I watched it at the Miramar IMAX. The theater was about 75% full - which I haven’t seen in a cinema here in a very long time (more typical is we are 2 of 5 people in the entire theater).
I found the movie disappointing. Since the weekend, 5 very different people in my life (family, friends, former classmates) told me it’s a must-see, and I tried not to get my expectations up. And I think I did go in with a pretty open-mind. I just didn’t see what the hype was about. I didn’t read the original poem, so maybe I would have appreciated it more if I was more familiar with it – like how certain scenes were depicted might have touched me more.
I wasn’t thrilled about the constant flashbacks, and flashbacks within flashbacks. I’m not saying I would have preferred there were no flashbacks, just that it seemed a bit too much[1]. And maybe my expectations were heightened by the hype around this being Christopher Nolan’s next project after Oppenheimer (which I haven’t seen, but am aware was very highly regarded). It was also a little odd to recognize so many Hollywood celebrities in very supporting roles – not necessarily a bad thing, just seemed funny to me.
I thought the references to the Sea Peoples was very cool. And I wondered if this was actually in the original epic poem, which it was not. But I liked that concept very much.
I watched The Odyssey at the Miramar IMAX. It was my 3rd time to watch at that IMAX, and I think it will be my last. Sure, our seats were too far to the right, and a bit too close, so I had to tolerate an distorted view which was simply unignorable. This probably also hurt my perspective (figurately as well as literally). The scenes with Polyphemus the Cyclops, the giant Laestrygonians, and the visit to Hades should have wowed me more. So, I walked out thinking I don’t need to see ANYTHING on IMAX anymore.
On a more positive note: I watched Spiderman, Brand New Day today and I enjoyed that film much more. Maybe less thinking was required of me, although recognizing who the main antagonist was in that movie was a major surprise to me, which I really liked. That was fun, impressive, and touching. And it didn’t feel nearly as long as The Odyssey. Come to think of it, all the web-swinging and the scenese with The Hand would have been absolutely gorgeous in the right seats in an IMAX theater.
I have heard that writing coaches frequently warn that overusing the past stops forward momentum, dampens dramatic tension, and serves as an “info-dump” substitute for proper character development. And when asked how best to handle flashbacks in a narrative, Nobel Prize-winning novelist Sinclair Lewis famously said: “Don’t.” ↩︎