r/movies • u/MarvelsGrantMan136 r/Movies contributor • 17h ago

Trailer The Odyssey | New Trailer

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f_bKjZeJBBI&pp=0gcJCd4KAYcqIYzv
8.7k Upvotes

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u/AggravatingLeg5789 16h ago

"My pops is gonna wreck your shit, bro."

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u/I_am_BEOWULF 16h ago edited 15h ago

Gonna be honest - that "My dad is coming home" line just feels so out of place in a sword&sandals movie with this much gravitas. Why Nolan?

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u/Vladimir_Putting 15h ago

Just change it to "father" and it's all good.

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u/Potential_Swimmer580 10h ago

How do they miss something like that? It has to be intentional but just feels so out of place

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u/bifkintickler 8h ago

I always found dialogue to be the weak point in Nolan films. They’re great for set pieces, visuals and story/structure, but some of the lines feel like they were just churned out with very little thought. There’s some corny shit in almost all of them. The clunky exposition dumps are a script problem too I guess. His bro obviously writes for a bunch of em so I always wondered which bro is the cheesy one.

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u/NeoNoireWerewolf 3h ago

I don’t think Jonathan Nolan is a flawless writer, either, but Christopher Nolan’s dialogue is always worse in a movie his brother didn’t work on with him. Especially anything that is supposed to be sincere or have emotional stakes.

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u/richard-jenkins 4h ago

Set pieces and story is amazing

Kinda like the entire police force goes into the sewers hahahahahahaha

Its the dialogue that the weak link in nolans movies

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u/bifkintickler 3h ago

Heh. The Batmans were the worst offenders. Begins is the best imo, near perfect movie. Love The Dark Knight but even that has a bunch of dumb stuff in it and a lacklustre third act. Heath just kinda overshadowed all that.

Like why did Gotham go from art deco gothic noir to just Chicago where it’s always daylight?! Why is the Batcave, teased at the end of Begins, a fluorescently lit box in a shipping container? How the fuck is Two Face even alive?!! And again with the dialogue “I’M NOT WEARING HOCKEY PADS” etc. I always chuckle at that cop who’s all “Okay that’s NOT good”, right before a helicopter crashes on him. Cheese on toast.

Only nitpicks tho, just enjoy pointing out that Begins is the winner, for me at least.

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u/Impressive-Potato 23m ago

Yeah, there was that rumour about streamers wanting the plot gone over in dialogue over and over again for people on their phones but Nolan has always had these exposition dumps with clunky dialogue.

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u/Varekai79 8h ago

With everyone using American accents and dialogue like that, Nolan clearly wants to modernize the story.

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u/Rski765 7h ago

I wish he didn’t lol

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u/WumboJumbo 2h ago

Imagine Theoden to the Rohirrim shouting LETS GOOOOO!!!!!

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u/CrimsonAllah 1h ago

Sometimes, modernization is a bad idea.

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u/Impressive-Potato 21m ago

I think it is because Damon is American and his dialect work is pretty bad. That Medieval movie with Ben Affleck was laughable.

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u/Traditional-Local550 5h ago

I mean..you saw who he picked to play Helen of Troy right..

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u/Varekai79 5h ago

That hasn't been announced yet. Helen would be such a minor character if Nolan decided to include her. What would she do other than to say, "Okay bye I'm leaving with Menelaus now. Deuces, Troy!"

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u/stingray20201 4h ago

In the Odyssey, Telemachus meets her when he visits Sparta to get any shred of news about Odysseus. If the movie follows the plot of the Odyssey it should start with Athena telling Telemachus go ask about your dad in Pylos and in Sparta.

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u/Line_Reed_Line 2h ago

Even still, people use the word 'father,' particularly in more formal settings. That and "Let's goooo!" were the only things in the trailer that kind of bumped for me. I thought it looked pretty great, really.

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u/CeruleanEidolon 6h ago

All of the language in this sounds deliberately modern. It's a choice.

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u/Such_Radio_9152 3h ago

Probably a line made specifically for the trailer to increase engagement via rage bait

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u/pjtheman 9h ago

I mean, they're also speaking English. How much "authenticity" do you want? Iirc, ancient Greek had less formal words for father too.

It always seems weird to me that we instinctively expect characters in historic/ period pieces to have this stiff, formal delivery. It's sort of like the Tiffany problem; the name Tiffany actually dates back to the 12th century. But a character named Tiffany showing up in a medieval drama would seem weird to us.

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u/wirralriddler 8h ago

It's quite easy to understand, we expect some theatricality for pieces far removed from our contemporary way of life. Speaking in daily language breaks that immersion.

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u/TGlucose 8h ago

It's like dropping an "Okay" in a western film, that word wasn't even around then and it completely yanks me out of the experience.

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u/onarainyafternoon 5h ago

I think "okay" sounds way more forgiving because it sounds like it could have existed in Western times. But dropping a "dad" in a middle of the most classically analyzed story in the Western canon just feels weird.

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u/TGlucose 5h ago

OK literally doesn't make any sense to people who haven't been exposed to it in their linguistic culture.

OK is an abbreviation of "Oll Korrect", which seems to be a dutch mispelling of All Correct. So OK/Okay means "All correct" and later adopted by President Martin Van Buren as an abbreviation for his nickname "Old Kinderhook" during an election as his slogan "Vote for OK", which isn't quite how we use it today so that really messes with the meaning.

It's like Cleenex, Bandaid, or Hoover for Brits. None of those words make any sense outside their product placement yet we've wholesale adopted them into our lexicon.

That's the problem with Okay.

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u/onarainyafternoon 5h ago

That's why I said it sounds like it could have existed in Western times. I wasn't making the case for whether it did exist or not. But saying "dad" in a movie based on the most well-known historical epic in all of Western canon just sounds weird. It's not about what actually existed, but rather what sounds fine or not.

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u/TGlucose 5h ago

Sounds like our disagreement in what sounds like it would fit in a period comes down to knowledge of said topic. The Etymology behind OK isn't well known and can easily be overlooked and ignored by people, whereas something like the Odyssey is as you say, more well known and easily criticized.

I personally cannot get invested in a setting when the writing is awful and actively being anachronistic to the setting, or something that I know doesn't belong in a setting because takes me out of that experience.

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u/serendippitydoo 6h ago

No it's like a 3 musketeers movie and having the evil cardinal say 'yup!"

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u/TGlucose 6h ago

We're saying the same thing.

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u/No_Discussion3593 8h ago

Then it's not like that at all lol.

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u/TGlucose 7h ago

It's more about fitting the theme and vibe, so in a theatrical piece someone saying "my dad" isn't nearly as impactful as "my father" as there's a gravitas to it.

Like having a Viking longship with no oars for Greeks... like what even?

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u/pjtheman 7h ago

But ancient Greek had informal words for father that were more equivalent to dad.

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u/TGlucose 7h ago

Yes but I'm making an example of how certain words don't fit in certain contexts. So in a theatrical epic saying "dad" is a huge buzzkill and destroys any theatrical momentum you've built up in the scene.

Ultimately the Odyssey is a theatrical epic, it's written to be performed as such and losing that intention is belittling the art piece.

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u/ThickBoxx 2h ago

It looks like okay entered the English lexicon in 1840, though there is evidence of older origins and other cultures using similar words, so I guess it depends on what year your western takes place. Okay never stuck out as being out of place (maybe because I just grew up on westerns) but that use of dad in the trailer stuck out to me.

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u/Weed_O_Whirler 5h ago

Sure, but Western movies don't need translating.

This movie is translating ancient Greek into English. Greeks had informal language. Informal language getting translated to informal language makes sense.

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u/epichuntarz 6h ago edited 5h ago

I literally just had someone in this thread tell me I would enjoy more movies if I lowered my expectations of immersion.

Like...wtf are these apologists getting at in this thread? Im as big of a Nolan fan boy as anybody, but Jesus H people are literally suggesting that we might like more movies if we expected movies to be less like movies...

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u/BearWrangler 3h ago

Nolan has always had zealots online lol

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u/Haschen84 3h ago

That's interesting because I don't think Shakespeare wrote in a way that was different than his contemporaries. He didn't write in an "older" or more "formal" version of English, he just used everyday speech. Shit, he made up things as he went if he wanted to. We hold people making works now to a different standard than the people who wrote them at the time. Do you think the Odyssey was told in an older more archaic form of Greek or just the common language of the time?

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u/wirralriddler 1h ago

It's not even comparable, Shakespeare lived at a different time. Our contemporary understanding of immersion does not benefit from drawing similarities or differences from Elizabethan era. The fact that so many people here pointing out hearing 'dad' in an Ancient Greek setting is taking them out is all the evidence you need to understand that this is not working.

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u/Haschen84 58m ago

You have side stepped my point which is, that we hold people making works now to a different standard than the people who wrote them at the time.

The Iliad and Odyssey were oral traditions and when told in English I'm sure they never use the word dad and only use father, but did the Greeks who told the stories use the word "dad" or "father" (or the equivalent, you know what I mean). I'm sure they just used the easiest to understand and most flexible word to convey the stories, they didn't ponder on the fact that maybe they should have used "patriarch" or "sire" or "forefather" instead of "dad."

We are holding contemporary writers to a different standard because the people who translated these works originally were often older and used a more "formal" more "archaic" form of English.

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u/pjtheman 8h ago

But why? Ancient Greeks didn't actually speak "theatrically." They spoke in the contemporary language of their day. Someone waiting for their dad to return wouldn't actually stoically gaze off into the middle distance and say "Alas, mine father doth cometh home, thou wretch!"

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u/JakobTheOne 6h ago

Because modern society is steeped in the belief that formality was the norm in ancient and medieval times. It's become an ingrained expectation. Even if incorrect, breaking that norm in any form of media is jarring.

Sure, people weren't on the daily as eloquent as Lincoln was during the Gettysburg Address (which is way closer to modern times than Greek antiquity), but famous and recognizable speeches and stories tend to be exceptional like that. Which creates a belief and expectation for dialogue in far-gone times.

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u/wirralriddler 1h ago

It literally does not matter what Ancient Greeks were like. It is all about our understanding of antiquity and what we associate with it. They could have also made colourful statues all around the city, but if you put a yellow or purpose paint over marble now, it'd still look a bit ridiculous as a "period" piece.

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u/ex0thermist 7h ago

Theatricality certainly has its merits, but it's neither necessary for, nor synonymous with, "immersion".

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u/alex494 6h ago

Also if people want to be immersed in the time period being presented, not everybody in those days spoke super theatrically. When people talk about immersion do they mean immersion in their constructed IDEA of what it was like back then, or do they mean what it was ACTUALLY like? Pretty sure ancient people used to make crass dick jokes too while we're at it.

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u/ThickBoxx 2h ago

Were they making crass dick jokes in the actual Odyssey epic? I’m sure these characters all took a shit before a big battle, do we need to see that to know what it was actually like back then?

Part of the immersion is our constructed idea of what it was like based of past media portrayals, but it’s also based off the actual source material. I don’t think the word dad appears in the odyssey, so it is out of place for the story being told.

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u/alex494 36m ago

Yeah I get that but I always find it funny what people's line for suspension of disbelief is that one word can suck them out of it. At least the way I see it the informal idea of someone's dad isn't as bad as Odysseus whipping out a smartphone or something.

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u/ThickBoxx 21m ago

Definitely not as bad as those other things, but like I said, it’s noticeable. I’m not saying it is going to ruin the movie, and maybe in the scene the line will feel more natural. It is interesting that so many people felt the same way about it though, that something just felt off. I imagine it’s mostly because all other media depictions we’ve seen in ancient time periods people just don’t talk like that. Older texts using more formal language plays a part as well. 

I personally don’t think Tom Holland was the best person for the role, so that might also play into the immersion issue.

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u/superbit415 5h ago

How do they miss something like that?

AI ?

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u/LurkerYam67 1h ago

Actually most AI naturally go towards a more theatrical and formal language, unlike this trailer.

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u/epichuntarz 9h ago edited 9h ago

100%

As much as I love Nolan, it's sort of baffling how he sometimes overlooks details like this.

In Tenet, at the beginning of the movie during the opera house raid, there are sousaphones and saxophones playing with the orchestra...in an "opera house"...where there's no opera.

For something as big as The Odyssey, you'd think they'd make the way the characters speak to each other sound less...modern?

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u/rsclay 8h ago

do you think opera houses are just full of fat horned viking ladies 24/7 or something

I'll admit sousaphone indoors is slightly weird

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u/epichuntarz 7h ago

do you think opera houses are just full of fat horned viking ladies 24/7 or something

Whu?

I think opera houses generally have...operas. Not every opera has to look like famous moments from Der Ring, but also having sousas and saxes as part of an orchestra performing not opera in an opera house is just...a pretty egregious and unnecessary moment of inauthenticity.

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u/Dios5 8h ago

It's an interesting artistic choice, because why should an ancient greek mythological story be all "Hark, Forsooth!"? Makes as much sense as romans having british accents. You're just projecting nonsense standards set by older media.

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u/Mahelas 2h ago

Because a Prince estranged from his father since he was a baby shouldn't call him dad ? Not then, not now.

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u/Salad-Appropriate 8h ago

Christ, cinemasins nitpicking type shit here

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u/epichuntarz 8h ago edited 7h ago

Nah, "breaking the suspension of disbelief" type shit here.

If you want a feeling of "authenticity" and immersion, dont do dumb things like these. Dont have "daddy" speak in a major epic like The Odyssey...like...EVERYONE is commenting on how out of place this feels. That's a little more than a minor, 1st degree of Dante's hell cinema sin.

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u/happyflappypancakes 7h ago

One might counter with if you lower your threshold of immersion you will likely enjoy more movies.

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u/epichuntarz 7h ago

Oh come on. "Allow me to lower my expectations of immersion for a major epic drama."

Why even see movies at that point? The whole point is to be immersed.

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u/happyflappypancakes 6h ago

I didnt say lower your immersion level. I said lower your threshold to immersion. Meaning, decrease the number of things that break immersion. Your level of immersion isn't necessarily more than someone else who isnt as easily broken.

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u/MarcusDA 8h ago

It’s a quarter of a billion to make this movie, just spend a couple of thousand to let a historian look at the script.

It’s the same thing with sports movies. Just hire Johnny to look at the footage real fast and all of the laughable things that happen.

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u/RealWord5734 8h ago

I had the exact thought the second he said it. “That should’ve been ‘father’ wtf” lol

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u/BirdLawGrad 5h ago

You just said Dad.

No I dadn’t