The Odyssey

"Why can't gods speak in ways we understand?" Having won the Trojan war, King Odysseus (Matt Damon) goes on a voyage of several years to get home. Back home in Ithaca, his wife (Anne Hathaway) begins to think he has gone missing and has to fend off numerous potential suitors. When did good old 35mm stop being enough for film? I’ve never liked the aspect ratio changes with IMAX, so on paper it’s cool to see a project that uses it all the way through. What strikes me however is that the cost and risk and effort is not worth the reward. There are several occasions where you can feel that the size of the camera and the difficulty moving it is a hindrance. Scenes of dialogue and exposition are a bit of a drag in this film, and one has to wonder if it’s just a fundamental weakness of the medium. It’s a shame because it kills the pace a bit in what is an otherwise astonishing spectacle. You’ve probably heard it’s all practical effects and real boats and real monsters, well all that stuff…