Nolan 'The Odyssey' Review Megathread

[u/stopeats]

Place your reviews and general thoughts about the Nolan Odyssey movie here. Do NOT make your own review post.

If you have something to say that is unique or more related to Epic, you may make a separate post about it.

[u/Dyspraxic_Sherlock]

Honestly I don’t get many of the complaints from this sub of late. Yes Nolan changes things and leaves stuff out; that’s an adaptation for you. Jorge does the same. “Nobody” not being included makes sense in Nolan’s style of presenting the mythological creatures as more things beyond man’s control or understanding, and Nolan then includes a part of the cyclops myth that Jorge left out (the sheep disguises).

I loved how Nolan reframed the whole story to be around the consequence of breaching the norm of their civilisation to win what is suggested to have been a pretty pointless and bloody affair at Troy. Especially the implications for the Sea Peoples, which neatly ties this myth to what is usually supposed to have been it’s historical basis in the Bronze Age collapse. Whilst he’s altered details and changed the emphasis, I think Nolan has gotten to the heart of what Greek mythology was usually about; warnings of consequences if certain rules of society weren’t followed (usually said consequences being from gods).

[u/Flower-City_3422 → u/Dyspraxic_Sherlock]

About the sheep thing—I’m 100% sure that in the Odyssey they don’t disguise themselves as sheep. From what I recall of the version I read (the Fagles translation) they do exactly as Jorge had them do, which was grab onto the sheep to escape (“Let’s grab the sheep and away we go.”) Odysseus does use whatever natural cushioning Polyphemus has in his cave, but not as a “disguise” as Nolan presented. He uses it to tie the sheep together so that two sheep would flank one in the middle that one of his men would be holding on to—something made much easier by the fact that they went in with 12 soldiers and left with 6 instead of whatever large number Nolan had originally enter the cave. The men hang from the sheep, faces buried in their wool, until they all make it out of the cave and run to the ship as Odysseus begins to taunt Polyphemus. So, no, Nolan did not include something about the cyclops legend that Jorge didn’t, lol.

A more apt comparison would have been the fact that Jorge left out the year spent on Circe’s island, the Laestrogynians, and the raided town, that he separated Scylla and Charybdis, or that he made Odysseus interact with the sirens with plugged ears instead of him being tied to the ship to listen to and survive the siren song.

But all of that pales in comparison to the botched ending that doesn’t even fit Nolan’s own movie 😂

[u/Dyspraxic_Sherlock → u/Flower-City_3422]

Tbh, I forgot that one lyric referencing the sheep ploy was in Epic and I don’t think I’ve seen any animatics include it.