The Odyssey- magnificent. I highly recommend seeing it in IMAX and can’t imagine seeing it any other way. An immersive experience - especially the storm scenes. The acting was all around excellent, but I was most impressed with Robert Pattinson. Charlize Theron was just ok as Calypso.
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I did not love the odyssey. Too bad as I’m a Christopher Nolan fan and I generally like Matt Damon. I thought it took itself way too seriously, went on way too long and there were too many dark (as in lighting, not subject matter) scenes. I mean I liked it, glad I saw it, but definitely did not love it. Samantha Morton’s scene with the pigs was a highlight, and I was impressed by the cyclops though those scenes were tough to watch. We did not see it in imax as we don’t live near an urban area.
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The Odyssey was better than I expected (I am not a Christopher Nolan fan, but have thought some of his movies were very good (Memento, Oppenheimer) and others I disliked (Interstellar, the Batman movies). I didn’t like the way this one began, basically straight from ad to movie with no break, I briefly thought it was yet another ad for some blockbuster movie, but I liked the darkness - of the boats, of fighting at night, of the cave, of the inside of the horse. I was happy that there was less blood and gore than I expected. We didn’t get realistic closeups of the Cyclops chewing people up, just him spitting out the inedible bits. You really felt the chaos of fighting in a war. (That said they do something with Odysseus in the seige of Troy that I think is completely antithetical to the original, but goes along with the idea of Odysseus suffering from PTSD. The transformation of Odysseus’s men into pigs was fabulous. I thought they left out at least one important scene of Penelope’s. I haven’t read the book since high school, but this definitely made me want to revisit it.
While I think Nolan’s Odysseus is indeed a “complicated man”, I don’t think he’s complicated in the way Homer intended.
By the way if you are interested in listening to Emily Wilson read (and perform) a snippet from every chapter of the book this is a lot of fun. https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLb79xn1QTw3xKRRUemOrdCU6AXo686dGV
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The Odyssey exceeded our expectations! I was afraid that it could be too gory, but the horrible consequences of violence were
mostly implied. No bloody scenes, spilled guts, etc. It was a very philosophical movie. The last scene with the dog got me! That’s where we both started to tear up. My rating: 10/10! Highly recommend.
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Thanks @BunsenBurner. I am interested in seeing the movie but dislike graphic violence and gore.
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We saw Tremors last night at the theater. I could have sworn it was older than 1990. H and I had a bet whether we’d be the only 2 people there. He said yes, I said no. Someone ALWAYS walks in right as the movie starts. We get there. Only ones. Previews run. Only ones. The movie starts and I hear the door shut. I told you! But who walks in? The 80 year old gym member/friend of H’s who apartment we toured 1.5 weeks ago. Ha.
But I thoroughly enjoyed the movie. No CGI/visually busy scenes. Just a funny, campy horror movie. And short at 1:36 minutes.
We are going to see Spiderman for his bday this weekend. I’m looking forward to it, except the length. 2:30. why?!!! Keep it to 2 hours. I’ll give the Odyssey some grace because its… the Odyssey.
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I would’ve been there for Tremors!
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That’s good to hear! I wanted to see it on Imax this weekend. Ha, what was I thinking?? So I looked at next week. Even weekdays were already full, all day long. I finally bought tickets for Tuesday, August 11, at 10 am.
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We saw it in a regular (digital) format theater, but it was still almost sold out for the majority of showtimes until next week!
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Wow. We saw it opening weekend in a regular theater, but I wouldn’t guess there were more than 25 people in our theater.
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We never went to the theaters back then, so I would have seen it on TV. But we all loved it and watched it over and over. I could have sworn I wasn’t in college yet but I guess I’m wrong.
Our theater plays one old movie each week on Sunday and Wednesday. H goes to a lot of them. I go every now and then
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We saw The Odyssey in IMAX with Dolby Atmos. Minority opinion – I appreciated the filmmaking and grand vision but it just wasn’t my cup of tea. And I would have paid someone to stop my seat from shaking. On the other hand, H absolutely loved it.
FWIW I vaguely remembered the dog scene but I also teared up.
I went with a friend who had already seen odyssey. She said she liked it better the second time because she noticed things that she hadn’t because this time already knew the plot. There were parts of it where I just had to turn my head away.
Charlize Theron looked beautiful and I did like Patterson a lot. Hard to believe Ann Hathaway appears in 5 films this year.
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I also liked The Odyssey, truly an epic film. The acting was outstanding – every single character. Yes, Charlize Theron looked beautiful!
I was interested in Greek mythology in elementary school and had a vague memory of the story line, including the dog.
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Can Charlize Theron NOT look beautiful???!!!
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No - but I did say upthread that I found her performance to be the weakest. For me it was the only strike against the film.
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My comment was in jest. She is STUNNING, and I admit I’m half jealous and half in love.
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Yes, but it takes a lot of makeup artistry to do so.
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There is a short documentary on Peacock that talks about how the movie was filmed. Amazing stuff. They even recreated to the best of their guesses some musical instruments for the movie score.
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We are watching a documentary on Netflix called Found that is very moving. It follows Chinese girls who were adopted by different families in the US. They discover they are related from 23 and me. One has been raised Catholic, one Protestant and one Jewish. Their three families hire someone to take the girls and their families to China to their birth places and to try to find the girl’s birth parents. The movie gets the perspectives of Chinese families who had to/chosed to give up their daughters, from the perspective of the researcher (whose parents did not want to keep her but whose grandparents make the parents keep her), from the perspective of the girls and of the adoptive families, and some of the caregivers in China who take care of the girls in the orphanage. A surprisingly touching movie.
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