Since Nobody Asked, Here’s My Review of The Odyssey

By Geoff, Home Theatre Specialist

Why Date Nights at the Movies Are Rare in Our House

My wife and I agree on a great many things, but we’re not always on the same page when it comes to entertainment.  I would rather immerse myself in a well-scripted story of struggle, conflict, heroism, redemption, or maybe just some butt-kickin’ action, whereas she tends to lean more toward unscripted television, and while some of that can be a fun diversion, I tend to draw the line at anything that tries to turn marriage into a gossip fest or a game show.

This divergence in our preferences, combined with the fact that we have a pretty well-equipped home theatre, means that it’s pretty rare that we are mutually motivated to go see something in a commercial theatre together and pay the punitive amounts required for basic refreshment.  And don’t even get me started on my rant about how Hollywood has pretty much given up on the idea of imaginative storytelling.  Prior to this week, I think the last time we attended a movie together was Avatar…the first one (Pocahontas in space).

Seeing Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey in Ultra AVX

This week, to celebrate our anniversary, we decided to break with tradition and actually do something together, and since Christopher Nolan’s Odyssey is probably the biggest movie event of the year, we decided to cash in some unused gift cards and check it out.

Our first choice was to go IMAX, but it was unlikely that we’d be able to get decent seats until sometime after Thanksgiving, so we opted for seeing it in Ultra AVX, the next best thing.  (And no, we didn’t do the D-Box thing—While I think it’s cool, I wasn’t sure I’d be up for getting tossed around for 3 hours and her stomach upsets easily).

So, Was The Odyssey Worth the Hype?

Okay, Geoff, enough rambling!  What about the MOVIE!? 

I’m getting there.  I just feel that the context is important.  Remember, I sell high-end home theatre for a living, it takes a lot to impress me, and it’s exceedingly rare that I can get my wife to join me for a movie night out.  All that being said, it was GREAT!

There are lots of people talking about this movie and there are quite a few political hot-button talking points that everyone is focused on.  I’m not here to talk politics (don’t get me started) I’m here to talk about the movie.  It was a lot of fun.

The Screenplay: A Few Beautiful Moments, But Dumbed Down for Modern Audiences

Was it perfect?  No.  I would have been shocked if it was.  Trying to tackle what is arguably one of the most foundational texts in the history of human civilization is a Herculean task and I think that, in trying to make it accessible and relevant to a modern audience, the screenwriter has made the mistake of underestimating the intelligence of the audience.  For a movie like this, a movie that is based on an epic poem, a poem so moving that scholars have studied it for two and a half millennia, I expect the script to be a little more elevated.

Don’t get me wrong, there were moments.  Odysseus’s description of the Siren’s song as well as the scene where he, disguised as a beggar, relates his version of the battle of Troy to Penelope were two points that stood out because of the beauty of the language used.  My only criticism is that they shouldn’t have stood out because the language of the rest of the screenplay should have been just as eloquent.

By “dumbing down” the bulk of the script to make it more “accessible” to a modern audience, it kind of lessens or cheapens the overall impact from where it could have been.  Maybe modern audiences are tired of being spoken down to like we’re children; let us have more of the poetry.

The Visual Spectacle: Christopher Nolan’s Eye for Detail

Now, as far as the spectacle is concerned, all I can say is WOW!  From the wet, cramped interior of that infamous wooden horse to the shifting trees on the Island of Giants and the bleak and desolate flatlands of Hades, Christopher Nolan has a sharp eye for what works.  The encounter with the witch, Circe, when she turns Odysseus’s men into pigs was definitely one of my wife’s favourite scenes. We were both surprised to find ourselves sympathetic towards the Cyclops, although, coming from the director that made Batman’s Joker into a kind of hero, perhaps we shouldn’t have been surprised at all.

A Home Theatre Expert’s Take: When Movie Theatre Sound Gets Too Loud

But here I have one more gripe—and again, this is coming from a guy who sells high end home theatres for a living—my gripe is this:  some of it was actually just too loud.  Realistically, a commercial theatre, being many multiples the size of my HOME, much more so my home theatre, I fully expect when I opt for the Ultra AVX experience that the sound is going to be louder than my wife would ever allow me to play it at home.  Louder, in fact, that 99% of home theatres would even be capable of aspiring to.

But there were a few scenes—the Cyclops, the worst of the storms at sea, and the battle of Troy stand out particularly—where the sound was more punishingly loud than a heavy metal concert.  At one point I was curious enough to pull out my phone and open my sound pressure level meter app to discover that there were sustained periods approaching 110 decibels, and we were seated only 5 rows from the back of the theatre.

I like an impactful cinematic experience as much as the next guy, but if I find myself consulting an app on my phone to see if I’m sustaining permanent hearing damage in comparison to being in proximity to a jack hammer or an ambulance siren, then at that point I have been taken out of the movie experience.  I was actually wishing that I was watching it at home, simply so that I could turn it down a notch—just to the point where my eardrums would stop crackling with distortion.

What This Means for Your Home Theatre Setup

The reason I’m choosing to get on my soap box and complain about this is because what I do professionally is often misunderstood.  A number of times I get the impression that any hesitancy a client of mine (or his wife) might have regarding a new system or new component to upgrade an existing system derives more from a fear that it’s going to be too loud.

People will walk right past a high-end amplifier or a pair of floor standing speakers simply because they think it’s too loud for their needs.  The truth is, the difference between a good system and a great system is often in its ability to render the smallest details with precision and finesse.  So, if my review inspires you to go out to see the Odyssey, great.  If it inspires you to put together a nice home theatre so that you can enjoy a great movie WITHOUT the drawbacks inherent in a commercial theatre, so much the better.

If any of this has you rethinking what it actually means for a good or great home theatre system, come see (and hear) it for yourself. Swing by our demo rooms at K&W Audio and we’ll show you what real detail and dynamics sound like at a volume that won’t send you digging for a decibel meter. No pushy sales pitch, just a good couch and a great scene cued up.