u/StBlandine7

Hope our neighbors make a full recovery. Lots of stabbings lately. Maybe Mamdani needs to focus on that instead of fantasies about capturing Netanyahu

Background

I would like to start with a disclaimer that I do not care about the silly dialogue of whether or not this film was "woke." I barely paid attention to it, and I think it's dumb to hate or fawn over this film for pop culture war reasons.

I've been a really big Nolan fan in the past. I'm 39 and in my 20s and early 30s he was unquestionably my favorite director. I tend to favor his original stories over when he's retelling another's, but there are always exceptions. These days I tend to prefer shorter and less overly serious films. The one film of his that really holds up for me is Inception, which still feels like an original masterpiece. (I regard The Dark Knight as a masterpiece as well, but I'm thinking more about his films that aren't based on franchises.)

Review

For me, The Odyssey was OK. Pretty good, but not great. The film felt a bit like "Nolan's greatest hits": many of the themes, visuals, and dialogue felt like a hodgepodge of Batman Begins, The Dark Knight Rises, and Interstellar, among others. For a long time I had hoped Nolan would tackle a Biblical epic, so I was excited when I first heard about The Odyssey. However, for a film about gods, monsters, and magic, this was bleak, gray, and just not that compelling. Having read The Odyssey, I'm aware that the story is not all roses, but there is still a sense of wonder, and ultimately that's what this movie lacked: wonder.

What I did like were the performances of Damon and Holland. Damon was more likable than I expected, particularly in the flashback scenes, although I can't say I really loved the flashback mechanism overall. Holland to me was a real stand out, although he seemed at times like the little boy in TDKR that's hoping for Batman to come back. Better dialogue certainly would have helped. On that, there were times when the dialogue was straight lifted out of other Nolan films. >!When Odysseus was speaking with Penelope at the end, the veiled conversation with Odysseus referring to himself in the third person, "What if he..." was straight lifted from TDKR when Bruce holds a veiled conversation with Gordon in the hospital and also refers to himself in the third person, "What if he doesn't exist anymore..."!< This really took me out of the film and put a cherry on top of what felt like a caricature of Interstellar and TDKR (Is dad/ Batman coming home?) and Batman Begins (certain aspects of the cinematography, flashback scenes, and mentors).

The visuals were pretty good. I liked that were a lot of outdoor daytime scenes and the sea looked beautiful, but I never felt wonder with the cinematography like I did the first time watching Interstellar and Inception. Polyphemus and the scylla were too gray and boring looking, almost B-tier. As far as length, while Oppenheimer to me was long but didn't feel that long, The Odyssey felt long and cramped. I walked out of the theater thinking it would have made much more sense as a limited series. The storytelling felt disjointed, particularly with the flashbacks revolving around Odysseus and Calypso. >! The Sea Peoples reveal you could see coming from a mile away, and lacked emotional impact.!<

In the end, while this film was technically fine and nothing was really "wrong" with it, I just didn't find it that impactful. As it was getting towards the end, I was thinking it was a 5/10, maybe 6. I asked my wife what she thought, and she said 6 or 7/10, so I'll settle in the middle and say that for me, The Odyssey was pretty good, not great, a 6 out of 10. I don't regret seeing it, but I doubt I'll rewatch it, and I think another director surely could have gotten more out of it. Ultimately it felt like Nolan's greatest hits, and not in a good way. I felt like I had seen that movie before, just with different characters. I really don't get everyone trying to make it the best or worst movie ever. Sometimes, movies are just fine. And that's what The Odyssey is to me.

TLDR

The Odyssey felt like a retread of Nolan's other works and was pretty good, not great. 6/10

Much has been made of Vladdy's performance in the first year of his mega contract and how he's not living up to it. In addition to his overall power outage, he has 0 HRs at Rogers Centre, despite 160 PAs at home. Compare this with recently acquired Luis Urías, who has 1 HR at Rogers Centre in only 5 (yes, 5) PAs.

Vladdy is putting up the worst offensive numbers of his career and as of this post is a below-average Major League hitter with an OPS+ of 99.

But what's most interesting to me is that his career production has been noticeably worse at Rogers Centre than anywhere else. It's almost like Rogers Centre has an anti-Coors Field like effect on him. Consider:

• Vladdy's career OPS is .852, but only .811 at Rogers Centre
• His tOPS+ at Rogers is 91
• His career ISO drops from .199 overall to .182 at Rogers

This is really fascinating to me, especially when you consider the Jays committed to 14 years of having him play most his games at a place where he underperforms relative to his career numbers.

It got me thinking, have any other mega/ long-term deals been signed where a player performs worse at his home ballpark? Judge's career OPS is higher at Yankee Stadium and Trout's is better at Angel Stadium than on the road. Beyond the larger question of why the Jays outbid themselves for Vladdy's services, it's really interesting that they seem to have done so despite the metrics saying he wouldn't be playing in his best environment for the majority of the contract.

The Red Bull has struggled in Monaco the last couple years, but I'm curious how people think it will perform this year. Given how the car has changed and its performance profile so far under the new regs, do you think Max has a chance to eke out a pole and/ or compete for victory?

The first F1 race I ever watched was Monaco '21. I woke up that morning (I live in NYC) and it was about to begin. I watched it and was impressed with how Max controlled that race from start to finish, never wavering. From that point on, I was a Max fan, and what a driver to choose. The rest of '21 had me gripped to the end, and that final lap in Abu Dhabi was legendary. 3 more WDC followed and as part of it, the magical heights of '23. Max's second place finish last year was as inspiring as any of his championships. This year of course the struggles have begun to set in, first with the RB22 and now with the mechanical failure in 24H Nürburgring.

Despite this, I remain as impressed and inspired by Max as ever. For him to take on new challenges, and show himself to be the best individual racer of a new category shows his dedication to motorsport and pure talent. That night stint was some of the best stuff I've ever seen, probably the best since that '21 final lap. He's now introduced me to a new form of racing, something I would have never followed if it wasn't for him, something I found even more thrilling than F1. What a great ambassador for the sport he is.

Max, you're the best!

This is big and it's pretty amazing that it came so quick