The monster or the SDMB poster?
Agree, agree, and agree. That said, the sound design is amazing - the different sounds of the different islands are very carefully planned out, and it matters.
Maybe Nolan didn’t want people going “Hey, that’s Benny Safdie!”
Also: Bill Irwin! As Polyphemus!
Given Agememnon barely appeared or spoke, he works better as a mysterious badass force than an individual. Showing him mostly silent, standing confidently on the battlefield, aura farming as the kids would say was the right use for him. Standing still at the gates when they opened is an iconic and memorable shot that wouldn’t have been helped by giving him more of a face or more dialogue.
And as soon as the helmet comes off and he starts being a person again, the consequences catch up with him.
I saw a matinée this weekend at a local independent theater. Enjoyed it greatly, (though I think it would be much better in IMAX) but they accidentally played it with the subtitles on, which was a little bit distracting. While waiting for the bathroom afterwards, I got to listen to a gravel voiced elder complaining about it to the manager- “It’s an outrage, an outrage!”
I think you’ll be happy with that. You might also look for a Dolby Cinema screen. It may not be quite as large as the IMAX with Laser, but the dynamic range is much better.
It’s very likely that many theaters will extend the run of the film, if they haven’t already, so more screenings may open up later into August.
I liked the movie a lot, though I don’t think it’s one of Nolan’s best.
I’ve never been in a louder movie, though. There was a few scenes where I had to plug my ears with my fingers in fear of hearing damage. Particularly one scene involving a cyclops.
I saw it with my 89-year-old mother and she had tissue (and sometimes her fingers) in her ears, so yes, it was loud. One of the trailers was also extremely loud.
At one point in the movie, I remembered that Leguizamo was supposedly in the cast and I tried to find him in Odysseus’ crew. Blew me away when I looked up the cast later. And I’m not saying the makeup or hair fooled me as much as how deeply lost into that character he was.
We saw it last night in regular ol’ 2-D or whatever the format is at the closest theater. I’m not someone who needs to be blown away by 3D. Just get me to the showing that will get me home before bedtime.
It was fantastic. The monster scenes were incredible, the human element of PTSD or survivor’s guilt was incredibly moving and the way they handled the supernatural elements was quite deft. Don’t know why people are bitching about the casting, other than pettiness - this movie was damn near perfectly cast and all of the actors were superb.
I was also impressed that the movie followed the structure of the original poem (or book, if you read it in prose form in high school, as I did) very closely and pretty much everything in the movie was from the book. Even throwaway things, like the store cupboard with the weapons being accidentally unlocked and the old woman servant recognizing Odyseus - in the original. Nolan clearly knows the source material, and it really brings home the point that this story was the Bronze Age equivalent of an action blockbuster. And the frequent mentions of “sea peoples” as fearsome raiders everyone is afraid of? Yeah, they were indeed a thing. I don’t know if they are mentioned by Homer, but they are not a cinematic invention.
10 of 10, would see again.
I recognized his voice.
I was two hours into the film before I recognized him, for exactly this reason.
I agree. I saw it on a standard screen. It was great. However, on my way out I peaked in the IMAX showing and was jealous. This movie is deserving of even just a very large screen. I think it would have added just a bit more to my enjoyment.
Great movie, though for sure.
Agree on all counts, including the perfectly satisfactory experience of watching in ordinary 2-D theater (which btw had sound at a non-excessive level AFAICT). Maybe someday I’ll see The Odyssey in IMAX and be blown away by all the incredibly enriching detail I missed the first time. But for now I’m kind of wondering if the publicity’s IMAX hype is mostly a strategem to get more people into the most expensive showings.
One caveat: At over 3 hours including previews, it did feel a bit more like I was binging a miniseries rather than watching a movie, and my stamina flagged a bit although I continued very engaged. I think it would have made a great three-episode microseries or whatever they’re calling those.
Respectful salute to the scriptwriters’ surprisingly effective blending of modern idiomatic speech (“my mom”, “my dad”, “this fucking beach”, etc.) with the ingrained assumptions of Homeric-Greek mores (“He killed his own mother?!” “He avenged his father.”) including prophecy and sacrifice.
Finally, I’d like to hear opinions from other viewers who have also seen Pasolini’s 2024 The Return with Ralph Fiennes and Juliette Binoche, covering the Ithaca-specific events of the Odyssey. I still think The Return was arguably a better film in some respects, but if you want more of the story and more of a massive action epic while still seeing a damn good movie, The Odyssey unquestionably delivers.
The Odyssey is not actually being shown anywhere in 3D.
Instead the differences are in different 2D formats in various resolutions and aspect ratios. The aspect ratio is the big difference. In many theaters a good bit of the screen (as much as 40%!) is being cropped out.
I always bring a pair of foam earplugs to the movies. They work for loud movies because they dampen the sound but you can still hear the dialogue.
But I mainly bring them because they are awesome at eliminating the sound of people chatting and whispering during the movie. And you can still hear the dialogue.
TV Tropes points out that she leaves a tangible shroud/hood that he uses as his disguise as a beggar, leaning more towards the “actual appearance of Athena taking the form of the slain priestess” interpretation.
Good point. A ptsd-induced vision would not have left a tangible item, and this is a nice nod to the original text where Athena places a disguise on Odysseus.
And in the original, Athena frequently appears to Odysseus in the form of other characters, such as Mentor, but he always recognizes her. Appearing in someone else’s form would be completely on-brand for her. I applaud how they handled this, and how the interpretation of whether she is physically present or just in Odysseus’ mind works well either way.
What films are coming out in 3D now, other than James Cameron’s Avatar films?
Yup, and it was clever how Telemachus was always thinking someone or other, usually Mentor, had “Athena’s eyes”. The film really leaned into the “Zeus’ law” presupposition that hospitality is owed to strangers because any one might in fact be a god in disguise.
Telemachus’s recurrent poking at the possibility of ”hmmm, are you actually Athena right now pretending to be Mentor?” or whoever had a little post-adolescent remnant of naive childish eagerness to observe miracle, like a kid scanning the skies on Christmas Eve for Santa’s sleigh. 
It didn’t occur to me at the time, but presumably sometimes we were seeing Telemachus as a tween or teenager (in the scenes shortly after the end of the Trojan War) and early twenties (in the scenes at the end, after Odysseus returned from his twenty years away).