The great director Christopher Nolan has taken the challenge upon himself to create the definitive…or at least his version of The Odyssey. Will lightning strike twice after the brilliant Oppenheimer? Well, you know what they say about lightning striking twice.
Ten years after the Trojan War ended, Odysseus (Matt Damon), the king of Ithaca, still hasn’t come home. The cunning strategist who dreamed up the Trojan Horse scheme to defeat Troy and won the war for the Greeks vanished on the voyage back, along with his entire fleet, and was written off as dead. But Odysseus is very much alive — stranded on a remote island with the mysterious Calypso (Charlize Theron) by his side. He struggles to remember the events that got him here, left with only a yearning for the family he thinks is waiting for his return.
Back home, things are falling apart. With the king presumed dead, a mob of suitors has moved into the palace, eating Odysseus’s food, drinking his wine, and demanding the hand of his wife Penelope (Anne Hathaway). The queen keeps stalling, but the suitors — led by the smug and dashingly handsome Antinous (Robert Pattinson) — are losing patience with her. Her son Telemachus (Tom Holland) has very little memory of his father, as he was just an infant when Odysseus left for war.
“Ten years after the Trojan War ended, Odysseus, the king of Ithaca, still hasn’t come home.”
Refusing to accept that his father is dead, Telemachus leaves Ithaca against Penelope’s wishes to find answers and track down the war veterans who fought beside his father at Troy, including Menelaus (Jon Bernthal), the king of Sparta. Menelaus tells young Telemachus of Odysseus’s brave exploits and believes that Odysseus is still alive.
What I expected to be a grand tale of epic proportions from the great Christopher Nolan turned out to be a boring, pretentious, three-hour slog of Hollywood actors chewing the scenery. The cinematic storytelling was subpar at best, leaning into its own self-importance.
I’ll start with the editing, which was relentless. It felt like the three-hour final product was an attempt to squeeze in an eight-hour movie. There are very few stops and virtually no breaks in the story. Moments of quiet felt like they were edited out for time. Every transition was a quick cut, and stories felt like an adventurer’s highlight reels.
"…I felt like I was watching community theater..."
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