Five simple words followed me for a whole week. Five damned cursed words. I couldn’t avoid them.
Have you watched the Odyssey?
No, I’m watching it on Sunday. The six word response without much care about it. A cheeky no spoilers and a wry smile later I’d get a brief vibe on it surrounding it. Little dislike of the film, but little love. After this, the day would continue. Normality until Monday when another seven words would follow me on an hourly basis.
What did you think of the Odyssey?
It’s therefore probably time for me to break the emergency glass and end my six month hiatus from writing this blog. It’s a big summer film, everyone seems to be watching it and the cultural zeitgeist has shifted from Obsession. So here is my answer to those damned seven words.
You’ve probably heard of The Odyssey, but for those who don’t, it’s Homer’s epic Greek poem about Odysseus (Matt Damon) and his war on Troy and his journey home. This is taking rather a long time, and his Mrs (Anne Hathaway) is looking for a new king of Ithaca, much to the displeasure of the son (Tom Holland). Tom goes to find out what’s happened to his daddy and the film time jumps multiple times. For a three hour film, that seems a brief description, but that’s pretty much it. It’s all about Odysseus’ trials. My only knowledge of the film is from the simpsons episode below which gives enough for you to go in with.
So what did I think of the Odyssey? Well, after a couple of days of reflection, it’s good but not great. First of all, the positives. As usual, with Christopher Nolan films its technically very good. The big budget practical effects look great on the big screen. The visuals are solid, if uninspired. The film is very grey and nowhere near as exciting as other sorts of trips such as Apocalypse Now or Monos. The costumes however where absolutely phenomenal.
The sound is top quality. I’ve heard complaints it was too loud, however that wasn’t the case for me. Likewise the soundtrack was epic. Having watched in 70mm Dolby maybe some of the frames were cut, but the ears were certainly happy. Speaking of, having not watched it in IMAX, there were maybe one or two shots that felt a bit odd but you usually couldn’t tell.
There were a couple of particularly cool scenes as well. The film’s structure makes the odyssey itself a series of vignettes. The Circe one was brilliantly acted by Samantha Morton and the Hades one by Elliot Page. Both of them were phenomenal pieces. There were other honourable mentions, but I won’t go through them all.
So why was it good and not great? Well, first of all it’s a Christopher Nolan film. While your local film bro will call him the directing GOAT, there are a couple of issues he usually has. One of these is time jumping. It really doesn’t work in this film. It spends so long trying to get off the ground, and then it tries to do a big reveal which is that Matt Damon is troubled by how his troops ransacked Troy. The only problem is that 2.5 hours in I had no idea he was troubled. This means at least one of three things is true. The script sucked. Matt Damon sucked. I am really bad at subtext.
I’m going to believe the issue was the script. The emotional beats clearly missed as is standard for Nolan. The script also felt so American. For such a Greek film, it felt very 21st Century Western in its philosophy and design. Every time Tom Holland called his father his “Daddy” it was agonising to see. It took me out of the zone completely. There were a few lines where the words just didn’t meet the gravity.
A couple of scenes didn’t work either. The Ithaca ones were dull in their mistimed nature and the giant knights were poorly explained. There was some rushing for certain, maybe that’s why Odysseus felt emotionally empty.
On the whole the acting was fine.Elliot Page was a highlight, and it was Zendaya’s best role for a while due to her lack of lines.
The Odyssey fills a desire for a big popcorn movie. Technically ambitious, its a film with little to make it unlikable doing the basics very well with impressive costumes, stunts and sounds. However, some script issues really limit it from being an ultimate adaptation of a timeless poem.
The Film Ramble 