• Hey Guest. Check out your NeoGAF Wrapped 2025 results here!

The Odyssey (2026) Trailer

If you're going to watch this movie, watch it in IMAX. Absolutely amazing looking movie from a technical perspective and is engaging throughout its 3 hour runtime. Absolutely worth a watch in the theater.

But I found Nolan's 'grounded' approach to this story to be a bit of a misstep. The movie starts off with text "In an age of apparent magic", which indicates taking a step back from the more fantastical elements of the story. For the first half of the movie it fits that bill: the Cyclops looks like a singular disfigured giant man rather than a mythical creature, the man-eating giants are just large men in armor, etc. So far so good... but then we get to Hades and Scylla, where the groundedness is completely thrown out the window, to the point where I can't help but wonder why they even tried the grounded approach since its incongruous with many elements of the story.

Also the Trojan armor they designed for this movie is probably the worst costume design I've ever seen.

Oh and as far as casting goes, the only complaint I have is Punisher guy (Jon whatever) because he acts the same in every single thing I've seen him in, and this is no different. Ellen Page is distracting but she's in the movie for like 4 minutes at most.
 
Grildon Tundy said:
Timestamped: Mike discussing the decision-making process to bring Elliot Page on. Surprised Jay didn't edit out his Page impression.

Click to expand...

I can respect Nolan doing a friend a solid. I liked Ellen Page a lot as an actress and have probably been way too harsh on her life decisions in a field where the the thing that matters is what's on screen, not the drama behind it. So despite all the giggles at his expense I'm ready to move on and let him do his work.

Unless he gets cast as John Rambo in the Vietnam war prequel they keep talking about, then fuck that noise :P
 
Re: Elliot Page and Sinon

Spoilers

Elliot was probably the least offensive element of the questionable casting choices. Sinon is not a renamed Achilles as everyone was insisting prior to release. He dies unceremoniously as a weakling and his underworld speech takes on a different form than Achilles'. He's there to, per the Aeneid, show the extent of the treachery that the Greeks utilize to sack Troy with the Horse. In Hades he reinforces Odysseus's guilt over letting him be sacrificed to win the war (bearing no relation to Achilles' speech in Hades). And he emphasizes how cowardly Antinous is.

The Hades scene in particular is well acted. At Troy, the clip everyone was ridiculing w/ the ill fitting armor et al is intentional. Sinon is not a great warrior. He has no business being there. That is part of the plot.

Is it a bit distracting still? Yes. But nothing like how it was made out to be.
 
EviLore said:
Re: Elliot Page and Sinon

Spoilers

Elliot was probably the least offensive element of the questionable casting choices. Sinon is not a renamed Achilles as everyone was insisting prior to release. He dies unceremoniously as a weakling and his underworld speech takes on a different form than Achilles'. He's there to, per the Aeneid, show the extent of the treachery that the Greeks utilize to sack Troy with the Horse. In Hades he reinforces Odysseus's guilt over letting him be sacrificed to win the war (bearing no relation to Achilles' speech in Hades). And he emphasizes how cowardly Antinous is.

The Hades scene in particular is well acted. At Troy, the clip everyone was ridiculing w/ the ill fitting armor et al is intentional. Sinon is not a great warrior. He has no business being there. That is part of the plot.

Is it a bit distracting still? Yes. But nothing like how it was made out to be.
Click to expand...
100%, and honestly it's the easiest way to tell if someone has seen the film and being honestly critical or is just spouting off their predetermined narrative without ever having even seen the film.
 
Just finished it. I think it was a masterpiece, easily Nolan's best film. If anything was a little off for me it would be John Leguizamo but not because of his performance, only that he is such a unique/memorable individual and I have such deep familiarity with his body of work which has a lot of goofy comedy. It's hard to receive him in a fully serious role. That's my own mind, though, not the job he did. If anything I had the most concern about Hathaway who is usually off-putting to me but she nailed the part this time.

Two moments I thought were so enjoyable they should become meme gifs is 1) Agamemnon standing there imposingly when they open the gates. Absolute aura. 2) The montage of harrowing scenes with Athena looking at Odysseus judging him lmao.
 
EviLore said:
Re: Elliot Page and Sinon

Spoilers

Elliot was probably the least offensive element of the questionable casting choices. Sinon is not a renamed Achilles as everyone was insisting prior to release. He dies unceremoniously as a weakling and his underworld speech takes on a different form than Achilles'. He's there to, per the Aeneid, show the extent of the treachery that the Greeks utilize to sack Troy with the Horse. In Hades he reinforces Odysseus's guilt over letting him be sacrificed to win the war (bearing no relation to Achilles' speech in Hades). And he emphasizes how cowardly Antinous is.

The Hades scene in particular is well acted. At Troy, the clip everyone was ridiculing w/ the ill fitting armor et al is intentional. Sinon is not a great warrior. He has no business being there. That is part of the plot.

Is it a bit distracting still? Yes. But nothing like how it was made out to be.
Click to expand...

That all being said, I do have one question.

Does Jon Bernthal say "Lemme me tell ye sumthing"?
 
I saw the movie. Would give a 7/10.
Gonna recommend a book and a video for people to see before the movie:

1177_BC%2C_Cline_book.jpg




I prefer the Roman Republic and that it's what I focused the most in college, but I think those two things above will help.
 
Thanks to the impressions from EviLore EviLore and everyone else, my wife and I have our IMAX tickets booked in for this Wednesday as something to do for my birthday. This will be first time we've been to the cinemas since our son was was born four years ago, so I'm looking forward to it.
 
Last edited:
One thing I don't see being discussed much is how he perfectly captures the feeling of being unsheltered in a raging storm at night. I grew up in tornado alley and the sound design is completely unmatched and the visual design is perfect for those scenes. Nothing I have seen has come close. An incredible achievement.
 
A masterpiece.

A great sense of urgency, something Nolan is known for, great cast, great acting, fantastic Trojan horse x law of Zeus study and revelation.
Some small, admitedly hit and miss moments here and there, which seems to have also become a Nolan staple at this point, for some reason.

Gate opening, Sirens and Circe are some incredible highlights.
 
3am screening for my second viewing so I could see IMAX 70mm… got fried out of my mind and walking out to the real Trojan horse used in the film as the sun came up was surreal. This is an audiovisual force to be reckoned with on a screen like that. It feels so good to be reinvigorated about going to the movies.
P7rSDzxHhmf7ykJt.jpeg
 
Last edited:
EviLore said:
Yeah, we don't get cocky pragmatist hero Odysseus. He experiences the same events but here he's more of a guilt- and PTSD-riddled warrior in search of atonement. And that characterization did bother me somewhat for much of the runtime, since you don't get to see the reasons for the change until the final act. But once that's all revealed it worked well in retrospect, plus we get a satisfying revenge against the suitors.

There are a couple moments where female characters complain as if they're modern women transported to archaic times. Helen and Penelope. But in the same breath Penelope will make it clear that the real problem is the lack of her alpha husband since no one else is remotely worthy. That mainly leaves Helen, who seems to be abused by Menelaus or possibly just scarred from the sack of Troy and criticized for it.
Click to expand...

There is the whole sequence in Hades where he is confronted by guilt over what happened and how he handled the situation with his soldiers. But... I don't recall a single line of dialogue where he says he feels guilty about the civilians who died or the barbarities in general. (I might be wrong here)
It gives the impression that he feels despair and PTSD only over how they obliterated the Bronze Age customs and traditions, and the consequences of that for the future of civilization (the "we are the people of the sea" aspect).

Without judging the merit, it felt like he's a statesman saying how bad he feels about bombing another nation into stone age, using the justification that more soldiers would have died (rather than more civilians). if he didn't

(Berthlaus at least gave that "Lemme me tell ye sumthing" look and said something like "Did we go to war over this pussy over here?" with the crazy tank driver face.)
 
EviLore said:
Re: Elliot Page and Sinon

Spoilers

Elliot was probably the least offensive element of the questionable casting choices. Sinon is not a renamed Achilles as everyone was insisting prior to release. He dies unceremoniously as a weakling and his underworld speech takes on a different form than Achilles'. He's there to, per the Aeneid, show the extent of the treachery that the Greeks utilize to sack Troy with the Horse. In Hades he reinforces Odysseus's guilt over letting him be sacrificed to win the war (bearing no relation to Achilles' speech in Hades). And he emphasizes how cowardly Antinous is.

The Hades scene in particular is well acted. At Troy, the clip everyone was ridiculing w/ the ill fitting armor et al is intentional. Sinon is not a great warrior. He has no business being there. That is part of the plot.

Is it a bit distracting still? Yes. But nothing like how it was made out to be.
Click to expand...
This is the thing that got me about it all: the posting of clips of Elliott Page awkwardly running in the armour and suggesting Nolan has no idea what he's doing and just crapped something out.

The natural assumption is that this is intentional and that the character who looks like treacherous weakling is actually a treacherous weakling, because Christopher Nolan is a professional filmmaker with a track record surrounded by professionals, and he has a vision. He doesn't always get it right, and filmmaking is hard so sloppy stuff sometimes falls through - Talia al Ghul death, for example, is hilarious - good directors do make bad films, but the assumptions by people who haven't see the film around it that he's trying to portray Sinon as a total badass and that he just screwed up because I guess he's a total moron now is just hilarious. He's not Uwe Bolle or Albert Pyun where he doesn't give a shit about anything other than a paycheck.

I guess especially after we all lived through everyone hating on Nolan various casting decisions across multiple films.
 
Last edited:
Saw it yesterday in not imax.
The thing reminded me sometimes of a play in the way the protags say what they are doing/gonna do instead of showing it. But at the same time there is enough action so it is truly a great way for a teenager to get accointed with the story.
I wasn't shocked by the use of the "woke" translation, i found the dialogues going well with the overall presentation.

There are a few striking images (Agamemnon standing in front of the opened doors of troy comes directly to mind), and to me nolan achieved a great feat of filmamking by putting all this together and telling the story in a non linear way which is in itself a feat.

The only bad points are you need to know the story to really understand everything that happens (even tho what you get without knowing the story first is enough and worthy of the ticket price as it is), and lupita nyongo and the punisher who are so bad as the modern douche bag couple. Everyone of their scenes were excrutiating. Always screaming and looking angry. So tiresome.
 
IlGialloMondadori said:
This is the thing that got me about it all: the posting of clips of Elliott Page awkwardly running in the armour and suggesting Nolan has no idea what he's doing and just crapped something out.

The natural assumption is that this is intentional and that the character who looks like treacherous weakling is actually a treacherous weakling, because Christopher Nolan is a professional filmmaker with a track record surrounded by professionals, and he has a vision. He doesn't always get it right, and filmmaking is hard so sloppy stuff sometimes falls through, good directors do make bad films, but the assumptions by people who haven't see the film around it that he's trying to portray Sinon as a total badass and that he just screwed up because I guess he's a total moron now is just hilarious. He's not Uwe Bolle or Albert Pyun where he doesn't give a shit about anything other than a paycheck.

I guess especially after we all lived through everyone hating on Nolan various casting decisions across multiple films.
Click to expand...
There are a few moments the trailers that people took issue with but actually work within the context of the film. Like the "let's go!" bit really isn't a big deal when you know what's happening in that scene.
 
Gp1 said:
There is the whole sequence in Hades where he is confronted by guilt over what happened and how he handled the situation with his soldiers. But... I don't recall a single line of dialogue where he says he feels guilty about the civilians who died or the barbarities in general. (I might be wrong here)
It gives the impression that he feels despair and PTSD only over how they obliterated the Bronze Age customs and traditions, and the consequences of that for the future of civilization (the "we are the people of the sea" aspect).

Without judging the merit, it felt like he's a statesman saying how bad he feels about bombing another nation into stone age, using the justification that more soldiers would have died (rather than more civilians). if he didn't

(Berthlaus at least gave that "Lemme me tell ye sumthing" look and said something like "Did we go to war over this pussy over here?" with the crazy tank driver face.)
Click to expand...

He felt guilty about both, clearly. But it was all secondary to his son. Everything he did, he did for his family. That's why he doesn't regret it. It was inevitable in a way. It was win the war for Agamemnon or sacrifice his son, and that's not a real choice. And I got the impression that he knew what he was doing even before they got in to the horse. He was smart enough to understand the outcome. Hence the deception of Sinon. But seeing it in real time is what destroyed him.

It's Oppenheimer with a charismatic lead and engaging adventure.
 
Roufianos said:
After planning to boycott, I saw it after reading there's one Greek actor who speaks Greek in it. A couple more of those and I wouldn't have complained at all.

It's an incredible movie, no surprise with Nolan. Might be his best.
Click to expand...

I don't think its Nolan's best film, but I'd put it in his top five for certain.

I'd rate Odyssey an 8.5 out of 10. It's certainly not a 10 in my opinion (too many odd choices), and I don't think its a 9 either, but an 8 feels too low to me because it was a very good film IMHO, so I'd put it between an 8 and 9. Under Prestige and Memento for me, and maybe under The Dark Knight too, and possibly under Interstellar, but I'd put it above Inception, Batman Begins, Dunkirk, Oppenheimer, etc.
 
That bow sound…. I'm very critical of Nolan's audio choices and I have not been a fan of Ludwig's work, however whoever recorded and put that bow pluck sound in their…. Damn fine work, that thing just struck perfectly.
 
Last edited:
Mengy said:
I don't think its Nolan's best film, but I'd put it in his top five for certain.

I'd rate Odyssey an 8.5 out of 10. It's certainly not a 10 in my opinion (too many odd choices), and I don't think its a 9 either, but an 8 feels too low to me because it was a very good film IMHO, so I'd put it between an 8 and 9. Under Prestige and Memento for me, and maybe under The Dark Knight too, and possibly under Interstellar, but I'd put it above Inception, Batman Begins, Dunkirk, Oppenheimer, etc.
Click to expand...
I don't really like Memento but yea, maybe I over spoke on declaring it better than Prestige. That film is 🔥🔥
 
pnutboy said:
3am screening for my second viewing so I could see IMAX 70mm… got fried out of my mind and walking out to the real Trojan horse used in the film as the sun came up was surreal. This is an audiovisual force to be reckoned with on a screen like that. It feels so good to be reinvigorated about going to the movies.
P7rSDzxHhmf7ykJt.jpeg
Click to expand...
It is a little sad that Universal Studios shuttered their Mythos Land, including the quite awesome to me at least) Posiedons Fury experience......then they get this film dropped into their laps :P
 
IlGialloMondadori said:
This is the thing that got me about it all: the posting of clips of Elliott Page awkwardly running in the armour and suggesting Nolan has no idea what he's doing and just crapped something out.

The natural assumption is that this is intentional and that the character who looks like treacherous weakling is actually a treacherous weakling, because Christopher Nolan is a professional filmmaker with a track record surrounded by professionals, and he has a vision. He doesn't always get it right, and filmmaking is hard so sloppy stuff sometimes falls through - Talia al Ghul death, for example, is hilarious - good directors do make bad films, but the assumptions by people who haven't see the film around it that he's trying to portray Sinon as a total badass and that he just screwed up because I guess he's a total moron now is just hilarious. He's not Uwe Bolle or Albert Pyun where he doesn't give a shit about anything other than a paycheck.
Click to expand...
I dunno, seems like a half away competent PR team could have avoided almost ALL of these pre-release issues. I think they WANTED this discussion, as trying to "go viral" for ANYTHING is a win in their book. You can't force something to get into the public eye, especially the younger folk, so they will take anything they can get to bring attention to the film.

Seems to me, from what the film actually shows, that the roles of these two could have been much more transparent and it would have diffused the issue right away. But then that would stop the 'debate', if you will, and that hurts "market penetration, social media awareness, google analytic traffic".
IlGialloMondadori said:
I guess especially after we all lived through everyone hating on Nolan various casting decisions across multiple films.
Click to expand...
Eh, Nolan makes LOTS of mistakes, he is hardly a perfect filmmaker. Just 'cause he hit it out of the park with the Ledger casting doesn't mean he is a casting prophet.
 
The theatre lost power twice during the big scene at the end. The screen went out at the worst possible moment. 10 minutes later it came back and they had rewound the film a few minutes prior. Then a few minutes later it went out again and they had to do the same thing. Killed a bit of the momentum.

Awesome film otherwise though. It was 3 hours long but did not feel like it. I was entertained throughout. I will grab the 4k disc when it comes out to watch it again.

Granted I don't have a comparison, but I do not feel like seeing the film on a standard screen hurt it at all. I have seen a bunch of cropped images on social media saying the film would look bad not seeing it on IMAX, but those pictures ended up all being fake and those scenes did not look like them.
 
So how is Matt Damon as Odysseus? I don't necessarily dislike him but he's someone that I have hard time seeing as the character instead of the actor. Then again I feel that way about several of the cast members so maybe it's moot.
 
Pagusas said:
That bow sound…. I'm very critical of Nolan's audio choices and I have not been a fan of Ludwig's work, however recorded and put that bow sound in their…. Damn fine work, that thing just struck perfectly.
Click to expand...
That pluck sounded musical, percussive, and violent, as it should. Agree--great sound design.
 
Last edited:
jason10mm said:
I dunno, seems like a half away competent PR team could have avoided almost ALL of these pre-release issues. I think they WANTED this discussion, as trying to "go viral" for ANYTHING is a win in their book. You can't force something to get into the public eye, especially the younger folk, so they will take anything they can get to bring attention to the film.

Seems to me, from what the film actually shows, that the roles of these two could have been much more transparent and it would have diffused the issue right away. But then that would stop the 'debate', if you will, and that hurts "market penetration, social media awareness, google analytic traffic".

Eh, Nolan makes LOTS of mistakes, he is hardly a perfect filmmaker. Just 'cause he hit it out of the park with the Ledger casting doesn't mean he is a casting prophet.
Click to expand...
There was no issue to "diffuse" in the first place. It was always a non-issue.

He's absolutely not a perfect filmmaker, I actually have quite a few issues with The Dark Knight itself, but each film should just be judged after people see them, not based on made up ideas like Elliott Page being Achilles.
 
Last edited:
Saw it a second time with some family that wanted to go and asked us to tag along but this time in a regular theater format and counting us 4 there were like 10 people there so I guess everyone holding out for Imax and 70MM formats

Truly a 7.5/10 for me and personally not even Nolans best film and for sure not on an absolute great pedestal type of movie

Its decent
 
IlGialloMondadori said:
There was no issue to "diffuse" in the first place. It was always a non-issue.
Click to expand...
No, it CLEARLY was an issue, and the ENTIRE POINT of "PR" is to spin the product in the intended direction.

So we have a few options. A. Nolan made a provocative choice DESIGNED to create this drama (it's not like there is scholarship suggesting a secret line of Spartan Nubian kings or anything) or B. somehow all through casting and production not a single person said "hmmm, is Lupita the best choice here and will folks remark on it in a negative way?"

Though if the Helen actress was of greek, lebanese, syrian, moroccan, egyptian, korean, peruvian, or malaysian descent, would it have still been an issue? If she was a lily white smoke show then would the "race swap" complaint have just defaulted to one of the other soldiers or Leguizamo? Probably, given how riled up the internet warriors are over this culture war stuff.

I think this film was just "wrong place, wrong time" to attract all the attention. For me, ALL the casting feels "off" for this type of historic epic, like this is just a giant expensive play at Nolans house with and for his close friends. All these actors are over exposed, too entrenched by past performances, and none seem to sink into the part.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

Buddy Trailer (2026)
2
189
NotMyProblemAnymoreCunt replied
Nightborn Trailer (2026)
0
143
NotMyProblemAnymoreCunt replied
Bad Apples Trailer (2026)
9
343
LegendOfKage replied
Affection Trailer (2026)
9
533
poodaddy replied
Hershey Trailer (2026)
15
688
p_xavier replied
Top Bottom