The Liberal Agenda – ODYSSEY 3.5 stars review
So I saw it on Imax because if you are even going to consider leaving the house these days, it’s for an ‘experience’.
At my age, my cynicism is so terminal that effort demands uniqueness of experience.
So off to the insect infested IMAX cinema it is.
Jesus wept it’s horrific.
Not the movie.
The IMAX Theatre.
You know how coral reefs look when they die off?
This is worse.
All of the retail shops are dead. There’s a decrepit arcade and cheap mini golf that is gasp inducingly expensive, but other than IMAX and the cinemas, this once majestic jewel in the crown of futuristic 1990s Auckland, (built upon the bones of Planet Hollywood Franchise No. 365), is as wrecked as Queen Street still locked down by City Rail Link construction.
IMAX is only slightly less depressing than the bleak freezing homeless sleeping outside.
This Odyssey review is becoming an Odyssey.
Ok.
It’s a good movie. Go see it at IMAX or any other similar big screen experience.
I like Nolan.
I like the unvarnished humanism of his work.
He’s a great story teller and that is what is happening here.
The first SuperHero Film of them all.
Part 2 in the Series and some say the best.
The Odyssey is Empire Strikes Back with less lightsabers.
It has all the classic moments we know and love from Homer. The Cyclops, The Sirens, Circe, pissed off Poseidon, furious Apollo, Lotus Island Blues and then the greatest violence for single scene ending that was ever created.
It’s Kill Bill 1 and 2 death count squeezed into 20 minutes at the end
It has it all.
But it’s just good.
It’s not incredible or amazing or earth shattering.
It’s just bloody good telling of one of the first stories from an expert story teller.
Homer is Shakespeare before Shakespeare.
Nolan’s devotion to realism does have some set backs.
His refusal to use any CGI is adorbes but for quarter of a Billion I’m looking for a Cyclops I can believe, not the weird puppet thing they ended up using.
The only special effect worse than the Cyclops was the youth version of Elliot Page. Come. On. Suspending belief doesn’t reach that far.
I’m going to politely ignore Scylla and Charybdis.
Odysseus pays the price for breaking the rules of the Gods when he butchers the City of Troy and sparks the greatest PTSD Journey of all time.
War. What is it good for?
A very long road home.
Odysseus represents human intellect and even though us smart monkeys can come up with clever ways to murder one another, if the guardrails the Gods build into place get breached by a clever clogs, you goin’ git some.
Don’t be a smart arse is basically the message here.
I think it’s a good film but it is an IMPORTANT movie.
ANYTHING that can make Americans appreciate they didn’t invent narrative, ethics or democracy, is a really good thing right now.
If it makes one Trucker with a Red Cap a little more reflective, that’s a win.
3 and a half stars
I love film. I’m a photographer, amongst other things and I use the word ‘things’ advisedly. I’ve worked in TV advertising mostly but also in film for over twenty years now and have been lucky to have met some great film people so yes. Not just a dumb fuckin’ redneck cockie. I’ve met some fabulous filmo’s over the years including some great directors. I’ve met and worked with Margo Robbie who loved my dog. I’ve met Chiwetel Ejiofor who also adored my dog but not at the same time. That, would be fruity. I have my boundaries. Ba ha! I met and have worked with Chris Pine too and a lovely fellow he is. I’ve met and worked with Roger Donaldson the director of The Fastest Indian and prior to that I’d met, by sheer coincidence, the original Burt Munro as a kid in Invercargill. I’ve met and worked with Craig Zobel the director of Z for Zachariah who’s far too brilliant for the grunting, squeaking ‘merican hoi polloi. I met and travelled with lovely old Ian Mune and what a fellow he is. Gentle, intelligent and kind. A bloody joy to be around.
I do feel as though I’ve travelled up and over the very crest of a great AO/NZ age and now I , again feel, indeed I know, we’re being dragged down into a duller, darker, dreary age all together and my advice is for us human, humans to be extremely vigilant for the Dull-Farts. They’re out there man.
As the Gin seeps in I might as well carry on. I’ve also met and got to know the band members of U2. Bono said hello to me with a smile in a friendly manner. Edge and his partner were very elegant and professional as I drove them here and there. Adam Clayton was a lovely fellow too but I never got to meet Larry or if I did I don’t remember and why that is shall remain a secret. Mainly because I can’t remember.
I’ve also met Joe Strummer of The Clash and that’s all I can tell you without finding you and murdering you in case you take that further. ( RIP Joe ) .I also took photographs of a fabulous fellow called Screamin’ Jay Hawkins. He turned up in Christchurch once and me being an adoring fan of his ever since I watched ‘ Night on Earth’ by Jim Jarmusch I was there with my camera and a huge flash pack wearing brothel creeper shoes, stove pipe black satin pants and a fabulous floral *take-me-home-and-fuck-me jacket. I eventually noticed through the haze that everyone else at the venue was dressed entirely in black. Except Screamin Jay who had a bone through his nose and wore a fantastic faux crocodile skin suit ( I think it was faux. One can never know. ) A few years later I met Janet Jackson. She was adorable. A tiny wee thing with a beautiful smile. Here’s another thing. I’m highly thing’d . When art expires, we expire. We, humans all, are art. We, are art. Art, is us. When we cease to be ‘art’. We will cease to be. You’ve been warned. Don’t fuck it up! Resist those aliens who think that ‘life’ is about the acquisition of spending money. Having money to spend is merely a bridge to groceries. A convenience. The obsession to which is merely a measure of just how fucked things have become. The populations of those most wretched to be witnessed in their most vulnerable states is a frisson for the Predators. Oh! One last request. Watch anything by Jim Jarmusch. My favourite film of all time, thus far, is Stranger than Paradise. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stranger_Than_Paradise
* ‘Take me home and fuck me’ was a phrase used by a dear friend who climbed Mount Everest without oxygen. That person didn’t take me anywhere or do anything to me and remains a dear friend. It was a turn of phrase. The rest of the story is true and correct.
Good to see you getting out a bit more.
Lol nice review