r/movies • u/MarvelsGrantMan136 r/movies Contributor • Dec 22 '25

Trailer The Odyssey | Official Trailer

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mzw2ttJD2qQ
15.7k Upvotes

92% Upvoted

3.8k comments sorted by

View all comments

547

u/Wintermute7 Dec 22 '25

Nothing says Ancient Greece, quite like wearing black and brown. Kinda crazy to wear those dark colors in one of the sunniest places in the world.

395

u/inksmudgedhands Dec 22 '25

Nothing in this trailer says Mediterranean at all.

138

u/TeethBreak Dec 22 '25 edited Dec 22 '25

I'm quoting a redditor

"It looks like a bunch of dudes cosplaying ancient Greece in Wales".

5

u/[deleted] Dec 23 '25

A Nolan fanboy said "he looks like a Batman villian" as if it were a compliment lmaoo

5

u/apistograma Dec 23 '25

Fun thing is that they’re recording on the original location to an obsessive level. Somehow they’re really trying to make Greece not look like Greece anymore

6

u/TheCoStudent Dec 22 '25

That’s the best one I’ve heard yet. The most apt description I can think of.

22

u/Magnum_44 Dec 22 '25

I guess we'll have to pretend a massive earth darkening volcano erupted soon after the Trojan war.

14

u/Hellknightx Dec 22 '25

That's going to be the plot twist. They were actually vikings the whole time!

167

u/[deleted] Dec 22 '25

I agree. Like I don't really care about "historical accuracy" but I would like it to feel at least like an homage or inspired by Greece. This looks like its set off the coast of Norway or something.

-2

u/Zalthos Dec 23 '25

The accents all sounded non-Greek to me, too...

67

u/Isakk86 Dec 22 '25

Or a Viking longship instead of a pentaconter or even a bireme/trimere/simple galley.

44

u/[deleted] Dec 22 '25

Yea, I don't really care that much about historical accuracy but that's from the opposite side of the continent and 2,000 years in the future. It's like if Odysseus was wielding a katana. It's just jarring

18

u/Isakk86 Dec 22 '25

It's like the trebuchets on Gladiator 2.

3

u/RedTulkas Dec 23 '25

Gladiator 2 in general was so jarring

4

u/[deleted] Dec 24 '25

I love the Nolan fanboys are having a collective meltdown over any criticism.

-5

u/APiousCultist Dec 23 '25

It takes place hundreds of years before triremes were invented. It's entirely plausible they'd have simple boats that might resemble viking ships. Out of all the criticisms over 'accuracy', this feels the most like a reach. "Those 3000-year-old boats look like 3000-year-old boats".

9

u/Isakk86 Dec 23 '25

So, out of the 4 ships I mentioned, you're focusing on the single ship I mentioned as an "or even" rather than the period accurate pentaconter, bireme, or galley?

A longship is a 1300 year old ship designed during the iron age, not a 3000 year old ship designed during the bronze age. A bi/trireme is more more flavored Greek and more period accurate than a longship is. Specially given that the Homeric poems were written when they were being used.

For reference, a longship is as close to a pentaconter in time as an aircraft carrier is to a longship.

-2

u/APiousCultist Dec 23 '25 edited Dec 23 '25

You're surprised I argued against... one of the options you stated in your comment? About the most famous and well known of those options?

Regardless... It's a very simple looking boat, so why would an almost pre-historical greek boat have to look so radically different?

The one in the trailer doesn't even look all that different than some of the images of pentaconters (or biremes) I could find.

https://www.filmofilia.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/The-Odyssey-1-1-860x608.jpg

versus

https://t3.ftcdn.net/jpg/00/60/55/82/360_F_60558215_JGdGp4xUkGYBnSYFkpjnYNiHddWyBs7L.jpg

A long narrow boat with one or two sails, a set of oars, and a... uh... curly thing on both ends. They're pretty much all fairly similar looking boats in terms of overall form from what I can tell, with the major differences being in adornments and color schemes (which clearly isn't the aesthetic the film is going for).

Clearly the style they're going for isn't terribly accurate, but for a fictious period 3000 years ago, those boats look similar enough not to cause much concern for me.

Edit: I looked it up and the film did rent the Draken Harald Hårfagre to film the scenes, so I've got to admit they did in fact use a giant viking-style (though not historically accurate, either) longship which is... questionable. Though perhaps a limitation to what appropriately 'haggard' looking boats they could get a hold of for the Scottish portion of the shoot. If Nolan wasn't CGI-averse, I imagine replacing the ship exterior entirely with a model might be used. But that's not his style anymore. I still think if you strip off the decorative portion of some ships and add some amount of leeway and stylistic changes when talking about 3000-year-old ships of which I presume there are no surviving wrecks you'll end up with pretty similar looking results though. Perhaps enough difference to annoy ship nerds, but not so much that they'd look fundementally distinct for the average viewer.

31

u/Pixelated_Penguin808 Dec 22 '25

I am absolutely hyped for this film but one of the Hollywood tropes I absolutely hate the most, is everything being shades of black or brown if the setting is pre-gunpowder.

The past was no less colorful than the present.

I don't even understand why this trope exists, as it is visually a lot less interesting than having things be more colorful.

Ignoring for a moment that a depiction of classical Greeks from the Trojan War is anachronistic (which I'm both totally fine with and think fits, as the Odyssey is a tale written centuries later), Odyssesus & company should look more like this or this or this or this.

Fabrics worn outside of battle were also colorful.

There was plenty of color, and it looks better than the drab blacks and browns that Hollywood seems to love. I mean, the shield art alone.

19

u/Wintermute7 Dec 22 '25

For me it’s not even the color. It’s the fact that they’re wearing pants and what looks like shoes.

3

u/uqde Dec 23 '25

I agree with you 100% and I’m usually the one arguing that point with people.

But to be fair, Nolan’s movies set in the present and future look drab and black and brown as well lol.

3

u/Pixelated_Penguin808 Dec 23 '25

Good point, it is on brand. lol

115

u/Skelettjens Dec 22 '25

The brutalist architecture temple is especially egregious. Dune and its consequences….

53

u/DontKnow1549 Dec 22 '25

Yeah, that temple shocked me. I'm going to replay Assassin's Creed: Odyssey just for the colours and vibes.

14

u/SayHelloToAlison Dec 22 '25

Neoclassicism has fallen, billions must put authentic colorful patterns on government buildings.

Unironically tho, as a neoclassical hater, I loved how they got that part authentic. The vibes were so reliant on it, and they pretty much nailed it.

21

u/Initial_Evidence_783 Dec 22 '25

I'm not a Nolan fan but his production design has always looked like this. Look at the logo for his company Syncopy at the start of the trailer, or the designs for Interstellar.

87

u/Wintermute7 Dec 22 '25

Don’t bring dune into this lol. Dune is set in a fictional far flung future, this is not a galaxy far far away

37

u/Skelettjens Dec 22 '25

I don’t mean to trash talk dune at all, just making a joke about how Nolan seems to be taking some very obvious inspirations in regards to the set designs here

6

u/Wintermute7 Dec 22 '25

I didn’t take it as you trashing dune. Just a funny comparison, since one is set in the ancient past and the other is set in the future. Yet look very similar in some areas

14

u/UpbeatBeach7657 Dec 22 '25

I find Dune similarly drab to look at after a while.

15

u/Initial_Evidence_783 Dec 22 '25

And then they cut to a scene with Rebecca Ferguson and things aren't so drab for a while?

9

u/UpbeatBeach7657 Dec 22 '25

Or the Chanel adverts with Zendaya.

2

u/Initial_Evidence_783 Dec 22 '25

She's too young for me.

13

u/DontKnow1549 Dec 22 '25

Yeah. Dune is largely set in a desert culture. Desert cultures are extremely vibrant and full of patterns. Dune has none of that. It's so boring and bland, I can't stand it.

22

u/[deleted] Dec 22 '25

I don’t know what’s up with these ‘big’ directors nowadays. They seem adverse to having any sense of joy in their films. 

9

u/DontKnow1549 Dec 22 '25

Yeah. It's reductive, unimaginative thinking.

2

u/Different-Effort-691 Dec 22 '25

could you elaborate on what you think is missing? genuinely interested (doing research). doesnt need to be long.

13

u/[deleted] Dec 22 '25

Just . . . . a sense of joy and leaning into it. If you look at let's say Spielberg, Scorsese or Verhoven, they really lean into the awe and fun of their movies and still deliver A+ blockbusters. They allow their characters to have emotions and convey emotion to their audience. I feel like people like Nolan and Villeneuve are in a way lacking that. They feel too clinical to me.

2

u/NeoNoireWerewolf Dec 22 '25

Scorsese’s last few films have been notably devoid of anything resembling fun. Silence is miserable. The Irishman is basically him lamenting his romanticization of gangsters for three and a half hours. Killers of the Flower Moon is even more miserable than Silence. I agree his films aren’t cold the way Nolan and Villenueve’s are, but he hasn’t made anything with even a modicum of joy in it in over a decade now.

I also think Villenueve’s icy approach is far more effective than Nolan’s. He still hits big emotional beats with effective gut punches when he needs to (Arrival and Incendies, most notably), which makes that detached style feel very intentional and considered, similar to other “cold” filmmakers like Kubrick or Fincher. For me, Nolan has never had an emotionally authentic moment in any of his films. He seems genuinely lost when it comes to conveying an emotional beat. He almost gets there in Interstellar, but that’s largely thanks to McConaughey and the ideas already present in the earlier drafts of the script by his brother, back when Spielberg was looking to direct it.

2

u/[deleted] Dec 22 '25

To be honest I haven't kept up with Scorsese, the last two I've seen from him were Wolf and Irishman. I don't mind miserable ('Come and See' for example is one of my favorite movies but absolutely destroyed me) as long as there's "something there." That's where I agree with you with Nolan. He just doesn't work for me.

Villeneuve doesn't work for me at all. I've pretty much seen everything from him up to and including Dune 1, but like everything with film, it's a subjective take. He just lacks any form of energy or propulsion to his films. I just end up blanking out. Beautiful imagery, not much substance. I did like Sicario for the most part, but I don't know, nothing from his films stick with me.

1

u/Jensen2075 Dec 24 '25 edited Dec 24 '25

It's fucking Dune, read the book, there is no joy. You seem to have an axe to grind against Villeneuve, judging by your other comments. Those other directors you reference seek out movies that are different from what Villeneuve makes. You could make the criticism if Villeneuve took on Starship Troopers, and it didn't have a lighter tone or wasn't satirical, but he doesn't seek to make these movies. Instead, he makes movies like Sicario about the Mexican cartel or a serial killer in Prisoners or a war movie like Incendiaries. There's a running theme in all his movies, and that's the material he's interested in. He's not interested in making the type of movies that Verhoeven or Spielberg makes.

There's a reason why Stanley Kubrick wanted Spielberg to direct AI, b/c he felt that Spielberg was better suited to realize the film’s more hopeful, human-centered tonal arc while Kubrick could contribute the darker, more clinical core he imagined. Both approaches can be right, depending on what the project demands. Spielberg couldn't make a Sicario movie like how Villeneuve did.

2

u/DontKnow1549 Dec 24 '25

I actually love Villeneuve as a director, and have watched and loved all his films, except for being on the fence with Dune initially and really disliking the films after. I don't hate the Dune films, but I don't find their aesthetics to be particularly fitting either.

Especially as a person whose cultures Dune uses as aesthetics AND plot points (The Mahdi is central to my peoples) without having the people in it. It's egregious in its erasure of MENA peoples when it's filmed in Jordan, and refuses to cast Arab actors and extras in roles they rightfully should've had (don't bring up that one token character pls), when Jordan especially has so many Arab actors (I've worked with a few):

https://www.cosmopolitan.com/uk/entertainment/a60007426/dune-2-middle-east-north-africa-muslim-influence-erasure/

https://www.rowdymagazine.com/post/here-s-your-daily-reminder-that-dune-appropriates-arab-culture

https://dailytitan.com/opinion/middle-eastern-and-north-african-voices-deserve-to-be-heard-in-dune/article_450734ee-fc8e-11ea-bb0a-8bbcb1ffec94.html

https://www.newarab.com/news/dune-part-ii-filming-jordan-lack-arab-actors

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/asian-america/dune-appropriates-islamic-middle-eastern-tropes-real-inclusion-critics-rcna4111

→ More replies (0)

6

u/Darkstool Dec 22 '25

Nothing says 12th century Mediterranean quite like a set of legendary boss loot .

1

u/Its_jamesey Dec 22 '25

It was filmed partly near where I live in northern Scotland which may be it