Then there’s the dialogue, which had very little to say unless it was expository or reiterated Odysseus’s desire to go home and Penelope and Telemachus’s wish for their father’s return. Believe me, this is a constant theme, said over and over again.
What about the action? This is a war-and-monster movie, and it all felt beneath Nolan, who created great war and monster movies in Dunkirk and the Batman series. For some reason, all of these sequences felt uninspired (like I’ve seen it all before), with nothing unique except the monsters’ character design. Sure, the cyclops looked cool when he first showed up, but then it got boring real fast. I’ll blame this on the IMAX cameras. All of the cinematography felt labored and low to the ground. Those cameras are heavy and can’t shoot extended sequences. Again, all the action felt like highlight reels.
“…the three-hour final product was an attempt to squeeze in an eight-hour movie.”
Lastly, the acting. I’m looking at Hollywood stars on screen. That’s Matt Damon, Anne Hathaway, and Tom Holland up there…not Odysseus, Penelope, and Telemachus. I might as well throw John Leguizamo in this pile as well. Very little character development. I’ll give Anne Hathaway some credit. She gives the only true emotional performance, but when the lackluster acting of her supporting cast is considered, she comes across as overacting because no one else is willing to match her energy. There’s a scene somewhere in the constantly shifting timelines where Odysseus and Penelope have a “conversation.” I felt like I was watching community theater at this point, rather than two Oscar-winning actors giving the performance of a lifetime.
The sound was the toughest element for me to get over. Right off the bat, from Travis Scott’s poetic performance to simple dialogue, the sound mixing was off. I couldn’t understand what anyone was saying. I experienced this exact sensation with Hamnet, but eventually it got better. So frustrating that I checked out of the movie because… what the hell is going on… and it was hard to get back in.
Yes, going in, I had my reservations about The Odyssey, but my colleagues kept telling me this is Christopher Nolan. He’ll come through. That’s how I felt about Oppenheimer, but with The Odyssey, it all just felt like amateur hour. I couldn’t take anything about this film seriously. But at least we’ll get to see the end-credits song performed at the Academy Awards…that will be a hoot.
In the end, I just wanted The Odyssey to feel like an epic, grand adventure, and, like the Lord of the Rings trilogy, I wanted this story to say something about humanity. Anything that felt inspiring or profound. Instead, we just got this grand adventure all for the sake of being a grand adventure. Sure… many will find that enough for a fun summer movie, but what we really want is a great movie. One we’ll remember for decades to come. We’ll be lucky to remember this film a month from now.
"…I felt like I was watching community theater..."
There were 4 people in the theater. It was dragging on for hours to the point we forgot how he was isolated on an island with no memory. It was PAINFUL ‼️ long, how can any humans spend years on a wooden war ship. It was a Collage of scenes and episodes that eventually put me in a COMA. Could not wait to leave the theater.
I’m a little confused by this reviewer’s assertion that this movie doesn’t “say anything.” Whether one enjoyed the film or not, it’s kind of impossible to ignore the thematic content. If anything, it’s a little too obvious, with characters outright stating subtext (Circe’s speech about the true nature of Odysseus’ men or Odysseus’ monologue to Penelope near the end of the film, just for a couple examples). That this review’s conclusion insists so heavily that the Odyssey’s failing was that it had nothing to say is just bizarre.
It’s also bizarre because most of the review seems to take issue with the technical aspects of the film. However, the conclusion seems solely focused on the shortcomings of the script itself.
I didn’t realize there was a bunch of silly culture war nonsense surrounding this film because I actually enjoy spending my time living my life instead of looking at my phone. I’m assuming a poor review of this movie was pre-ordained. That’s fine, but this reviewer should at least try to make a convincing and well-written argument. This review is disorganized. A real piece of “spaghetti at the wall”-type writing.
quote “With The Odyssey, it all just felt like amateur hour” you say. What have you produced or written/directed yourself? probably nothing because you’re a film critic, so stay in your lane. You’ve lost the plot man, this was a masterpiece and Nolan is one of the living greats. Quote: “But at least we’ll get to see the end-credits song performed at the Academy Awards…that will be a hoot.” What the does that even mean? you’re not even reviewing the film here but making culture war commentary. Maybe review your own negative attitude, that seems to be the only lens you’re perceiving this through.
It’s a movie about many things, amongst others the fall of society, referencing many things happening in our own right now. How can you, as a reviewer, be so daft and not see the layers and references?
I found the film so boring and devoid of meaning, that I was longing for the intermission, so I could leave the cinema. But there was no intermission, so I had to see the whole horror without the possibility to escape. 3 hours is a very long time if you are bored. At last the film reached its end. That was the best part of the film. So 10 points for the end, end 0 for the rest.
I one-hundred percent agree with this review and cannot understand the glowing reviews. It felt like ‘amateur hour’, I never believed any of it for a minute (only saw the stars reciting lines) and was transported nowhere. Every Nolan movie gets a little worse.
I 100% agree with a lot of the stuff you said. My expectations for this movie were very high. What I thought was gonna be the greatest Odyssey film ended up being so low on my list that even a musical I’ve heard and seen plenty of content animating the songs still did better than whatever I watched in the theater. This movie somehow couldn’t even passing the low bar of being better than “Epic: The Musical” in my opinion. For me Scylla was by far the most disappointing design of the entire movie. You get to see it for all of maybe 10 minutes if that and is simply portrayed as a grey eel like mass of 6 heads. I’m glad that I’m not the only one who see’s this movie in a rather poor light.
Thought it might be an entertaining film, however was soon disappointed. It was slow, laborious, with a few good scenes thrown in, but not enough to hold the film together as a well scripted story. Would have been better as a 10 minute short film.
There’s an old film-makers quip: If in doubt go big. If still in doubt go long. The filmmaker used both techniques and still there was doubt. The lead characters are flat cardboard cliche’s, and way too old to be attractive or believable. Not a film to portray grandpa and grandma as lovers.
I greater love for the olive oil in my pantry.
Cinematography okay at best. Rather flat with too much orange and blue – a very cliche way of lighting. When I saw the sun setting scene, I waited for the signature of an artist, but alas what I got was a thumbprint of a mechanic. Nolan missed the only opportunity he had.
Film shows its age. There were many out of focus shots, old school focus pullers are gone, limits of projectors, flicker and hot spot, limits of lighting and film speed. It would have been better shot on film, projected on digital.
I liken the work unto a soprano, just singing a high note, doesn’t make for a beautiful voice. In the same way a 250M budget doesn’t guarantee a good film.
It’s no Ben Hur or Lawrence of Arabia by a long shot. It’s more like Ben’s Wet Dream or something like that.
I’ve only seen a few Christopher Nolan movies (Insomnia, Memento, Oppenheimer, Batman Begins, The Dark Knight) and none of them struck me as anything particularly good or memorable (of course Heath Ledger gave a fun performance). Oppenheimer in particular was aggressively mediocre to the point of dumb. I don’t get the hype with this director, but I’ve heard Dunkirk was good.
Adapting the Odyssey, of all things, into a blockbuster summer movie sounds like a fool’s errand. Surely you’d need like twenty hours if you wanted to do a real cinematic adaptation (as opposed to a wacky tongue-in-cheek pastiche like O Brother Where Art Thou).
It’s not at all surprising that this would end up being a merely okay movie. Sure, the critics seem to like it (89 on Metacritic), but then again they liked Oppenheimer too (90 on Metacritic).
On reflection – I like many had been distracted by the noise around Nolan’s moive – largely about the casting, the costumes/props and the unfair endless attacks on Emily Wilson’s translation.
I consider these are all intentional planned distractions and Nolan and those backing him have been very clever. The armour, the clips, the dialogue, and most of all the DEI casting was designed to distract. The Lupi-Kenyans comments in interviews a distraction. By pushing the used Emily Wilson’s translation into some clips they succeeded to distract many from their real plan. To be very clear and thank you and the EFAP team and a few others for displaying some extracts of translations, proving that Wilsons is not the source of the radicalised subversive script that Nolan wrote, was approved and a campaign was launched to deliver to the largely uninformed masses. By juist parroting easily disprovable tropes internet warriors jump into Nolan’s trap.
EVERYTHING bad and hateful in the reimagining that Nolan’s movie is is entirely deliberate subversion by Nolan of everything classical culture was and came to stand for upto the end of the 20th century.
What was Nolan’s true intentions in “this ultimate subversion of the storey” – a complete inversion of the lore and the law and this is used to invalidate the concept of heroes, being heroic, truth and consequences. The whole edifice of law and punishment is washed away.
This is the radical agenda. Destroy and offer no viable alternatives.
The campaign is using a combination of tools/methods applied over a very long time.
This is not about Trump, nor the current discourse between the left and right in all countries in the west. It is about diminishing, destabilizing and ultimately replacing western culture.
We have not been allowed to see what “they” (because Nolan is clearly just a pawn in this) will provide as an alternative.
When Xenia (Zeus golden rule/law) applies and does not apply is correct.
The rules of war meant NOTHING to Nolan who chose inversion.
The whole subversion of is entirely fabricated – as you said and I am unhappy to parrot – this appears like a blatant act of subversion.
To what end that is the question.
The assertion is that by Inverting Xenia and when it applies and does not. By adopting Madeline Miller’s Circe making her an oppressed forest witch and not the sorceress who evilly repeatedly used banned spells was banished by Zeus – making her a victim; by Helen not accepting her role in the cause of the wars, rather a victim of others plans blaming her, when it is clear she had agency and the will to choose. By depleting Odysseus frankly in to a broken husk, such that the final confrontation with the suitors is simply not believable. By removing the sexy and the humour. By removing the agency of Polyphemus to speak and just about every time the crew made bad decision (sure the sun-god’s cattle was never going to be easy to subvert — they tried) all the burden falls on Odysseus and his fever dreams. We are to believe NONE of what he said is true. Making the face of athena the same as a priestess who was killed in the sacking of the Palladium (not troy), perverting this part of the storey (Little Iliad). By making Sinon a victim and not a willing sacrifice who knew or was told only what he needed to know – the horse is a gift for athena in supplication for the sacking of the Palladium and so many more examples it is hard to list them all. Take everything good, worthy, considered in the poem invert it make victims, diminish heroic behaviour call it toxic, diminish rightful retribution and make the acts those of a jealous petty failed leader.
ON reflection this is not just a bad movie it is an act of sabotage and deeply political (not against trump but against western order and civilisation) clearly part of a long running plan. I have not idea what comes next – I can but hope for Homeric justice falls on those responsible.
“[It] turned out to be a boring, pretentious, three-hour slog… leaning into its own self-importance.”
You’re surprised? This perfectly describes most Nolan films. It’s exactly what I’d expect.
I’ve been feeling for a long while now “hmm… maybe you guys just don’t like films anymore” when watching film threat. It’s been a lil ridiculous how politically aligned you guys reviews have gotten (I’m mainly taking Chris and Alan here as I rarely read the website and follow more the YouTube videos) and the worst thing is I don’t even think you guys do that on purpose like those grifters Nerdrotic etc, but after years of being a big fan I now always eye roll with ever take. I believe you don’t know how ideologically influenced you are and it’s just makes me lose interest, cause I can always tell if you are gonna like a movie based on the right’s reaction to it. It’s a shame and has come to a boiling point with The Odyssey. While differing opinions are normal the way you undersell this film is just a bridge too far for me. This was one of the most amazing blockbuster productions in probably decades and to be so blinded because there is one trans actor in this (I am on purpose simplifying the right wing issues btw), is insane to me.
Alan, Chris especially, thank you for decades of film reviews and loads of laughs you’ve brought me, but on this “everything is bad, the last great movies have been made 20 years ago” old man yelling at cloud voyage I cannot follow you. Why? Cause I still LOVE films that come out today and reading/watching your reviews has become a bummer in my day and not as it used to, an interesting read. All love, a longtime fan from Europe where the movie is already out for half a week (before unhinged commentors act like I couldn’t have seen it yet lol)
Thank you so much for this review alan. You are a hero to stand up against the hive mind to give a good movie review
Thank you for your honest review, Alan.
Much appreciated.
Nolan already got a lot of s**t for obvious historical inaccuracies like the viking ship, the historically wrong armors, Agamemnon’s badman armor and the casting choices for Helena and Klytaimnestra. These actors though get so little screen time that they don’t fully derail the film. Still, they show a broader pattern: style and political correctness over substance and accuracy.
The bigger problem is how the film handles Homer’s Odyssey itself. Entire structural elements are removed or replaced. The Phaeacians who are crucial in the original as the audience to Odysseus’ story are left out. Instead, Odysseus tells his story to Kalypso, who is rewritten to give him Lotuses to eat, confusing her role with the Lotus-Eaters. Another example is the Polyphemos episode, where Odysseus’ defining trick, introducing himself as “Nobody”, is completely missing, removing one of the most famous moments of the epos. In the original Odysseus is written as a cunning and intelligent character. In this movie he is just bland.
Like someone said this movie shows a marvelization of Homer. Even culturally, it misses opportunities. When Greek is briefly spoken (ONCE in the entire movie) by an extra, Odysseus needs a TRANSLATOR to understand what he is saying, which detaches him from his own world and shows how Nolan tries to “americanize” Odysseus degrading the greek language to a foreign detail. Nolan casts actors fron all over the world but not even one main character is played by a greek. That’s a choice! Nolan, instead of using the original opening “ἄνδρα μοι ἔννεπε…”, replaces it with a weak paraphrase delivered by Travis Scott (why in the name of god does this loser get a role in this movie?).
On the good things I have to say about this movie is the camera work and the filmmaking as well as the soundtrack.
Overall, the movie works as a surface-level introduction for viewers unfamiliar with the Odyssey, but it fails as an adaptation. It sacrifices depth, structure, and greek heritage for accessibility and spectacle. For anyone who knows the original it feels like a dilution, even an insult to the Greek cultural legacy it draws from.
The I want ATTENTION so BADLY review.
I think all you’ve done here is proven you don’t understand film.
Alan Ng’s scoring. Enough said. LMAO
8.5/10 The Accountant 2
7.5/10 The Devil Wears Prada 2
4/10 The Odessey
3/10 One Battle After Another
Tracks as accurate.
@seth you’re so right, consensus among critics is always an accurate reflection of a movie and we should trust it when we see it. Anyway, how’d you like MIchael?
Thanks for the honest review. That is what I always appreciate about your reviews, contrary to what some of the other comments here say about you. You always give your honest thoughts even if it’s unpopular.
Everyone trying to moralfag in the comments “muh mofuggin movie got x amount of reviews!!! Ur clearly amateur!!! Look at me I’m a smart Redditor!!!” Is so stupid. If you think the reviewer is wrong then explain why you stupid mongrels. These arguments could be used to say eating human feces is healthy with what is being provided.
The number of unhinged comments criticizing Alan Ng from people who couldn’t possibly have seen this movie unless they were Universal Insiders is appalling. Personally the casting of Zendaya, Mr. Zendaya, Matt Damon—-and especially the nonsensical American Vernacular in the trailers—— were red flags enough for me not to spend three hours of my life for this obvious Oscar Bait. Thank you Alan Ng for enduring this Nolan Slop!
What I like most about the Odyssey is that it has shown people’s true selves. Like this guy. With one or two casting choice differences, and the same exact story, this would be a glowing review. He says “he was bored” … that is how an eleven year old talks about Oscar worthy movies. I saw the YouTube video of the immediate impression, and this is how I felt after seeing that too. But hey, I hope he makes good bank on the clicks, it is all that matters nowadays anyway.
The entire social hierarchy is missing between gods, slaves, soldiers and royalty. Athena looks like she just landed a great buy at the summer sale of Zara. The Greeks were obsessed with plunder and wealth. And display of it.
You refused to bend the knee to Universal, and the shills are denouncing your review as illegitimate. You did something right to spark their ire. Keep up the good work man!
A 4/10 might be a bit harsh, but I can totally see that. It was something you can just turn your brain off to. Like.. I enjoyed it as entertainment… but its no EPIC. For me it was a 6/10, maybe 5… probably 5. There’s something about the message that doesn’t sit well with me.
@seth
To go with what is popular does not whatsoever equal to go to what is True.
And what you do with your life: to go with the present and temporary winds, or to go with the lasting and the True?
This is not in connection with this movie review itself, but rather, your critique, that because many like a thing, it must be good. That is far, far from the case, as anyone with sense would say.
LOL. Looks like the shills and nolan bros were just waiting to pounce on this review. I don’t always agree with your takes, Alan – you’ve been favorable to movies that I would have given a hard pass – but I’ve always believed them to be honest and sincere. As for me, a history buff who took a semester of Greek Myth and & Literature in university, I will not be watching a movie from a director I think is way overrated. If you can’t get me to believe that Lupita’s face launched a thousand ships (and you can’t), you’re not going to get me to believe anything in this movie. Anyway, thanks for your honest review.
As an aside, you should consider separating you FT clips from your live shows into a separate channel. I do try to catch your livestreams, and I’d love to subscribe (I did for a while) if it wasn’t for the fact that I kept getting constant updates whenever you uploaded clips from a livestream I have already watched.
Thanks for an honest review in an environment where most lack the courage to take on the Nolan Bros and Woke Hollywood and tell the truth. This deconstructionist nonsense will fail, and I’ll enjoy watching it go down.
There’s just so much gaslighting going on. Every “glowing” review reads the same. How many times are we all going to get “duped” and “gaslit” into buying expensive tickets to watch a boring movie before we say enough? How many critics are going to ruin their reputations shilling mediocre films. Definitely skipping this one.
Amateur-hour review. You sound like you’ve never talked about movies in your life.
Alan I was keen to see film Threats Out of the Theatre Reaction. BUT then I saw yours and I was appalled by you and your surly behaviour specifically. I now have a meme of Kevin as you (ref Kevin and Perry from from Harry Enfield and chums UK TV series – please take a look perhaps it will give you a giggle or a healthy does of self awareness). In this meme Chris plays the role of your father asking you to just do something tiny like pick up one sock from the hallway and typically Kevin a 35 years old teenager reactis like a 2 year old stomping about and slamming doors having a tantrum. That was you on your out of the theatre.
AND with this written review nothing has changed.
You appear to be reacting to over $250m being spent on a movie that is of a subject you do not care about, certainly not one of your favorite Indi slop productions.
You walked in miserable and it just got worse for you – OK. I simply NOTE that yours is the only review ANYWHERE that I have seen with such a poor opinion. Every review you have written needs to be reevaluated in light of this behaviour.
Another idiotic review meant to draw attention to the reviewer. Thought we were done with this after Armond White’s nonsense.
Clearly not enough “pew pew pew” for the reviewer.
Do you ever question your qualifications, credibility, or taste when you’re this much of an outlier?
A proper tool attempting to stand out by speaking differently. For Shame
Welp it never fails. When a movie launches and gets almost perfect acclaim there is always one or two trolls that intentionally slam it to get clicks and drive traffic to their obscure site no one has ever heard of….Good luck with the troll strategy.
This one felt forced. It is objectively a 7/10 movie and you know it.
Huh, you’ve been doing this for 13 years?…sure doesn’t seem like it. The fact that you put Batman and Dunkirk as good movies in the same sentence really says it all, I guess.
I saw there were 146 glowing reviews on Rotten Tomatoes and 3 (count em, THREE) unfavorable reviews. I was curious so I looked to see who was swimming against the tide. sigh. of course, someone who makes money by manufacturing outrage for clicks and $$$. You went in with a crowbar. Of course you were “bored” the first five minutes.
What is this review?
God this is pathetic. This is the same reviewer who rated the new Animal Farm movie favorably! “Felt like I was watching community theater”?; Seriously! This reads as if a 12 year old was trying their hardest to be contrarian for the sake of it. I do not mind people disliking this movie (no movie is for everyone), but listing to this guy pander to an audience of sniveling man-babies is just pitiful.
crybaby review 😂😂
Alan you should be fired . Garbage a*s review maybe just stick to watching Right Wing Programming from now on?
Thanks!
I am a daddy boi. I like to daddy boi at the movies. I will see the Odyssey since it is about the original daddy boi.
Your review is Amateur hour I’m sorry for saying it. (1) You make broad assertions with few concrete examples (give some examples when you say for examle action is inspired). (2) Frequently jumps from opinion to conclusion without support. I like reviews that have facts, examples and structure regardless if its “Like” or “Dislike”. This does not read like a serious critical review.
Thanks for the rare, honest review of this piece of obvious propaganda that will be forgotten.
“I’ll blame this on the IMAX cameras.” I read that a ‘two shot’ must be done used a mirror reflecting the facing actor due to the size and noise of the freaking camera. This film’s stars were the camera and the arrogance needed to believe it was a smart idea. This iMAX film can only be shown accurately in 40 theaters world-wide and is really stupid.
98% on Rotten Tomatoes. Rave reviews. Looks like you really missed it here. You need to ask someone why. What point is a reviewer who can’t give a helpful recommendation?
Wow are you wrong