I was pretty excited to finally see Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey earlier this week, because it felt like he was taking a big swing to tell a story he probably has wanted to tell for a long time, and he managed to convince a pretty impressive cast to go along on this (wait for it) odyssey with him. That includes Matt Damon, Anne Hathaway, Tom Holland, Robert Pattinson, Zendaya, and so many more, possibly making this a bigger ensemble cast for Nolan than even his last film, Oppenheimer.
I saw the movie Monday night, and I decided to sleep on it and get my thoughts together, so this didn’t become another video review like Disclosure Day, where I had to write, record, and edit the whole thing after 10:30 PM, sinec the embargo was up the following morning. Universal Pictures was kind of enough to give those of us critics who had to wait a week or longer to finally see the movie an extra day to write, record, edit, etc, and I do appreciate that.
But as you can see from my rating below and quote above, I did not love the movie. Mind you, I didn’t hate The Odyssey either, but I just felt it had too many problems, both technical and as far as the storyteller, and I just expect better from a filmmaker on the caliber of Christopher Nolan. It’s not a complete whiff by any means, but the things that bothered me made me decide not to go see it a second time right away. We’ll see if I give it a rewatch down the line sometimes, but the problems generally built up to the point where I could no longer forgive them, just because “OH MY GOD I’M SEEING THIS CHRISTOPHER NOLAN MOVIE ON THIS GIANT SCREEN!” In my opinion, if The Odyssey really worked, it would work if I was watching it on the back seat of someone’s chair on an airplane.
ADDENDUM: I’ve decided to bold-face the next paragraph, because a lot of people are ignoring this statement and my actual video review above and focusing on a few of my after-thoughts after recording my review… which again, is above. It’s the video.
Anyway, you can watch my video review above, and I hope you’ll stick with it, even though it’s on the longer side (over 20 minutes), as I think I do get into a funny rant mode. Also, there was other stuff I wanted to talk about, maybe some stuff I didn’t remember or was explained better, just because it feels like Nolan was really expecting people to go into The Odyssey already knowing everything about the story.
For instance, who came up with the idea to use a giant gift horse with soldiers sequestered inside to get into Troy? Where was this horse actually built and loaded up with soldiers? It just seems to be sitting on the beach waiting to be collected by the Trojans. It’s also a little unclear at what point we’re arriving at Ithaca after Matt Damon’s Odysseus has left, because he’s obviously been away a long time, but we seem to be picking up the story with Penelope (Hathaway) and her son Telemachus (Tom Holland) not long before the film’s final act. I could have also gone into more details about what I liked (the Cyclops and Circe) and what I didn’t (Scylla), but I think I’ve said enough in order to try to keep my review as spoiler-free as possible.
Many of the questions and issues I had were exacerbated by pacing problems, darkly lit scenes, and a muddy sound mix that often makes The Odyssey too obtuse for its own good. Essentially, Christopher Nolan took a bold and daring swing with potentially difficult material and ended up losing sight of the story and its characters due to all of the technical BS.
Rating: 6/10
The Odyssey opens nationwide on Friday, July 17.
