The Odyssey - It's All About The Journey Isn't It?

Do you really need to issue a spoiler alert with a movie that's based on a book that's over 2000 years old? I don't think so.

A good man goes to war. The man tries to come home, but the gods have other plans. Anyone who knows anything about Greek mythology knows those guys sucked.

I can keep this one short, because there's no need to go into the details. No need to go into themes because its based on something that's been around forever. Nolan's take was an intense journey of Odysseus' journey home...intense journey home. Wonder if there's a single word to describe that? One that fully encapsulates the long journey home filled with peril and death. Ah well, it'll come to me.

The Odyssey is by and large a Nolan movie. He does not do things halfway. When you go in, you know what you're getting into. It's going to be big and it's going to be beautiful. I saw the movie in my theater's GPX room. It was about as close to IMAX as I can get without having to drive over an hour away and I'm not doing that on my limited time off with my early morning work schedule. Your boy was tired.

That's probably why I had a hard time staying awake at the start. One of the only black marks I'd give on this movie is it does tend to move slowly at the beginning and other sections of the movie. It took well over an hour to get to the first phase of the journey...the Cyclops. I was not a fan of it's look; the eye and the nose were sideways. The immense look of it was perfect, it was just weird seeing both of those things out of place. Most other Cyclops' I've seen it's still huge, singular eye and nose underneath (human-esque). It looked more alien than mythological creature.

As Odysseus journey's home, his wife (Catwoman) is being pursued by groups of suitors to vie to be her king with Odysseus thought to be dead. The main suitor (Batman) and the others drink and are eating their way through her house and coin. Her son (Spider-Man) believes his father to be alive and tries to go find him.

Over the ten year journey home, Odysseus deals with the Underworld, Sirens, a witch and being kidnapped by Charlize Theron (Calypso)...I mean there are worse things to be kidnapped by. He defies the odds and the gods to get home and back to his family.

As it is Nolan, every scene is huge and leaps off the screen. The action scenes are intense. With the all-star cast, you know it's well performed. It's basically Oscar bait and it's going to take it. Nolan will get best director and picture nominations. Will I say win? No, not in July/August. We still have the November/December Oscar bait movies to go through at the end of the year.

I'm a simple person and I love movies. Nolan doesn't make movies...he makes films. They can be high brow and hard to understand (Tenent, Interstellar), but it will always look great and his cast will always deliver on all cylinders. But to quote Family Guy:

You need to be locked in for a Christopher Nolan movie. If you watch at home, you can't fiddle around and doom scroll as it plays. You'll miss something important otherwise. Every scene, big and small, has its value. It's high art cinema to make you think, to make you feel.

In a sea of blockbuster summer movies, and this is one of them, The Odyssey is something more. I'd say ignore the hate it's getting and see it, but it's one of the top movies of the year so far so...my opinion of it means very little at this point. Though it's intended for an IMAX experience, you wont miss that much going into a regular or bigger screened theater.

As one of my favorite YouTubers, Natalie Gold, says...Grab a drink, grab a snack and get into The Odyssey.

4/5