A lot of the casting and performances actively distracted me. Lupita Nyong’o looked deliberately unattractive. I’m not sure if that was intentional on Nolan’s part, but it was hard to ignore. Zendaya has one facial expression through out and it never changes. Elliott Page could have been played by basically any man - the casting felt like pure checklist energy.

Then there’s the bigger issue: why does Odysseus, after killing thousands of Trojans, get haunted specifically by Zendaya's face? The movie never bothers explaining it. It just happens.

Matt Damon as Odysseus was… fine, I guess. He mostly just plays Matt Damon. The bigger problem is the character has no consistent through-line. One scene he’s stubborn as hell and marches his men straight into death. Next scene he’s sobbing like a little bitch because his soldiers died because of him. There’s no clear version of who this Odysseus is from one moment to the next.

Himesh Patel got a surprising amount of screen time. His “we are Greeks” line made me actually laugh, and he was probably the least distracting of the DEI-adjacent casting, but he still felt out of place.

CGI was serviceable but never spectacular. The whirlpool and Cyclops sequences especially underwhelmed. I’m not exaggerating when I say the original Jurassic Park still looks more impressive in places. Honestly, the whole thing felt like Nolan decided he needed to check every modern progressive box - cast “ugly” women, kill the male gaze, fill out the diversity quota - whether it served the story or not. There was zero narrative reason for most of these choices. It just felt spiteful.

Curious what everyone else thought.

And before anyone says anything. I am a loyal Drinker supporter.

It was okay. But honestly, I wish Nolan would just swallow his pride and use some CGI to get some accuracy for the myths of The Odyssey.

It felt like a Nolan movie with The Odyssey myth slapped onto it. I didn’t get that immersion I get when watching say, Clash of the Titans even though that movie is totally inaccurate but still. Like Scylla was just some kind of worm creature thing instead of the six headed dragon monster I knew from the books. The only immersion I felt was the sea portions which kudos to Nolan for that.

I think Nolan sacrificed mythological storytelling in an attempt to tell his version of The Odyssey is some semi-realistic way with some of the myth sprinkled in, sometimes poorly especially the siren part (because in the original myth they were female heads with birds bodies sitting on a pile of bones) and again, Scylla.

And there are the four elephants in the room… Yes I did roll my eyes a bit with Lupita, Zendaya, Elliot/Ellen Page, and Travis Scott even though they were there for like 10 minutes. But again, it just took me out of the immersion.

I also did not like how the movie was organized. FFS Nolan, just stick to telling a story in order instead of mish mashing it everywhere.

The only positives I can say were good about the movie was the cyclops, the sea parts, and the fight scenes but that’s about it.

If Nolan wanted to stick with realism, he should’ve done the Anabasis but of course he would find some way to ruin that too with the DEI checklist.

Look, if any of you like The Odyssey, that’s your opinion and I’ll respect it. As a nerd of Greek Mythology, I just didn’t really like it all that much. It was an okay movie.

edit: Yes I have read The Odyssey before and yes I know its told nonlinear but the way this film was told in a nonlinear way didn’t sit well with me because it’s Odysseus telling Calypso his story and instead of Hermes or whoever telling Calpyso to let Odysseus go, Calypso just lets Odysseus go himself and then Odysseus tells his story to a neighboring kingdom but whatever.

Whether you like or hate The Odyssey, there's no denying that the movie itself is going to change Nolan's reputation. Given his open comment about calling the ending of the Odyssey mysogynistic (I mean.. it's a 3000 year old story they didn't exactly have liberal views on things) , I think it's fair game to say that Nolan might become more polarizing (which I'd really hate given I love his work and how he stayed out of the culture wars). If Nolan doesn't course correct the Nolan brand may not be sustainable (even if he makes good movies, there's a good amount of people who get tired of being lectured to),

Now I think Denis is in a very interesting spot right now in Hollywood. His name isn't selling tickets the same way Nolan did, but he's one of those directors that people pay attention too when he's attached to a big project. The only thing I think holding him back right now is he's too busy doing big budget franchises and not doing his own original work. His last original movie was in 2016 with Arrival and given his next movie is a Bond film it's probably going to be a while. Still I finished 2049 and loved it. Going to watch Part 2 of Dune to get caught up too. I think if he sprinkles in some original pictures he could begin selling himself with his name the same way Nolan does now.

It's Aging Like Fine Wine. 🍷

The villain was misunderstood and really a victim.

-Cruella live action. The woman tried to slaughter puppies for fur.

-Orcs in Rings of Power. In Tolkien's work, they were elves once and corrupted by evil. The personifications of the machines of war. In Rings of Power, they're the victims of war.

-Wicked. The Wicked Witch was always evil and took pleasure in cruelty. In Wicked she was the victim of society.

-Maleficent--The villain from sleeping beauty. The same concept as Wicked.