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Originally Posted By Metonymy: Imagine not understanding web browsers or how technology works and making stupid comments on the internet.  In his defense, if you don't go looking for that kind of stuff or work on web stuff you don't have much of a reason to know about it. |
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Originally Posted By flyhack72: Or you could consider the posts of many here who have not been indoctrinated or numb to that bullshit. The film does not resemble the woke nightmare that preceded the release. Originally Posted By flyhack72: Originally Posted By LexDiamonds: Everything I have heard is that it is woke DEI garbage. The unfortunate truth is people have become acclimated to this over the last few years so it doent jump out as such. Or you could consider the posts of many here who have not been indoctrinated or numb to that bullshit. The film does not resemble the woke nightmare that preceded the release. SO, no 90lb female that swears she's a male running in armor called a great warrior, no african "that looks like bodycam footage rage freakout" scenes, no downplaying of the mystical elements, and no obnoxious rapper bards in the movie?  Certainly we aren't so numb that the presence of thse would be ignored and passed over because "not much screentime and I've seen worse abuse of a source than this before?"  IMO the worst reviews I've seen of this thing are that ... some of it is good, some of it is boring, and the thing is just MEH, if you don't allow yourself to be overhwelmed by the "It's imax" effect. I find the hollywood freakout defense of it as they try and colonize one of western culture and history's central stories more appealing to watch go down than the idea of going to see the movie. They want to take it away from western civ so badly that you can practically see them drooling. |
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Originally Posted By MRW: Ellen Page is the real Trojan Horse Not the actress who played Helen? |
Liberty is meaningless where the right to utter one's thoughts and opinions has ceased to exist. That, of all rights, is the dread of tyrants. It is the right which they first of all strike down. They know its power. F. Douglass
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Originally Posted By lygxis: SO, no 90lb female that swears she's a male running in armor called a great warrior, Originally Posted By lygxis: SO, no 90lb female that swears she's a male running in armor called a great warrior, Click To View Spoiler Originally Posted By lygxis: no downplaying of the mystical elements, Click To View Spoiler Originally Posted By lygxis: and no obnoxious rapper bards in the movie? Click To View Spoiler |
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Originally Posted By DK-Prof: At least their Viking ships were cool. Originally Posted By DK-Prof: Originally Posted By SurfinBrass: One aspect of Nolan's film I felt was cartoonish was Odysseus' crew wore their body armament while at sea with zero threat from anything seen to the horizon. https://i.imgur.com/zypURj5.png At least their Viking ships were cool. Fun read on that; https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/jul/23/owners-of-viking-ship-used-to-film-the-odyssey-say-studio-has-not-paid-bill-for-damage#:~:text=The%20main%20ship%2C%20Odysseus's%20boat,for%20the%2030%2Dperson%20crew |
“How strange it is that man on earth should roam,
And lead a life of woe, but not forsake
His rugged path; nor dare he view alone
His future doom which is but to awake.” - John Keats
And lead a life of woe, but not forsake
His rugged path; nor dare he view alone
His future doom which is but to awake.” - John Keats
Now fellate me, as I eat this expensive ham.
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Originally Posted By flyhack72: Or you could consider the posts of many here who have not been indoctrinated or numb to that bullshit. The film does not resemble the woke nightmare that preceded the release. I only spat in your food a little bit. . . Take a bite homeboy |
Look, yes, I have banged HUNDREDS of broads. INTERNATIONALLY. But know this - I wrap my rascal, TWO TIMES, cuz I like it to be joyless and without sensation. It's a way of punishing supermodels.
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Originally Posted By AlvinYork: Not the actress who played Helen? |
Don't be so open-minded that your brains fall out.
General education should not be mere job training, but training in how to be fully human.
General education should not be mere job training, but training in how to be fully human.
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Originally Posted By fury413rb: I still can't find which version of Calpyso has this mythical red hair giant boob siren Attached File |
Remember kids, the first rule of gun safety is to have fun.
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Two record-breaking weekends in a row. Does anyone in this thread still believe that not only was this movie doomed, but that Nolan knew it ahead of time and skipped advanced screenings to cover it up?  If so, I just want to say it's OK as adults to admit when we were really, really wrong.To be clear, and like I said earlier in the thread, the movie is fantastic, the DEI elements were an inconsequential <10 minutes of the movie, and Nolan skipped the usual pre-screening rigmarole because he knew he produced something great. The critics say so. The audience says so. The ultimate judge, the box office, says so (a second weekend in a row). Anyone man enough to admit they were wrong? Or are you just going to deflect with random influencer posts on X as the movie continues to crush ticket sales? |
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https://www.theascent.io/p/10-reasons-you-should-read-the-odyssey 10 reasons your should READ the Odyssey snip: 10. The Story of Humanity You read the Odyssey to better understand the nature of man. You should take seriously that the very first word of the Odyssey in the Greek is "man." Odysseus is in many ways a representative of man and his story is our story. In fact, when Homer invokes the Muses at the beginning of the text to help him sing the story of Odysseus, he asks the Muses to sing of "our story too" the story of man. As such, the Odyssey is a deeply anthropological tale that weaves together perennial questions about the human condition, like free will, fate, justice, home, place, and the divine. 9. The Question of Fate & Free Will You read the Odyssey to explore the tension of fate and free will. Though the Iliad is often read as a deeply fatalistic text, the Odyssey is often praised for exploring the agency of man. In fact, in the beginning of the text, Zeus defends the gods and blames the misery of man upon man's own poor choices. But, to what degree are Zeus and fate separate? At times Zeus seems to be the caretaker of fate, shepherding all things according to a providential pattern; yet, at other times, fate seems to be the alter ego of Zeus, another persona of the king of gods and men. The Odyssey presents these in tension and, in the tension, has you explore perennial questions about free will, fate, and the divine. 8. In Praise of Arete (Virtue) You read the Odyssey to understand the arete of men (and women). In the Iliad, arete, the excellence of men, is usually reserved for military prowess and skill in combat; yet, in the Odyssey, human excellence takes on a more robust, intellectual character. Odysseus is a man of military might, but he's also a man of resilience, cleverness, and perseverance. Moreover, Homer uses the term arete to describe Odysseus' wife, Penelope, who is certainly not a warrior but a clever, faithful woman. Homer is at the beginning of the virtue tradition, and the concept of arete in the Iliad and Odyssey deserves special consideration. What does it mean to be a good man? |
Don't be so open-minded that your brains fall out.
General education should not be mere job training, but training in how to be fully human.
General education should not be mere job training, but training in how to be fully human.
|
Originally Posted By bigfatOTMs: Two record-breaking weekends in a row. Does anyone in this thread still believe that not only was this movie doomed, but that Nolan knew it ahead of time and skipped advanced screenings to cover it up? If so, I just want to say it's OK as adults to admit when we were really, really wrong.To be clear, and like I said earlier in the thread, the movie is fantastic, the DEI elements were an inconsequential <10 minutes of the movie, and Nolan skipped the usual pre-screening rigmarole because he knew he produced something great. The critics say so. The audience says so. The ultimate judge, the box office, says so (a second weekend in a row). Anyone man enough to admit they were wrong? Or are you just going to deflect with random influencer posts on X as the movie continues to crush ticket sales? Many of us said it would do well because of Nolan, and plenty of liberals buying tickets to make it do well.................still doesnt change the fact that there are legit criticisms of the movie...........Hell, the woman who's translation was used said it was too modern, and her translation is too modern itself Since he checked all of his boxes for Oscar requirements, he will probably get it............... |
"The villainy you teach me, I will execute, and it shall go hard but I will better the instruction"
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Originally Posted By Capt-Planet: https://www.ar15.com/media/mediaFiles/125943/1000005122_jpg-3800860.JPG Originally Posted By Capt-Planet: Originally Posted By fury413rb: I still can't find which version of Calpyso has this mythical red hair giant boob siren https://www.ar15.com/media/mediaFiles/125943/1000005122_jpg-3800860.JPG That is not Charlize Theron |
Liberty is meaningless where the right to utter one's thoughts and opinions has ceased to exist. That, of all rights, is the dread of tyrants. It is the right which they first of all strike down. They know its power. F. Douglass
| I saw it tonight with my wife. Was good but not awe-inspiring great. Tons of liberty taken with the actual plot of The Odyssey poem. Charlize Theron has become one of those Hollywood GLP-1 stick people mutants. I thought the Coen brothers' adaptation of the Odyssey was better. |
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Originally Posted By fury413rb: I still can't find which version of Calpyso has this mythical red hair giant boob siren. Originally Posted By fury413rb: Originally Posted By Nick_Adams: This is the Odysseus movie you want to see. Albert Fiennes absolutely nails the character.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aOQQ45ddYdkThe only downside is that the film cuts the actual story short with Odysseus half-alive, his naked body washing up on an Ithaca shoreline. The rest of his crew are dead. So the first half of the actual tale of his 10-yr return trip home from Troy is omitted. That’s the part where he’s stranded on an island with a big-boobed red-haired witch (called a ‘Siren’). Still, a much better movie than the Nolan version. I still can't find which version of Calpyso has this mythical red hair giant boob siren.  |
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Originally Posted By bigfatOTMs: Two record-breaking weekends in a row. Does anyone in this thread still believe that not only was this movie doomed, but that Nolan knew it ahead of time and skipped advanced screenings to cover it up? If so, I just want to say it's OK as adults to admit when we were really, really wrong.To be clear, and like I said earlier in the thread, the movie is fantastic, the DEI elements were an inconsequential <10 minutes of the movie, and Nolan skipped the usual pre-screening rigmarole because he knew he produced something great. The critics say so. The audience says so. The ultimate judge, the box office, says so (a second weekend in a row). Anyone man enough to admit they were wrong? Or are you just going to deflect with random influencer posts on X as the movie continues to crush ticket sales? I just got back, and yeah, I really enjoyed it. Read the Odyssey in college (and Iliad, and Aenead). I felt it was pretty true to the high points of the book - don't remember how the book actually ends (guess I have to re-read it). A few little 'artistic interpretations' along the way but they didn't distract too much. There was frequent references to Zeus, Athena and Posiodon. If you and the kids ever did Percy Jackson, it's a good way to loop back into those stories. If you haven't, they're a decent enjoyable read and intro to a modern take on ancient Greek mythology. I think I need to bust out Troy for the kids too (and the Brad Pitt one isn't all that good, IMO ... but a good 1-2 combo). Anyway, the movie. My 13 yo daughter really liked The Martian, and didn't realize that it was the same actor til I pointed it out. Matt Damon did well, I thought. In fact, I thought it was a really done movie - almost 3 hours but I think I only looked at my watch twice. A lot of jumping around, but really only 2 main story lines. My 11 yo was a little confused at the ending til I explained the 'why' behind his actions, then it made a lot more sense to him. Go see it. Take off your DEI glasses and enjoy a decent Hollywood flick. |
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I have a 1080P digital copy of the film. I am SO tempted to do a deep dive using timestamps, there is SO much to discuss, positive, negative and what appears Nolan having no real idea what the epic wants to share. Nolan used tier 1 actors in film but made some mistakes in regard to the casting and script in MANY respects to Homer's books. Yet the film works well as a stand-alone entertaining film for the ignorant to "Homer's" work. |
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Originally Posted By SurfinBrass: Yet the film works well as a stand-alone entertaining film for the ignorant to "Homer's" work. That would be about 95% of all US adults. I’m sure a case exists for a high fidelity retelling of the original, but it would be an inconsequential point for vast majority of the viewers. |
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We went yesterday. I really enjoyed the movie. Juno was the worst 6 minutes of the whole flick. She doesn’t look like a dude and is a mediocre actress. Otherwise, it was very good. Lupita Nyong'o was fine as Helen and her twin. She’s a fantastic actress and, again, her role was pretty minimal, time wise. |
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Originally Posted By SurfinBrass: I have a 1080P digital copy of the film. I am SO tempted to do a deep dive using timestamps, there is SO much to discuss, positive, negative and what appears Nolan having no real idea what the epic wants to share. Nolan used tier 1 actors in film but made some mistakes in regard to the casting and script in MANY respects to Homer's books. Yet the film works well as a stand-alone entertaining film for the ignorant to "Homer's" work. arrrr matey.... |
I’ll lead an effective strategy to mobilize trunalimunumaprzure.
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Okay, I was invited by friends for the movie and cocktails, and I needed a drink after. TL/DR: Casting is silly, writing is terrible, see other versions, read the book. -Culture war aspect is a nothingburger, but the casting is jarring and the film has many other problems, mostly writing. Strength of the story overpowers paltry woke efforts. -entertaining for two reasons: big film on big screen showing big things, and it’s the oldest, most profound tale of adventure there is. -recommend two other versions instead of this film, & book. — Random confused morning coffee ramble: The “dad” and “daddy” stuff is stupid; writing and dialogue generally sucked. The rapper’s telling the story of the Trojan War uses some words from Homer but poetry is entirely absent. Epic poetry is a huge root of the Western tradition, the background recitation that mirrors some of the most memorable lines in Western literature (some variant of “Sing to me, oh muse, of the man…”) is recited like powerpoint bullets at a government training seminar. Much of what makes the story beautiful is missing in language: Odysseus taunting the cyclops as “nobody” (and getting him drunk). Without the language Odysseus as trickster, leader of men feels missing. Matt Damon wanders around because the story demands it, he has muscles but not gravitas or charisma. There’s a special sword trick he has. Athena just kind of shows up occasionally like a waitress asking if everything’s ok while you’re in mid-chew. No mention of the tree growing through his palace bedroom, etc. The plot is reductive. Not honor (the word is mentioned) and “the face that launched a thousand ships” but control of trade routes, PTSD, why can’t girlbosses rule kingdoms, and explicit dialogue about the sea peoples and the bronze age collapse. You would think that after 27 centuries, the screenwriters would let the story stand on its own, but nope. They know better than Homer, probably the ultimate dead white male author. Peter Brook, a famed, innovative English theater director (he claimed to have consulted Aleister Crowley on witchcraft for a production of ‘Macbeth’) did a stage and then film production of ‘Mahabharata’ which was multiethnic. It worked brilliantly because as theater, you’re very aware it’s operating in myth and mythic time. ‘Odyssey’ by contrast is rooted in time and place, some dimly known, but real. We know what Greece, the Greeks, the Bronze Age Mediterranean looked like. I can’t imagine ‘Shogun’ cast like this; the culture is part of the story. It’s literally Aryan mythology (I think, like Zimbabwe, they’re now renamed “Proto-Indo-Europeans”). I once dated a girl from Athens and she was so striking, like a living Minoan fresco, that people turned around on the street to look at her as she passed. Most actors in the film don’t look Greek, although Anne Hathaway comes closest and is queenly. John Leguizamo does a good job. Zendaya is a squinty little nobody, the girl in high school who you weren’t interested in; Lupita Nyongo is an implausible Helen. Circe (with whom Odysseus fathers sons in the text) here hates men and is coyote ugly. Elliot Page might have rated cabin boy, not a warrior after ten years before the walls of Troy, this woman pretending to be a man is another false note. Obviously this is a huge story and a lot of what makes us different in the West is here, how we think about ourselves as individuals, destiny vs. free will, etc. Odysseus is also very much a Western hero. The Gods tell him one thing and he’s going to do what he can to defy fate. The story is the first light of the brilliance of our culture; science, theater, poetry, philosophy, beautiful art and fashion are right on its heels within a few hundred years. Something happened that made us as a civilization, different from the despotic theocracies of the rest of the world, happened in the Aegean then, and people are right to be pissed about a clumsy and inadequate retelling. I recommend looking up the 1950s ‘Ulysses’, with Kirk Douglas, and the 1990s ‘Odyssey’ TV miniseries, with Armand Assante. Kirk is the best actor of the three here; his portrayal is alive, vivid, athletic, a man worthy of memory as a hero. It also has the most plausible version of the arrow through the axe heads - handle holes here. (Each film uses a different interpretation: crossed axes in the 2026 film, loops on the handles in the 1997 version.) Kirk slays the suitors with savage wrath. The 1997 version also feels right, even the use of multiracial casting is on point (Vanessa Williams as Calypso), features Greta Scacchi as Penelope and Isabella Rossellini, perfectly cast as the goddess Athena. Attached File Attached File Attached File Attached File Attached File |
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Official numbers after 2nd weekend: $87M domestic and $215.3M global this 2nd weekend. 30% drop from first weekend. Total cumulative now $639.6M. For comparison, Oppenheimer 2nd weekend was $46.2 million (a -44% drop from its opening frame). The Odyssey’s second weekend alone ($84.5M) surpassed Oppenheimer’s entire first opening weekend ($82.5M). https://deadline.com/2026/07/box-office-the-odyssey-motor-city-her-private-hell-hadestown-1237002537/ |
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Originally Posted By PacNW5: Official numbers after 2nd weekend: $87M domestic and $215.3M global this 2nd weekend. 30% drop from first weekend. Total cumulative now $639.6M. For comparison, Oppenheimer 2nd weekend was $46.2 million (a -44% drop from its opening frame). The Odyssey’s second weekend alone ($84.5M) surpassed Oppenheimer’s entire first opening weekend ($82.5M). https://deadline.com/2026/07/box-office-the-odyssey-motor-city-her-private-hell-hadestown-1237002537/ Theater was packed last night. More so than most movies opening weekends. (Premium screen, but not true IMAX) |
When the going gets tough, the tough go cyclic.
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Originally Posted By 0311SKI: Theater was packed last night. More so than most movies opening weekends. (Premium screen, but not true IMAX) If you look at the numbers, even for opening weekend, it's tracking almost 80% of its gross coming from non-IMAX screens. There are also no 70mm IMAX screens outside of the US and Canada and it's playing very well outside the US. |
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Originally Posted By PacNW5: Official numbers after 2nd weekend: $87M domestic and $215.3M global this 2nd weekend. 30% drop from first weekend. Total cumulative now $639.6M. For comparison, Oppenheimer 2nd weekend was $46.2 million (a -44% drop from its opening frame). The Odyssey's second weekend alone ($84.5M) surpassed Oppenheimer's entire first opening weekend ($82.5M). https://deadline.com/2026/07/box-office-the-odyssey-motor-city-her-private-hell-hadestown-1237002537/ What I want to see is ticket sales. The portions of dollars coming in from people going to more expensive formats is pumping the numbers |
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Originally Posted By mcantu: .. The potions of dollars coming in from people going to more expensive formats is pumping the numbers came to post this - i did see the movie but holy shit it was expensive as fuck to watch because IMAX with or without dolby and lasers and when the fuck did movies get so complicated to pick a theatre and watch, but it was almost $100 for 3 ppl to just have seats... so that has to be inflating the overall returns ... all in all, watching in Imax didnt improve the experience IMO. all the criticisms stand, especially if you know anything about the original tale, but it was watchable.. |
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I have been, and continue to be, a nay-sayer. But I'm glad that Nolan made this film. The story deserves a resurgence of interest and to be talked about again. Bad publicity is better than obscurity. Let us fight about it. It's good for the culture. |
Don't be so open-minded that your brains fall out.
General education should not be mere job training, but training in how to be fully human.
General education should not be mere job training, but training in how to be fully human.
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Originally Posted By mcantu: there's a lot of extrapolating in that article. Sat numbers aren't out yet and at the end of the article it even shows that the real data ends at Fri What I want to see is ticket sales. The portions of dollars coming in from people going to more expensive formats is pumping the numbers It's true that the studios release estimates based on Saturday receipts on Sunday morning, which is why you see trade journals like Deadline and Variety able to report numbers today. They release their actuals on Monday afternoon. The differences between the estimates and actuals are usually < 1%. |
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If I could change one thing, they should have had a Greek play Helen; Attached File |
“How strange it is that man on earth should roam,
And lead a life of woe, but not forsake
His rugged path; nor dare he view alone
His future doom which is but to awake.” - John Keats
And lead a life of woe, but not forsake
His rugged path; nor dare he view alone
His future doom which is but to awake.” - John Keats
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I saw it at the drive in with the puppies and thought it was pretty good until the end. The fight at the end differs greatly from what I read in Bulfinch's Mythology. The film could have been a nice 2.5 hours long instead of three and followed the story much closer. The leaving your kingdom to Spiderman, while you sail off into the distance with your hot wife was a little cliche. |
The mountains are calling and I must go. - John Muir
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Originally Posted By mcantu: there's a lot of extrapolating in that article. Sat numbers aren't out yet and at the end of the article it even shows that the real data ends at Fri What I want to see is ticket sales. The portions of dollars coming in from people going to more expensive formats is pumping the numbers A hit is a hit. Honestly seems desperate to grasp at straws hoping to take some of the shine off of it. It's just doing well because of higher Imax Prices!!! ......... of an auteur director that made a movie entirely in that format. What else was supposed to happen? I haven't seen it but plan on going this week at some point for a weeknight showing at a local theater that has an Imax screen. I have tried avoiding the whole online negativity of this one because I like Nolan's work and ddn't want to skew my opinion before seeing it. Beats the, even woker, 96th Marvel movie. |
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Originally Posted By bigfatOTMs: Two record-breaking weekends in a row. Does anyone in this thread still believe that not only was this movie doomed, but that Nolan knew it ahead of time and skipped advanced screenings to cover it up? If so, I just want to say it's OK as adults to admit when we were really, really wrong.To be clear, and like I said earlier in the thread, the movie is fantastic, the DEI elements were an inconsequential <10 minutes of the movie, and Nolan skipped the usual pre-screening rigmarole because he knew he produced something great. The critics say so. The audience says so. The ultimate judge, the box office, says so (a second weekend in a row). Anyone man enough to admit they were wrong? Or are you just going to deflect with random influencer posts on X as the movie continues to crush ticket sales? Why should we accept that it's fantastic? The song and dance of "you're not a man if you don't eat crow on this and agree" is pretty funny, btw. "Continues to crush ticket sales" - ok. Roughly how many has it sold and how does that compare to other movies? Surely you'd have at least a functional vague idea of how many it's sold if you're saying this? You do know the absolute number in return doesn't tell you how many tickets, if you don't know the price of the tickets roughly. Imax tickets for 15:70 theaters are not cheap. As for crushing it, no, it's not, I highly doubt it'll even break even in theatrical release, I suspect most movies don't. As for the "It's 10 minutes and inconsequential" ... Yes, it's consequential. "But sir, there's only a little bit of cat turd floating in your soup, just ignore that and eat around it." It *is* a case like that because they know and knew beforehand that 'race' swapping protected leftist classes in is hated, because it's shoving their leftist (the real deal kind) racism in our faces. They also did it with helen of troy because helen of troy is an archetype for beautiful in the cultural west, and the left hates beauty and are racist. I'm fairly certain in the speculation that people in power in hollywood wanted nolan to do it as a way to "wild" (degrade and deface something intentionally) the very trope of western beauty itself. They tried to wild the idea of being a warrior, and the very idea of femininity with eliot page. Again, even if nolan didn't cast her for this reason, that's exactly what the end product does. Zendaya as athena, the left would want her there to "wild" the greek foundational myth and belief of a 'god' *of their own people* because they know people view race in that kind of way. Hollywood is quite literally colonizing the odyssey with this movie, either by proxy of their oscars rules and the culture of that industry and town, or by nolan intentionally doing it with that in mind, or some mix thereof. That's what the end product *does.* You have to be insensitive to and shrug off leftist racism, leftist delusion with transgender ideology, and I suspect more, in order to be OK with the movie. Added: and the huge format of the imax when people see it in that, and the quality of the execution of the movie making, etc., make it easy to turn your brains off and just allow yourself to be affected by it. That's why the visual format is so powerful at changing what people value - it affects our emotions while making it easy to turn your mind off and unthinking let everything into the door. Nolan is himself a wonderful trojan horse for this because of the not-leftist's reception of the batman flick about how nolan's batman was discussed as a fairly positive representation of bush and the ways that movie supposedly subverted leftist tropes and thinking. No, nolan is apparently just a male of hollywood too, cut from the same fabric. His pushing for high quality film and cinematography and large format and physical vs CG just made and makes him all the better as a trojan horse. ---------- That's not even discussing the actual realism problems - ok, we expect a lack of reality, but nolan's apparently been all over "realism" for this movie, and he's made some elementary school mistakes on that front. Viking instead of greek ships, steel armor in the bronze age, changes made that "Well it's a movie no a poem spoken aloud or read" format changes don't even remotely justify, etc. That, and the basic simple thing of "I know your dog was a shepard, but this other one's a dog too, see, it's a husky, you should just accept it as the same" when any child knows that if you're using a visual format and trying to represent the visuals of a thing with verisimilitude (true to the fictional source) you pick things (and actors) that at least outwardly LOOK the same, and race has got zilch-bupkis to do with it. |
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Originally Posted By SSG-69: Okay, I was invited by friends for the movie and cocktails, and I needed a drink after. TL/DR: Casting is silly, writing is terrible, see other versions, read the book. -Culture war aspect is a nothingburger, but the casting is jarring and the film has many other problems, mostly writing. Strength of the story overpowers paltry woke efforts. -entertaining for two reasons: big film on big screen showing big things, and it’s the oldest, most profound tale of adventure there is. -recommend two other versions instead of this film, & book. — Random confused morning coffee ramble: The “dad” and “daddy” stuff is stupid; writing and dialogue generally sucked. The rapper’s telling the story of the Trojan War uses some words from Homer but poetry is entirely absent. Epic poetry is a huge root of the Western tradition, the background recitation that mirrors some of the most memorable lines in Western literature (some variant of “Sing to me, oh muse, of the man…”) is recited like powerpoint bullets at a government training seminar. Much of what makes the story beautiful is missing in language: Odysseus taunting the cyclops as “nobody” (and getting him drunk). Without the language Odysseus as trickster, leader of men feels missing. Matt Damon wanders around because the story demands it, he has muscles but not gravitas or charisma. There’s a special sword trick he has. Athena just kind of shows up occasionally like a waitress asking if everything’s ok while you’re in mid-chew. No mention of the tree growing through his palace bedroom, etc. The plot is reductive. Not honor (the word is mentioned) and “the face that launched a thousand ships” but control of trade routes, PTSD, why can’t girlbosses rule kingdoms, and explicit dialogue about the sea peoples and the bronze age collapse. You would think that after 27 centuries, the screenwriters would let the story stand on its own, but nope. They know better than Homer, probably the ultimate dead white male author. Peter Brook, a famed, innovative English theater director (he claimed to have consulted Aleister Crowley on witchcraft for a production of ‘Macbeth’) did a stage and then film production of ‘Mahabharata’ which was multiethnic. It worked brilliantly because as theater, you’re very aware it’s operating in myth and mythic time. ‘Odyssey’ by contrast is rooted in time and place, some dimly known, but real. We know what Greece, the Greeks, the Bronze Age Mediterranean looked like. I can’t imagine ‘Shogun’ cast like this; the culture is part of the story. It’s literally Aryan mythology (I think, like Zimbabwe, they’re now renamed “Proto-Indo-Europeans”). I once dated a girl from Athens and she was so striking, like a living Minoan fresco, that people turned around on the street to look at her as she passed. Most actors in the film don’t look Greek, although Anne Hathaway comes closest and is queenly. John Leguizamo does a good job. Zendaya is a squinty little nobody, the girl in high school who you weren’t interested in; Lupita Nyongo is an implausible Helen. Circe (with whom Odysseus fathers sons in the text) here hates men and is coyote ugly. Elliot Page might have rated cabin boy, not a warrior after ten years before the walls of Troy, this woman pretending to be a man is another false note. Obviously this is a huge story and a lot of what makes us different in the West is here, how we think about ourselves as individuals, destiny vs. free will, etc. Odysseus is also very much a Western hero. The Gods tell him one thing and he’s going to do what he can to defy fate. The story is the first light of the brilliance of our culture; science, theater, poetry, philosophy, beautiful art and fashion are right on its heels within a few hundred years. Something happened that made us as a civilization, different from the despotic theocracies of the rest of the world, happened in the Aegean then, and people are right to be pissed about a clumsy and inadequate retelling. I recommend looking up the 1950s ‘Ulysses’, with Kirk Douglas, and the 1990s ‘Odyssey’ TV miniseries, with Armand Assante. Kirk is the best actor of the three here; his portrayal is alive, vivid, athletic, a man worthy of memory as a hero. It also has the most plausible version of the arrow through the axe heads - handle holes here. (Each film uses a different interpretation: crossed axes in the 2026 film, loops on the handles in the 1997 version.) Kirk slays the suitors with savage wrath. The 1997 version also feels right, even the use of multiracial casting is on point (Vanessa Williams as Calypso), features Greta Scacchi as Penelope and Isabella Rossellini, perfectly cast as the goddess Athena. https://www.ar15.com/media/mediaFiles/597879/IMG_7758_jpeg-3801289.JPG https://www.ar15.com/media/mediaFiles/597879/IMG_7757_jpeg-3801290.JPGhttps://www.ar15.com/media/mediaFiles/597879/IMG_7762_jpeg-3801291.JPGhttps://www.ar15.com/media/mediaFiles/597879/IMG_7763_jpeg-3801292.JPGhttps://www.ar15.com/media/mediaFiles/597879/IMG_7760_jpeg-3801293.JPG  |
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Originally Posted By sq40: If I could change one thing, they should have had a Greek play Helen; https://www.ar15.com/media/mediaFiles/49447/IMG_3940_jpeg-3801412.JPG Bro, don’t you know Greek history?  
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Originally Posted By PacNW5: If you look at the numbers, even for opening weekend, it's tracking almost 80% of its gross coming from non-IMAX screens. There are also no 70mm IMAX screens outside of the US and Canada and it's playing very well outside the US. It's play better outside the US even. I was wrong. I doubt I will watch it in the theaters. I'll probably just wait for netflix or amazon. |
DeltaElite777: It's not enough to just para bellum. If you really vis pacem, you gotta convince any potential troublemaker that not only can you push their shit in Genghis Khan-style, but you will.
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Originally Posted By mcantu: there's a lot of extrapolating in that article. Sat numbers aren't out yet and at the end of the article it even shows that the real data ends at Fri What I want to see is ticket sales. The portions of dollars coming in from people going to more expensive formats is pumping the numbers The U.S. and Canadian box office has always reported in gross receipts rather than ticket counts. This has been the case going all the way back to the 1920s so it's largely due to legacy. Outside of the public perception reason, when studios and cinemas do their 50/50 split, they do it based on gross receipts, not a flat rate per ticket stub. Additionally, when they license the movie to streaming services, it's based on gross receipts. The higher the gross receipts, the higher the licensing fee. And for the actors, directors and producers involved, those guys make contracts to retain a percentage of the gross receipts so that number is very important to them. https://www.marketplace.org/story/2024/07/05/why-are-movie-box-office-results-reported-in-dollars-rather-than-tickets-sold |
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I saw it today with my sons (24 and 20) I give it a solid 6.5/10 I actually had no issue with the Helen casting…I thought she did a fine job and was one of the more believable performances of the movie. Page as Sinon was just stupid. But it’s not the reason the movie is at best “meh”. It is at points…..boring….. And it’s a 21st century apologists version of the Odyssey. My oldest son gave it a 7/10. 20 year old a 6. Read the book. I’m sure it will win all the awards, blah blah blah. But at this point that’s just Hollywood masturbatory self flagellation. I had really hoped based on what some of the people in this thread said that I would enjoy it because I wasn’t as enraged by the alleged wokeness of the casting. At one point, Sinon says to Odysseus…” feel free to add in some stuff”. Or something to that effect. The “some stuff” was verbatim though. No telling of the odyssey should ever have a character telling the hero/anti-hero to do anything with “some stuff”. What a joke. |
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Originally Posted By PacNW5: The U.S. and Canadian box office has always reported in gross receipts rather than ticket counts. This has been the case going all the way back to the 1920s so it's largely due to legacy. Outside of the public perception reason, when studios and cinemas do their 50/50 split, they do it based on gross receipts, not a flat rate per ticket stub. Additionally, when they license the movie to streaming services, it's based on gross receipts. The higher the gross receipts, the higher the licensing fee. And for the actors, directors and producers involved, those guys make contracts to retain a percentage of the gross receipts so that number is very important to them. https://www.marketplace.org/story/2024/07/05/why-are-movie-box-office-results-reported-in-dollars-rather-than-tickets-sold Originally Posted By PacNW5: Originally Posted By mcantu: there's a lot of extrapolating in that article. Sat numbers aren't out yet and at the end of the article it even shows that the real data ends at Fri What I want to see is ticket sales. The portions of dollars coming in from people going to more expensive formats is pumping the numbers The U.S. and Canadian box office has always reported in gross receipts rather than ticket counts. This has been the case going all the way back to the 1920s so it's largely due to legacy. Outside of the public perception reason, when studios and cinemas do their 50/50 split, they do it based on gross receipts, not a flat rate per ticket stub. Additionally, when they license the movie to streaming services, it's based on gross receipts. The higher the gross receipts, the higher the licensing fee. And for the actors, directors and producers involved, those guys make contracts to retain a percentage of the gross receipts so that number is very important to them. https://www.marketplace.org/story/2024/07/05/why-are-movie-box-office-results-reported-in-dollars-rather-than-tickets-sold The educated guess way I've seen to zoom in on ticket numbers is to see the absolute gross profit numbers per at least type of theater, take the best info on how much of a % of each ticket they return, and start extrapolating. The "see it in imax, esp 15:70 film projector imax!" effect is going to squash the ticket numbers for this. |
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Originally Posted By Dam17er: Cuckservatives enjoy taking just the tip, because it's "not that bad". Originally Posted By Dam17er: Originally Posted By The_Master_Shake: I only spat in your food a little bit. . . Take a bite homeboy Cuckservatives enjoy taking just the tip, because it's "not that bad". Eh, devils advocate? We've been forced out of all the instituitons of power by the leftist / marxist slow march going back to the turn of the century before (1900) ... we *never* had hollywood (past hollywood looks a lot more conservative because leftism of that time had years less time to get more stupid in the head) and etc. We want to have our culture implemented and we're being intentionally kept out by leftists trying to colonize american and western culture. Yeah, people are going to be a bit desperate; we're culturally starving. Marxists realized they couldn't get their workers revolution here because capitalism with moral constraints delivered the goods, so they decided to take over our culture and replace it with marxism, and the non marxist left are all aboard with that. |
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Originally Posted By lygxis: Eh, devils advocate? We've been forced out of all the instituitons of power by the leftist / marxist slow march going back to the turn of the century before (1900) ... we *never* had hollywood (past hollywood looks a lot more conservative because leftism of that time had years less time to get more stupid in the head) and etc. We want to have our culture implemented and we're being intentionally kept out by leftists trying to colonize american and western culture. Yeah, people are going to be a bit desperate; we're culturally starving. Marxists realized they couldn't get their workers revolution here because capitalism with moral constraints delivered the goods, so they decided to take over our culture and replace it with marxism, and the non marxist left are all aboard with that. Originally Posted By lygxis: Originally Posted By Dam17er: Originally Posted By The_Master_Shake: I only spat in your food a little bit. . . Take a bite homeboy Cuckservatives enjoy taking just the tip, because it's "not that bad". Eh, devils advocate? We've been forced out of all the instituitons of power by the leftist / marxist slow march going back to the turn of the century before (1900) ... we *never* had hollywood (past hollywood looks a lot more conservative because leftism of that time had years less time to get more stupid in the head) and etc. We want to have our culture implemented and we're being intentionally kept out by leftists trying to colonize american and western culture. Yeah, people are going to be a bit desperate; we're culturally starving. Marxists realized they couldn't get their workers revolution here because capitalism with moral constraints delivered the goods, so they decided to take over our culture and replace it with marxism, and the non marxist left are all aboard with that. I don't disagree with you, nor do I think it's mutually exclusive with what I said. |
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Originally Posted By Dam17er: I don't disagree with you, nor do I think it's mutually exclusive with what I said. Originally Posted By Dam17er: Originally Posted By lygxis: Originally Posted By Dam17er: Originally Posted By The_Master_Shake: I only spat in your food a little bit. . . Take a bite homeboy Cuckservatives enjoy taking just the tip, because it's "not that bad". Eh, devils advocate? We've been forced out of all the instituitons of power by the leftist / marxist slow march going back to the turn of the century before (1900) ... we *never* had hollywood (past hollywood looks a lot more conservative because leftism of that time had years less time to get more stupid in the head) and etc. We want to have our culture implemented and we're being intentionally kept out by leftists trying to colonize american and western culture. Yeah, people are going to be a bit desperate; we're culturally starving. Marxists realized they couldn't get their workers revolution here because capitalism with moral constraints delivered the goods, so they decided to take over our culture and replace it with marxism, and the non marxist left are all aboard with that. I don't disagree with you, nor do I think it's mutually exclusive with what I said. I wasn't contradicting you. Just what your post made me think of. The real sickening irony with hollywood is (reportedly from what I've heard, not confirmed otherwise, but I think it's true) that the gaffers, set makers, electricians, armorers, and a lot of the other craftsmen and skilled trades they need to keep that place going are either not-leftists and a decent subset may be conservatives themselves. The only places the left will let us build in hollywood are places that support their colonization of western and american culture. They never quit with the master mentality - it just changed it's mask. |
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Originally Posted By lygxis: I wasn't contradicting you. Just what your post made me think of. The real sickening irony with hollywood is (reportedly from what I've heard, not confirmed otherwise, but I think it's true) that the gaffers, set makers, electricians, armorers, and a lot of the other craftsmen and skilled trades they need to keep that place going are either not-leftists and a decent subset may be conservatives themselves. The only places the left will let us build in hollywood are places that support their colonization of western and american culture. They never quit with the master mentality - it just changed it's mask. We're on the same page, bubba 
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