So I went to see The Odyssey last night with my family at Eastgate iMax.
There was probably around 20 to 30 people in the Cinema.
I rated it 6/10. Here is my breakdown.
It's a decent movie that suffers from some poor casting choices, an unfortunate decision to shoot the whole thing in iMax, and a terrible music score. The decision to use modern voice accents also cripples the movie. There are some stand out performances and scenes. But lots of clunkiness and standing about doing nothing. The performances that stand out are Tom Holland, Anne Hathaway and
John Leguizamo. I had heard that some people had a hard time hearing the speaking parts and there were complaints of sound muffling, but we didn't notice any of that at all, we could hear all the actors just fine. I'm sure some of that has to do with the Cinema's sound setup.
The special affects were reasonably decent, but I thought that the cyclops was terribly designed, and the Scylla monster just looks terrible from a CGI perspective, it pulled me right out the scene. The giants were also kinda clunky, and whoever decided to dress them in silver plate armour was a very weird costuming decision. The boat on the water was reasonably decent although it looks like a viking ship more than a greek boat. The wooden horse was very beautiful though and the scenes inside the horse were great.
The plot was fairly decent, and the theme of "The Law of Zeus" carries throughout the plot (but hobbles the movie in the ending though). The constant jumping back and forth in time works pretty well, and doesn't affect the story line. I understand why Nolan had to leave out some of the plot lines and various visits that Odysseus made to other islands. That was for the sake of time I suppose (or they just didn't fit into his narrative). I was a bit disappointed that they didn't show Odysseus actually defying the gods, as that plays a major role in the poem. In fact Odysseus' relationship with the gods, seemed very much on the down low here. He really only interacts with Athena, and even then in a very minor way. He carries around his wife's little figure of Athena all through the movie, but you only get to see it once or twice. There was one thing kind of irritated me though. And that was Nolan's defence of his casting choices and accents by saying that is basically a fantasy movie with magic and he could interpret it in any way he chose. But then when you actually watch the movie, you come to find out that Nolan has stripped out most of the fantasy elements completely and the movie is actually very mundane when it comes to the fantastic elements. For one example take his rendition of Hades. Nolan has chosen Hades to be the black foggy beach. That's all there is to it. The realm of the dead, and the abode of the underworld is just this black foggy beach. That left a bitter taste in my mouth as I was looking forward to see how he would render the realm of Hades. Just one huge disappointing black foggy beach. It was more exciting when I went to visit the black beach in Iceland for myself. I never got the feeling that I was in Hades when I was there. It's not a choice that I would have made. I felt that Nolan was out of his league here by not using his brother Jonathan Nolan to do the screen writing. It shows in the writing that this was written by Nolan himself rather than a proven professional like his brother.
The musical score was a disaster for me. It was like there was no musical score at all. I did hear a few drums and some Greek instruments at some short instances throughout the movie, but they were extremely limited and did not stand out at all. Previous Nolan movies were all defined by their musical scores, thanks to Hans Zimmer. But this movie completely lacks any defining piece of music, and what "music" there is, is not epic at all. Seriously, I felt like I watching a documentary on ancient Mediterranean trade routes. It badly needed some epic music, and the movie is just bland and boring without it.
Coming to the casting choices, I was happy enough with Matt Damon, he did a satisfactory job, but did not make me come to love Odysseus or understand him in any more complex way. In fact I think Tom Holland did a far better job of giving me a character that I wanted to sympathise with and to get to know deeper. Same with Anne Hathaway, although she had slightly less screen time. I saw in a BTS Youtube video that they hired a seamstress/weaver to teach Anne Hathaway actual weaving techniques, but I don't know why they bothered because that is only briefly mentioned in one scene. Kind of a waste if you ask me. Lupita Nyongo was just 100% wrong for the part of Helen of Troy and did little to make me appreciate her character. Her best effort was that scene where she lunges forward screaming (from the trailer), but in reality that part of the movie just comes off as cringey and emotionless. There is no appreciation that for what Helen of Troy actually went through at all. Helen of Troy should come across as a woman who went through a horrible ordeal herself but there is no sense of that here in this movie. Elliot Page does a reasonably good job as Sinon, but is let down by his size and his voice. He is just too small to play a Greek Warrior and reminds me of David the shepherd boy (Sinon plays a herd boy in his younger life) trying to put on King Saul's armour and finding it is way too big for him. When you hear him speak the first time you are expecting a gravelly, deep soldier's voice, but he squeaks out his lines in this high pitched voice that is simply just completely out of place.
John Leguizamo was a nice and unexpected stand out performance for me. He plays the part of blind
Eumaeus very well and with great emotion. And the scene's with his dogs (dog Arguss) are heart breaking. I found Robert Pattinson's Antinous to be annoying and weak. I did not fear him or shrink from him as a villian, he was just an irritating person. Maybe that's how he was told to act, but for me it was a weak part of the script.
[MAJOR SPOILER] To finally come back to the "Law of Zeus" I felt that this plot line eventually hobbled the end of the movie, because it required Odysseus to go into exile when there was no such plot line in the original Poem. This was not a satisfying conclusion for me.
All in all, I'm glad I got to see it in the cinema, but it's not a movie I would watch again. And that disappoints me because many of Nolan's movie are films that I watch on a regular basis. I would actually rather go and watch the Hallmark version of the Odyssey again (with Armand Assante), as that is a far more watchable version to me.
And one clarification: my comment that it was a mistake to shoot the whole thing in iMax is because this limits you 3 minutes per cut for all the dramatic parts of the movie. If he had stuck to his previous method of shooting the epic scenes in iMax and regular film for the dramatic scenes it would have allowed him to draw out and develop deeper emotions in certain scenes. But the choice of iMax film means he has to hurry each scene and move on, leaving the dramatic element short changed.
