dave

I saw THE ODYSSEY! Minor spoilers, so if you haven't seen it, you might wish to skip everything but this next paragraph. I thought it was fantastic, an amazing cinematic experience! The best thing ever? Not quite, although it may grow even more on me. So far, Oppenheimer remains my #1 Nolan, but this comes close. I saw it on the Brooklyn Alamo Drafthouse 70mm screen, which is supposed to be pretty good, but nothing like the Lincoln Center IMAX. Seeing it on the IMAX screen might raise it even higher in my estimation. The story of man's attempt to journey home from the horrors of war kept me glued. I was particularly taken by how the film portrayed the various monstrous threats Odysseus and his men had to face. The creatures felt truly otherworldly, as if you were in a land of gods and magic, where men were almost helpless. I won't say more, but some scenes will stay with me for a very long time. The actors were great. My faves were easily Matt Damon and Anne Hathaway, but also solid turns by Tom Holland and Charlize Theron. Lupita Nyong'o and Elliot Page are good during their short screen time. And Robert Pattinson makes an excellent slimy villain who still manages to create in us a sliver of sympathy. Was it woke? Hardly. Yes, some of the actors weren't white, but that's not what the film was about. Lupita Nyong'o's role was "beautiful queen" (not "black lady"), and she is easily gorgeous enough to fulfill that role. The themes were also not woke. Nothing about race or checking your privilege. Was it modernized? Well, of course. Most modern audiences wouldn't want a full-on embrace of pre-Christian Greek values, where mass murder and enslaving people were accepted as a given. Instead, Nolan emphasizes the horrors of war and the risks involved in breaking civilizational rules. And yes, the gods were far less prominent than in the original epic. If that bugs you, ok, but Nolan wanted to tell the story of men, not gods (and you could still feel the gods' presence in the way that the men were acted upon as pawns, thrown hither and thither by fate). Despite the silly claims of empty theaters, my 2 pm matinee was completely full. The audience seemed racially very mixed, a cross-section of New York. The audience seemed fully engaged to me. The young black woman sitting next to me gave a soft but audible "oh no" of shock when a certain character showed they were quite untrustworthy! All in all, a great experience. And really, a triumph for conservative values! A man journeys home to be with his wife, whom he values above any other woman. Family values! Loyalty is the ultimate virtue in this version of Homer's tale.