The Odyssey In IMAX Review

I have had my fair share of seeing movies in IMAX over the the last few years. Films that come to mind are Dune and Dune Part 2. But more recently what I can only call is a breakthrough in the technology of IMAX camera’s has made it possible for Christopher Nolan to shoot the first film shot 100% in IMAX. Let’s dive into the stunning film of the Odyssey.

Now to be fair, I have seen the film twice now in theaters, the first on a standard screen, and then the second time on an IMAX screen. What I can tell you is that the difference is work the extra cost of admission. It is NOT however worth seeing twice in a theater.

If you have the means or are near an IMAX, I would recommend making an effort to see it there. If not, the movie is still good on a regular screen.

Personally I am not one to see a film in the theater more than once, I can only count on one hand the times I have seen a film in theaters multiple times. Films like The Force Awakens, and Dune.

Let’s get down to the brass tax here. The Odyssey is a great movie. The cast does a really good job in the film, even though I almost am getting burnt out of seeing Tom Holland and Zendaya in every film under the sun. I mean If you go to a theater today, they are taking up half of the screens at a theater with Spider Man Brand New Day.

Matt Damon does a good job as Odysseus and is “Odyssey” getting home from the war and the battle at Troy. As good of a job has he has done, it’s hard to not still see an actor that was in the Martian, Interstellar, The Borne series, and bickering with Jimmy Kimmel.

Robert Pattinson does a great job in this film as well, and of course we have all the meme’s that have transpired from this file like, “Someone get these beggars out of here!” or “Get the swords!”, “The Shields Get the Shields!”, “Spears, get the Spears”.

That actually brings up my main complaint on this film. The dialogue is really watered down. Matt Damon saying things like “I think it’s asleep”. It just shows that films and shows these days are needing to say what is happening on the screen like we are watching a Netflix show or movie. NO! We are at the theater, we are paying attention to the movie, we don’t need hear what we are seeing for everything!!

The practical effects and shots in this film really stand out. From the panning shots of shorelines, to the views of the ocean. it makes the fill feel huge.

The visual spectacle was made possible because the IMAX cameras that were used were brand new custom built cameras that ended up being shrouded in a noise dampening box. The camera’s were huge and made it hard to work around at times, but because of this customization, the director solved the issue of the noise that these camera’s make. This allowed for close up shots and quiet scenes to have their actual audio.

So Christopher Nolan put a lot of hard work into this film and has been pioneering this format of film for several years going back to the Dark Knight. If anyone can remember that it was a big deal when there were minutes of the movie shot with Imax back then. Now this whole movie is in Imax.

This also does something for the film as it does not feel chopped up like I remember seeing in Dune. Dune suffers from having regular shots and interlocked with Imax shots that expand the screen from what feels like a wide screen view to a full screen view during the course of the movie. That distraction is gone here.

The movie though on the longer side does not feel to overstay it’s welcome at 172 minutes (just under 3 hours) and has a good sense of progression between current day and the story told through the memory of Odysseus. The current day mostly follows Tom Holland and Anne Hathaway’s characters dealing with the situation of suiters at their home attempting to take the hand of Penelope, the queen as Odysseus has not returned from the war and is presumed dead.

Odysseus attempts to reclaim his memory of the journey home and the battle at Troy and his journey home comes is fraught with bad event after bad event with his men. There is mythical characters, magic, violence all along the way.

I have to applaud everyone that has worked on this film and I was very happy to get the opportunity to see it in true Imax. I once again recommend anyone that has the means or lives close enough to one to go out and see the film this way.

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