The Odyssey - Movie Review

The Odyssey is written and directed by Christopher Nolan and has a massive cast. Matt Damon, Tom Holland, Robert Pattinson, Anne Hathaway, so many people in this movie, and it comes after his best picture and best directing wins for Oppenheimer. The Odyssey is a mythic action epic that adapts Homer's foundational saga. It stars Matt Damon as Odysseus, the Greek king of Ithaca, and chronicles his long and perilous journey home after the Trojan War. I think for a lot of film fans this is up there on the list of most anticipated films of the year. Obviously it is for me. Christopher Nolan has made some of my favorite movies of all time, and even some of his lesser films that I don't love more than others are still better than most people's best films. With Oppenheimer almost making a billion dollars worldwide on a film that is part black and white, rated R, biopic, without a lot of action, it's not a superhero movie or a gigantic IP, that was really an incredible feat. That's before what it did at the Oscars, and after that it's like, okay, now you've got some leeway to do pretty much whatever you want, even though he could pretty much do whatever he wanted before. When you look at what went on behind the scenes to get The Odyssey made, you realize just how much of an ask this was, because this isn't just about adapting a really well-known text from a really well-known filmmaker filled with a gigantic cast of really well-known people. It's really not about that. That's what makes this look like an easy yes from a studio. It's really the fact that a large portion of the shoot involved a crew and all of their gear and the cast hiking up a mountain, helicopter rentals, somehow getting all of these massive A-list stars to these locations safely, as well as the crew safely, assembling an actual facility on the side of a mountain so that they could have lunch breaks. This is a lot of money and a lot of time that's being asked to shoot a movie in a certain way. You got Hoyte van Hoytema shooting this movie entirely on IMAX cameras, the first film to ever be shot in that way, devising a system as well to use a mirror so that the actors could understand their eyeline and see the person they were in a scene with, because the camera itself was blocking the other actor they're acting against. All of this stuff is to make the movie in a way that no one wanted it to be made, which is in a very handcrafted way, to see these things as much in camera as possible and as little CGI as possible. You can tell when you're watching the movie because it feels like you're being denied some of those epic shots that you expect to see in a film that you might have seen in a Troy in the past. Those wide CG shots of armies that are converging on each other that don't exist in this movie. There's quite a bit of ocean scenes in the movie, but there's one in particular at night during a fierce lightning storm where you're with the men on the ship and it's almost entirely lit by lanterns, and you're not really seeing shots of the ocean all that much. You're seeing the occasional lightning bolt that seems to be mostly on-set strobe lighting. It's lit as if it would be. I mean, if you're on a boat in the middle of the night, you're not seeing anything unless it's like a full moon. You're basically in pitch black. If you watch a movie like The Perfect Storm, which oddly I'm only referencing Wolfgang Peterson films for some reason, but that film has and I like that movie, but it has a lot of shots that just exist within a movie. You're not looking through a lens into reality. You're watching a movie and a very entertaining one, by the way, Troy and The Perfect Storm, both really fun movies. But when you watch The Odyssey, it does feel like you're looking at reality, at least as much as you can when you're seeing giants and a cyclops and sirens and the creatures of mythology that are in this movie. Everything about it feels as realistic as it possibly could. The techniques that are being used are so old school and it's such a joy for me to see. It's just so rare anymore that we see a film of this scope with this cast that has an R rating that is aimed at adults. There's definitely some bloody moments and some very frightening imagery, but there's no reason that this couldn't have been a PG-13. And I love that it's R because it is committing to what it is, just like Oppenheimer did. And Nolan at this point has no reason to not trust the audience to show up for his films and make sure that they're supported so we can keep seeing giant movies like this told on this scale. There are some frightening sequences in this movie, though, and it has really made me very excited about what Nolan has said in the past that he has interest in directing a horror movie one day and is very clear from two scenes in particular. There is, of course, the Cyclops scene. I won't get into any spoilers. I do want to do a full spoiler video, which I will hopefully have up for you this weekend. But this sequence with this gigantic creature looks so, so real. And the score from Ludwig Gorenson, which is absolutely immaculate, the things that he did, like creating the sounds of instruments that aren't really in existence anymore and not utilizing like a full orchestra. It's a really amazing score. Once again, this guy is just pumping out great work. But that sequence was quite scary. But there's a later sequence. If you know anything about the story, you probably know what I'm getting at. I'll just say that it involves Samantha Morton's character. And that scene was amazing. Absolutely glorious. Like, it's a full on horror scene. I was mesmerized. It's really, really freaky ----. I loved it. The casting of Matt Damon as Odysseus seems like it makes perfect sense on paper. Like, it feels like the type of thing where like, oh, yeah, yeah, that's easy. He's Jason Bourne, of course. There's a lot more to glean from his performance in the film. He's really, really terrific. He's fantastic in the movie. And I'll talk more about this in the spoiler video, but it's really the approach to Odysseus as a legend and as a hero and the things that he chose to do that past films have explored in a very specific way. And this movie is taking an approach with it that I really admired. And it's one of the things about movie that excites me the most. And we'll discuss that more in the spoiler video. At this point now, I'm pretty good at telling like what's in camera and what isn't. Oh, that's a set extension with CG or that's a sky replacement or whatever. Obviously, there's lots of really great hidden CG and movies and things that we don't notice anymore, usually like background elements that are blurry or out of focus. But with this film, so much of it really does look in camera. And I really could not believe what I was looking at for most of the runtime. It's just a beautiful looking film from start to finish. Narratively, it's pretty easy to follow. But the only times that I felt lost were really the first 10 to 15 minutes. And it's because you're kind of thrown into this world, almost assuming that you have an obsession with the odyssey that Nolan must have to want to make this story. You know all the characters, you know all the story, and you're just like in it. You've done all the homework and there's all these names being thrown around. And you kind of have to have this moment where you're like, oh, my God. OK, focus. Because in typical Nolan fashion, even though his movies are long, they're edited very efficiently and very quickly. And so you're digesting information at a super fast rate. And you're having to remember a lot of different characters and a lot of different motivations and things that are going on in their lives that are very important to them. But you don't necessarily know why they're important yet, but you will later. A lot of Nolan movies are like this. Dunkirk, Tenet, Oppenheimer, where you have these different timelines that are all kind of folding in on each other. It's not like Memento or anything, but it does have an element of like, we're here now and now we're there before. And you do have to remember all of that. And it can be rather overwhelming. It can feel a little educational, like you're being taught things. And that's great. I love a good film education, but sometimes it feels like, oh, my God, just entertain me for a second. I've got enough info. I need some entertainment. And this movie does have that splice throughout very, very well. But once I settled into the groove, I really, really started to appreciate the movie much more. And I would say the second half of the film in particular is just wonderful. That first half is good and you're on the ride. But once a certain thing happens, it feels like, okay, this is the movie. This is like meaty ----. I'm in it now. I really feel like I'm in the world and I'm just vibing with it at 100%. The third act of the movie is one of my favorite Nolan third acts. It's just magnificent. I really, really dug The Odyssey. I think it's fantastic. I can't wait to see it again. I'm going to see it this weekend on 70 millimeter because the screening was an IMAX and there's actually a few theaters near me that are going to do a 70 millimeter. So I'm going to go and do a spoiler video after that. And I think by then I'll have a better understanding of everything in this movie because I'm very overwhelmed right now. The Odyssey is basically everything I wanted it to be, as well as things I didn't expect it to be. And that's typical Nolan, like where you go to see a movie expecting a certain kind of thing and you get this new thing that you kind of have to chew on a little bit. And I'm very excited to see audiences and how they react to this movie because Oppenheimer was a test and people really dug that film. And I think that this movie is also going to be pretty appreciated. So I'm looking forward to seeing what people say about it. Thank you guys, as always, for watching. Look forward to more videos very soon and look forward to a spoiler video for The Odyssey this weekend. As always, if you like this, you can click right here and get Stuckmanized.