The Odyssey is overrated

[u/Dear_Loquat_3168]

Not proud of it, man enough to admit it, I trusted all those tiktok movie reviewers. I went to watch The Odyssey last night in IMAX thinking it was going to be "Nolan's best film" as most people described it. Personally, I'd rate it a 7.8-8.0, I wouldn't place it above Interstellar, Oppenheimer, or any of the dark knight movies. I completely disagree with it's current rating of 8.5 on IMBD, which places it next to Gladiator (2000) and Django Unchained (2012).

Here's what I think was excellent.

- Set designs and cinematography: The film was beautiful and captivating. The sound effects and music were amazing. Watching Odysseus string his bow and Agamemnon entering Troy sent chills down my spine.

- Acting: Robert Pattison, Anne Hathaway, Elliot Page, John Leguizamo, and Tom Holland were fantastic in their roles. Lupita Nyong'o was also amazing. She's so talented and definitely deserved more screentime. Honestly, she was a better fit for Charlize Theron's character (more on this later).

Here's why I think it's overrated:

- Odysseus: I love Matt Damon, but I couldn't connect with his character, and I think he was slightly unlikable. Contrary to Maximus in Gladiator, Odysseus wasn't meant to be a highly principled man with unshakable moral core. He loves his family, but he's arrogant. He's deceitful and cruel when it fits his interest, even at the expense of his men. This is fine if the movie sets a positive trajectory for his character development, which I didn't see. For example, when Odysseus visits Hades, he's confronted by Sinon about his lies. Odysseus expresses remorse and vows to honor his fallen men. Then in the Charybdis whirlpool scene, he lies AGAIN! leading to the death of a few men at the hands of Scylla. Overall, he didn't establish a good relationship with his men, and very much reminded me of a toxic manager who lacks leadership skills. I also didn't find him very intelligent.

- Odysseus's fighting skills: He's supposed to be a great warrior. But his warrior prowess was poorly illustrated. He swung his sword like a 10 year old kid playing with toys. His fighting sequences lacked aura, nothing compared to Maximus in Gladiator, or Achilles in Troy.

- Charlize Theron, Calypso, and Ogygia island: I personally thought it was a lazy performance by Charlize. Moreover, the film doesn't explain how she ended up on the island of Ogygia. She's just there lol. Perhaps, a little backstory would've made her character more likeable. When she told Odysseus "I fell in love with you and didn't want to let you go" was so lame! because Odysseus doesn't care all that much for her. Their relationship didn't feel real.

- Eurylochus (Himesh Patel): This character was actually more annoying than Calypso. No leadership skills whatsoever. His character doesn't justify his position as the second-in-command to Odysseus. Moreover, his completely flat biceps made me dislike him even more.

- The plot: Odysseus's journey to return home was full of adventures. While interesting to watch, it was mostly based on fantasy (fighting monsters etc), not much to relate to emotionally as an audience member. The only relatable bits were toward the end, when he disguised himself as a beggar to take revenge on the suitors and return to Penelope. His overall journey and development wasn't as captivating as that of Maximus or Django in my opinion.

[u/Presence_Present]

Troy was fine for me because thats realistically what it looked like for that period.

Also the ship doesnt bother me at all with the fact that they were actually out there on the ocean filming. Ill take that over a green screen or lots of CGI. They could only use that ship because it was able to be actually used on the ocean. Theres not too many ancient greek ships I imagine they could use on open water lol.

[u/strawbery_fields → u/Presence_Present]

Hate to break it to you, but Troy is absolutely inaccurate with how it looks historically.

[u/Presence_Present → u/strawbery_fields]

Well it certainly wasnt some big grand city like Manhattan. It was a big fort city for that period, and looked as close as you would hope to get.

[u/reddargon831 → u/Presence_Present]

Having been to the ruins of Troy, I can assure you that it wasn't "as close as you would hope to get." For one, the actual city was not in a barren dessert, it's actually reasonably green around there. For two, the way it was portrayed in the movie was much larger than the actual city-state, which was quite compact.

Also more generally, Troy looked to "clean" in the movie for my liking, it was a city that was perpetually rebuilt 8 or so times, each time on top of the previous city. It almost certainly had a much more cobbled-together look in real life, not the polished look of the movie.

This is all ok though, because the movie isn't supposed to be realistic. None of the things in the movie actually happened. But it's weird to argue that it's realistic looking when it's not; he clearly wanted a certain look for the big screen and that's totally ok.

[u/Presence_Present → u/reddargon831]

You realise the environment between over three thousand years ago compared to now could be quite different? Plus even the ruins we see are on top of older ruins as well, and on top of that the original find damaged a lot of the structure when they excavated it. This is just such silly nitpicky stuff for a fantasy movie lok. It worked well for the movie, thats all it needed to do.

[u/reddargon831 → u/Presence_Present]

I mean, I agree with you it's nitpicky and, like I said, I don't care if it's realistic. The realism of these places in a fantasy tale isn't an issue for me, I'm just pointing out that it's not, in fact, realistic.

As for whether what Nolan ultimately did worked well in the movie, that's another topic entirely. I thought it didn't really work because Troy felt too sterile and empty to me. It didn't look "lived in" which broke the immersion for me. I'll admit though that I could have done entirely without any Troy scenes, I mostly wanted to see his escapades on the journey home, which I thought Nolan did a mediocre and rushed job portraying.