:07]>> Yeah. And I mean, it's received rave reviews, hasn't it? Uh across the board.

[00:03:12]Our own, you know, our own colleagues giving it five stars. you know, everybody just all the critics just seem to absolutely love it. Yeah.

[00:03:18]>> What What is it that they are, you know, raving about?

[00:03:22]>> I think they are. Well, the word that sort of comes up time and time again in these in these five star reviews is muscular muscular storytelling.

[00:03:31]>> And I'm not just talking about [laughter] Matt Damon, right? He was beefed up.

[00:03:34]>> He's way beefed up and then he sort of beefed down. He lost 15 pounds or 15 kilos or something. not that amazing.

[00:03:40]But anyway, [snorts] there are quite a lot of shots of him uh topless and muscular and there's quite a lot of sort of asskicking he does where he's quite muscular. Uh but they they like the breadth of the storytelling. They like the huge scale. They like the fact it's cinema. I mean film critics like to applaud movies that are are cinema with a capital C and I and all the rest of the letters. So because it it it shows that cinema is a very vital art form.

[00:04:08]So, it's really responding to a lot of things that a lot of by and large male film critics really really enjoy.

[00:04:15]>> And it's quite geeky, isn't it? Like the love in as well in terms of the the film and the way that he did it and the cameras and I got a lot of that those kind of those like fan fan vibes throughout the the critics reviews as well.

[00:04:27]>> I think Nolan is a is a is a director that really speaks to that. So, he's got this huge mainstream uh fan base, but yeah, they also sort of geek out on the type of cameras used and the resolution of IMAX and all that sort of thing. And and it's sort of seen as a kind of legitimate superhero movie. I mean, it is a legitimate superhero movie. So, he did The Dark Knight Rises and all those sorts of films, but this is a kind of super classy version. So, you know, you can't even attack us for liking something from Marvel or something. This is this is class.

[00:04:56]>> Yeah. This is a big old poem. [laughter] that.

[00:05:00]>> And what did you think of it?

[00:05:02]>> I didn't like it.

[00:05:04]>> Okay.

[00:05:04]>> I'm afraid. Sorry about that.

[00:05:06]>> Tell us more.

[00:05:07]>> Well, it's very long. [laughter] >> Right. And it's >> Yeah. Three hours, right?

[00:05:11]>> Yeah, it does. You sort of think I wonder how long this one will be. It's Christopher Nolan's Oh, it is. It's three hours. It is pretty long.

[00:05:17]>> An Odyssey to get through it.

[00:05:19]>> It is. And I do. I mean, one thing about Christopher Nolan is he doesn't he sort of says I don't write for actors, which is a choice. and he can still stack his films with the most A-list cast ever.

[00:05:30]Uh, but it sort of means that a lot of the casting feels a bit weird. So, Tom Holland plays uh Adicius's son and there's lots of talk about him not being of age yet. You think, well, he's he's 30 though, isn't he? And back in those days that was really quite old, you know, there's things like that.

[00:05:47]>> Uh, I just didn't on a lot of levels. I mean, we'll perhaps talk about the women angle of it a bit later, but the whole thing felt to me a little bit superhero, ironically. It's quite bloodless. So, Adysius is forever, you know, um, with a bow and arrow. That's more like that.

[00:06:04]He's forever killing people very, very cleanly and effectively, and they just pop off. It's like a computer game.

[00:06:10]Nobody ever kind of goes, "Oh, they just die." Yeah. And so you've got this R-rated film that's sort of all grizzly and muscular and real and oh my god it's about trauma but also it's not it's just a sort of computer game. There's an outrageous scene late late on it in it which isn't in the poem where Adysius does an amazing bit of asskicking against some goons who are dressed up as other people and just think it's sort of boring. It's sort of it's sort of a bit of a liberty and it's quite boring.

[00:06:40]Right. And I I know I'll be attacked a lot for saying it was a bit boring, but from time to time it felt a bit boring, just a bit dared.

[00:06:47]>> And you talked about the all sarcast. I remember when I saw the trailer for it, I think last year, I just thought it was just AI generated. I was like, this is ridiculous. You can't have like all of [laughter] these people in the same film, but but they were like falling over each other to work for Nolan. But who was your kind of standout performance in the film? Well, surprisingly, given that you've got that incredibly stacked cast, it was John Luismo, who is uh most recently best known as Sid, the voice of the animal Sid in Ice Age, and is also in Encanto, but has done things like uh the uh Julie Numar film, who's a drag queen, and did some Baz Lurman films and stuff like that. He's great. He's this Colombian actor. He plays a very loyal blind servant, Emmas. Uh and it's really you sort of think, who's that guy? Is that Abel Ferrer? Who the heck is it? He's got these crazy contact lenses and sort of aging makeup and all that and a really surprisingly big role and you're sort of thinking because as you say it's sort of a bit AI think it can't possibly have all these you know an Away and Matt Dame keep coming. Yeah. And also they're in every single film this year. I mean Robert Patterson's in like three or four films. Zena is all over the shop is everything.

[00:07:55]>> I know. And you sort of think oh it's like Devil's Prada too and you know it's it kind of gets a bit boring. So to have so many stars, what a what a first world problem. But having this guy come on and be in so many scenes and be really affecting and good felt quite refreshing.

[00:08:08]>> Also very important person in the story as well. So that's >> absolutely very important person in the story >> and and you you mentioned women you know uh there are a lot of really amazing actresses in this film. Um, but you know this film and as with other Christopher Nolan films, there has been criticism of how he treats women in terms of his portrayal of those female characters.

[00:08:30]Was that a problem for you in this film as well?

[00:08:32]>> I mean, yeah, I'm afraid so. I'm sorry.

[00:08:34]I know that's a really predictable thing to say. And and he does have this sort of slightly slightly unfortunate reputation as as not not being so good with women being, you know, they're either sort of saintly or they're kind of horrible.

[00:08:47]>> They're always pretty adjacent, aren't they? they're a bit adjacent to the central hero figure or and that's certainly the case here and so you know lots of classicists have sort of pointed out emissions I mean there's two very key women in the text that don't appear at all but also in the same way that Nolan has kind of got rid of a lot of the sort of blood and guts he's got rid of lots of sex as well and the sex sort of plays an important role in this so Charlie's the Ron's character Calypso uh keeps him as a sex slave for eight years but in this that's not mentioned. And so she just sort of walks about this beach with him >> holding hands.

[00:09:23]>> She doesn't even hold hands. She's forever sort of giving him drinks like a waitress.

[00:09:28]>> And it's a bit it's just a bit it doesn't make sense. That's a great role in theory, but in practice it's just a bit weird. It's like sort of Malibu, you know, Malibu at sundown a time. It's really strange. The same thing with Samantha Morton's character, Cersei, uh, who's this incredible character, uh, who sort of lives in this shack and then all Adicius's men come and she she feeds them supper and they slurp it up.

[00:09:53]They're very hungry. She turns them all into pigs. Adicius comes along, figures out what's happened, and then changes her mind, gets her to to reverse it. In the poem, he does that through a year of sex and rhetoric. In this, he just sort of says to her, "Oh, you know, I know men can be [laughter] I know, isn't it? But, you know, these ones aren't so bad. They just want to go home. And she's like, "Oh, all right.

[00:10:17]The gold [laughter] put them back." Um, so, you know, things like that. And Zenaia, you know, Athena, what an amazing role. But she just looks like she's a Scottish widow's thing on the beach, you know, forever sort of looking and sometimes he does a really naughty killing and she sort of looks at him and goes like she's really disappointed. Taking his shoes off after a muddy walk. [laughter] >> Yeah. So you know those sort of things it just it's just a bit um lackluster and even the changes that are made to Penelope. So the very famous bed test is taking that out. It's quite important bit and Penelope also condemns one of her own female servants to death which is a bit it's not in the poem. It's not nice. So yeah, it all coaleses around this idea that Matt Damon's hero is an amazing fellow and he's really really remorseful about all that death he caused and he's sort of plagued with guilt and PTSD and and also feminism and that's not that's not how he is in the poem. It's sort of all right to do that because reinterpret it but it does kind of chuck the women out with a bath water, you know. It's not it's not really nice.

[00:11:25]>> No. And and you know there have you know along with those criticisms there have been criticisms of elitism like you can only see this film really in an IMAX to get like the full experience.

[00:11:36]Um those tickets are quite expensive but also you know as you said they've spent $250 million dollars. Like what does a commercial um kind of success look like for this film? Are they going to have to get a lot of bums on seats to >> to justify the cost?

[00:11:50]>> They're going to have to get a lot of sort of rich bums on seats because Yeah.

[00:11:53]But the thing about IMAX prices is that they're they're more [clears throat] expensive. The tickets are so much more.

[00:11:58]So they don't have to sell quite so many tickets. They won't struggle. I mean, it'll need it cost about 250. They'll need to make about 600 to break even once you've accounted for ticket sales and marketing costs. Um, they'll do that. It'll make 200 million over its opening weekend. I would say you don't absolutely have to go and see it in IMAX. In some ways, it might be better not to because it is sort of a big experience. And although the IMAX works really well in the sort of grand spectacle scenes, lots of boats and water and all that business, lots of it closeup and and with that, it's like looking in a mirror when you do your makeup in a mirror and it's a sort of 12 magnification mirror and that's really horrible sight. It's like that. And so you're looking at people's pores the whole time and it's quite a sweaty film.

[00:12:47]So you're sort of distracted by that.

[00:12:49]So, in a way, you don't have to see an IMAX. Might be better not to.

[00:12:53]>> Well, that is a great moment to land on.

[00:12:55]And I would just say as a last thing, I find it very encouraging that the sales of the Odyssey, the text are up by 70%.

[00:13:00]So, it's great that everyone is vibing off this.

[00:13:03]>> Absolutely. Greek >> poem. That's right. Mary Beard has said she wants a Wthering Heights effect and and I think he's done that and and good on him.

[00:13:10]>> Thank you so much, Katherine.

[00:13:11]>> Thank you.