The Plot Strikes Back

Imagine spending $375 million on The Odyssey only to make everyone appreciate Troy even more.

The Odyssey has officially overtaken The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King on Rotten Tomatoes. Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey sits at 95% reviews, edging past The Return of the King, which holds 94%. On the audience side, The Odyssey also leads so far with a 97% Popcornmeter score from verified ratings, compared to The Return of the King’s 86% audience score.

Funny you're showing a RT's score and not Metacritic's. It's like you shills want to create an illusion that everyone loves The Odyssey when in reality it's not true.

THE ODYSSEY... I Waited MONTHS... Now I Will Only See it ONCE! The best litmus test on whether a movie is good or not is how you feel when you get to the end. If it's a great movie, you can't wait to see it again. If it's a good movie, you know you'll watch it again on streaming. When I finished THE ODYSSEY, I knew I would likely never watch this movie again. Not because it's awful because its not. But there is way to much content out there to justify a second viewing on a movie that was very average. I know, I know... but it's Christopher Nolan! What the Hell is wrong with me? Right? Not so fast. To be fair, I haven't LOVED a Nolan movie in 12 years. That was when Interstellar came out. Dunkirk was good and so was Oppenheimer. But he hasn't wowed me since 2014. And frankly I expected to be wowed last night for his version of The Odyssey. And I just wasn't. There was little EPIC about it. Aside from 3 or 4 really nice scenes including the Cyclopse Cave and the witch Circe molding men into pigs, it was a pretty average film. I love Matt Damon, but he was diminutive in this role. In fact, I had a hard time believing any of the actors were their characters outside of Pattinson and Samantha Mortin who plays Circe. The first 2 acts were very.slow and plodding. How many times do we have to watch Odysseus's men painfully and slowly push off the shore trying to get away from this monster or that? I also lost a little respect for Nolan who I had given a lot of leniency to because of his talent. I believe more and more Lupita, Elliot and Leguazamo were cast to improve Oscar chances. I don't want to believe it. But nothing else makes sense. They weren't awful in the movie and Lupita was barely in it, but it felt very intentional. Leguizamo, who generally makes his money as a voice actor hasn't been relevant in years if ever. Sure Page was in Inception and Nolan likes to work with his people but that was 16 years ago. I mean, Nolan writes a side story to Homer's Odyssey just so he could cast the Trans actor as a teen boy? And to make him the greatest soldier Odysseus had ever known and the source of his guilt for lying? Just 1 more notch in the Oscar belt. Watch, Elliot Page is nominated for best supporting Actor... if he doesn't win it. The final act picks up speed and is more interesting than the rest of the film, although I don't recall Odysseus never wanting to come home because of feeling guilty about the war but hey this is Nolan's adaption. I'm surprised Odysseus is stripped of being honored as a hero. It's not typically Nolan's way. But then again the script was written with a feminist tone, so perhaps the truth is hidden in there somewhere. I know a lot of work went into making this movie, but a damn Epic needs to have great dialog great acting and well... epic shots! When you consider that 2004's Troy is more epic, has a better story. Better acting and is just better I. So you have to wonder why everyone is praising Nolan for THE ODYSSEY which is average when TROY, which is better, was the 8th best movie the year it came out. The truth is, Hollywood is still a shadow of what it used to be. Nolan, you can do better than this... GRADE C.