Johnny Unusual
(He/Him)
The Odyssey is very good (but strap in because it's as long as it feels). It's the most epic movie about host-guest hospitality etiquette ever made.
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Movie Time 2.0: TT mini reviews
- Thread starter Rascally Badger
- Start date
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- Tags
- movies
jpfriction
(He, Him)
Looking forward to watching it on streaming over the course of a week or so, just like Nolan intended.
The Odyssey was incredible. Absolute cinema experience. The adjective I keep coming back to is theatrical, but specifically in the classical sense of going to a stage theater and watching a production. The "production" in this case is a huge-budget Hollywood movie with an incredible cast and Christopher Nolan's ability to weave grand set-pieces with intensely human emotions. This is a movie about humanity, and about stories, and why we keep telling ourselves these stories. It deserves to be up there with Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings. Kinda wish I saw it in IMAX...
Johnny Unusual
(He/Him)
Yeah, it's a strong one. I'm not sure if it's my favourite Nolan but it's up there. The Circe scene is deeply disturbing in a "child's film in the 80s" way.
The Odyssey was great. I'm still processing it.
I also watched The Odyssey today, and as advised I went to the biggest screen I could arrange. I was quite pleased with the spectacle, especially the sound design (deafening as it was). It's a modern and simplified Odysseus, and I see what the classicist critics mean when they speak of his character being flattened; it ain't subtle, but Homer also sang for the drunks in the back row, so I got no problem with that.
I liked it quite a bit. And I liked going along with the feeling of a Major Motion Picture Event, too.
The structure of the story was linked to a motif surrounding all the framing devices: who should hear what story from whom? Penelope stopping the singer, Menelaus telling Telemachus the story of the Trojan Horse but not the story of Agamemnon's murder, Odysseus telling himself his own story with Calypso's guidance but at Zeus' urging. It's out of order, but it's not arbitrary, rather being driven by the characters' emotional responses to learning of the events.
It's a thematic sequel to Oppenheimer, being similarly concerned with an individual grappling with the world-changing consequences of a desperate stratagem of war. But whereas Oppenheimer had Truman and Einstein, Odysseus has Agamemnon and Athena, who offer a far less ambivalent answer to the question of responsibility. Agamemnon's posthumous advice about suspicion is perfectly suited for the world that his war created; Athena's advice about the limits of mortal responsibility in the face of fate is a torment to him, even though she offers it as aid and protection, not punishment.
I will say that I wasn't too happy with the way this movie handled the slaughter of the suitors, from a technical and plotting perspective. Chris Nolan still isn't much of an action director to me. Chaotic and choppy shakycam fights are one thing when it's a montage of atrocities during the sacking of Troy, but a cathartic one-sided beatdown deserves visual clarity and an absence of cheap peril.
It's a thematic sequel to Oppenheimer, being similarly concerned with an individual grappling with the world-changing consequences of a desperate stratagem of war. But whereas Oppenheimer had Truman and Einstein, Odysseus has Agamemnon and Athena, who offer a far less ambivalent answer to the question of responsibility. Agamemnon's posthumous advice about suspicion is perfectly suited for the world that his war created; Athena's advice about the limits of mortal responsibility in the face of fate is a torment to him, even though she offers it as aid and protection, not punishment.
I will say that I wasn't too happy with the way this movie handled the slaughter of the suitors, from a technical and plotting perspective. Chris Nolan still isn't much of an action director to me. Chaotic and choppy shakycam fights are one thing when it's a montage of atrocities during the sacking of Troy, but a cathartic one-sided beatdown deserves visual clarity and an absence of cheap peril.
I liked it quite a bit. And I liked going along with the feeling of a Major Motion Picture Event, too.
R.R. Bigman
Coolest Guy
I had just finished Mina The Hollower and saw The Secret of Nimh was leaving Prime Video this week, so I decided to watch it. This movie is a big mess. I knew some of sci-fi backstory for most of my life, so I was surprised at how little the titular Institute factors into the movie. I had assumed most of the film would take place there, only for it to be confined to a flashback, and then late in the movie as a threat that is dealt with offscreen.
I know it’s based on a book, and I can only assume the adaption process is what lead to the film feeling so stapled together. The main villain is barely given time to do much else other than scheme for a few scenes, then immediately get exposed and die in a surprisingly violent fight. The Dom Delouise Crow is missing for the entirety of the climax. Everything involving the magic amulet, and magic existing in general.
There is still a lot to like and I can see why this was a hit when it came out. The animation and art direction is fantastic, as is the soundtrack. How was Don Bluth able to get both Jerry Goldsmith and Paul Williams for his debut work? Mrs. Brisby, a protagonist in an animated film who is a mother saving her family and then many others, is still the only example I can think of. I
I know it’s based on a book, and I can only assume the adaption process is what lead to the film feeling so stapled together. The main villain is barely given time to do much else other than scheme for a few scenes, then immediately get exposed and die in a surprisingly violent fight. The Dom Delouise Crow is missing for the entirety of the climax. Everything involving the magic amulet, and magic existing in general.
There is still a lot to like and I can see why this was a hit when it came out. The animation and art direction is fantastic, as is the soundtrack. How was Don Bluth able to get both Jerry Goldsmith and Paul Williams for his debut work? Mrs. Brisby, a protagonist in an animated film who is a mother saving her family and then many others, is still the only example I can think of. I
I'm a big 2D animation fan. I don't think there is any animation that occupies more of my brain than Dragon's Lair. Don Bluth animation is amazing. The intro bike riding into Neo Tokyo in Akira is another piece of animation that is seared into my brain.
I dont know this to be true, but I suspect it to be true. My guess is that 2D animation is ungodly expensive and difficult to make, and thus corners were cut in the Secret of Nimh. Maybe they planned to do the full book, started it and had to pivot to a finished project when things were going over budget and deadlines were being past.
The Rank and Bass Lord of the Rings is also, IMO, a complete mess. Adapting complex books into animation is a tall task. In retrospect, it was perhaps unintentionally wise that Disney opted to adapt relatively simple stories for animated features.
At one point there was a Kickstarter to make a Dragon's Lair feature film. I think it got funded but never produced. Could be wrong.
I dont know this to be true, but I suspect it to be true. My guess is that 2D animation is ungodly expensive and difficult to make, and thus corners were cut in the Secret of Nimh. Maybe they planned to do the full book, started it and had to pivot to a finished project when things were going over budget and deadlines were being past.
The Rank and Bass Lord of the Rings is also, IMO, a complete mess. Adapting complex books into animation is a tall task. In retrospect, it was perhaps unintentionally wise that Disney opted to adapt relatively simple stories for animated features.
At one point there was a Kickstarter to make a Dragon's Lair feature film. I think it got funded but never produced. Could be wrong.
Don't overestimate the life of a working musician; even for successful folks like them, it's not like you have a steady paycheck coming every two weeks. Everything is contract work, even if you're probably doing pretty well on major Hollywood budgets. Don Bluth wasn't just some nobody either, he'd spent several successful years at Disney before starting his own studio.
Although what I did learn from casually looking up Jerry Goldsmith's discography is that NIMH was his first score for an animated feature, so that's kinda neat.