Before I even begin talking about Odyssey, I carry a lot of biases that I should call out. I am a huge fan of Christopher Nolan. I admire every single one of his movies. All except Tenet I guess, the climax of which, I am yet to understand. After I started writing on this website, I believe I have not written about my admiration towards his film making. This is an opportunity.
I remember just staring at the screen in the movie theater in awe when the massive truck driven by the Joker flips head over in The Dark Knight. And the time when Joseph Gordon Levitt starts running up the walls in the hallway in Inception. I was literally awe struck. As an admirer of the process of film making, I cannot even imagine the genius that it takes to come up with an execution like that. There is a scene in Interstellar where the interstellar travel party is on Miller’s planet and Anne Hathaway’s character gets caught in some debris as a humongous wave is fast approaching to crush them. One of the crew members asks CASE, a robot travelling with the team, to go save her by pulling her out of the debris. CASE who, with four legs, walks like a quadruped robot with a more human like movement until this point of the movie, starts cartwheeling itself towards her. My jaw dropped. The thought that went into writing/making this felt extrodinary. You are telling me that the robot is so artificially intelligent that it can switch between its locomotion capabilities by judging the situation? And the AI had to judge and act upon the situation purely through visual input and radio chatter. In today’s world of Large Language Models, this may seem plausible. But back in 2014, the sheer imagination that something like that could be possible gave me goosebumps. As I started following him more on his interviews and listening to interviews about his I started drawing lot of inspiration from his discipline and commitment towards how he chooses to use celluloid films for capturing footage and how he avoids using a smart phone to get away from distractions. Staying away from distractions of social media and smart phones is something that I can only wish I can adapt in my personal life.
Now coming to the Odyssey. I have not watched it in IMAX 70mm as “Nolan intended” but I watched it in Dolby Cinema. The experience was amazing. Although, the sound was a little too loud. During the shipwreck scene, I almost had an anxiety attack. I don’t know if it was intended to be filmed that way. It was very efficient though. As like every other movie made by Christopher Nolan, the story telling is non linear. But apparently, the poem Odyssey itself is written in a non linear timeline. It starts with the current events in Ithica, jumps to what happened in Troy 10 years ago after the end of the Trojan war, then the narrative shifts between multiple timelines. But it is easier to follow than Dunkirk or Tenet. The movie is very episodic in nature as how the poem is, there are episodes of encounters Odysseus and his men go deal with one after another. Every episode poses a different threat and the band either escapes it or deals with it, suffering loss of life in the process.
What worked for me
The story telling, the world building, narration, music and the background score, everything worked well. This movie version of Odyssey takes liberty to portray Odysseus as a noble leader who is faithfully trying to go back to his wife, Penolope, back in Ithica. But I gather this is far from the truthful representation of Odysseus as per the poem. The movie also adds a more emotional depth to the protagonist. This is a good addition in my opinion. Odysseus is visibly shaken by the fall and burning of Troy and is guilt ridden by it. Towards the end of the movie, Odysseus talks about how he regrets what he has done to Troy and how the events haunt his conscience. This may again be far from truth but it does not hamper the experience.
Any wide shot of the long boat/ship which Odysseys and his soldiers travel in is just amazing. Shooting everything on film with minimal CGI has its benefits.
The siren song; It was a brilliant choice in my opinion to mute the siren song away from us/the audience and have Odysseus explain how it felt like. It created the opportunity to write and deliver a beautiful dialogue. The background score during the siren song scene and during the fall of Troy was amazing.
What did not
The sound design. The movie was just too loud. I thought it may have something to do with the Cinema I have been to but I remember reading other reviews with the same feedback.
I also missed that one high octane spectacle. I know that the climax of the movie gave the audicence a high octane moment in the film but personally it was nowhere near how the docking scene from Interstellar or the chase in The Dark Knight grab your senses.
Overall, I loved Odyssey and I would highly recommend it to anyone. Whether the movie will leave a mark in our cinephilia like other Chris Nolan’s movies is something we will have to wait and see.