Red Mosquito

https://deadline.com/2026/07/the-odysse ... 236975274/

Early reactions dropped Monday, and while these are always to be taken with a grain of salt, the superlatives are flying from the keyboards of fanboys and film critics alike.

Los Angeles Times film editor Joshua Rothkopf calls the film “staggering. Earthy, ghostly, weighty, touched by humor and grandeur alike. It’s pure cinema.” And, for those in the cheap seats — as if there were any in Imax theaters — he adds, that the film is “a return home to the robustly entertaining action movies that cinema was invented to tell.”

Guardian film critic Peter Bradshaw writes, “Christopher Nolan’s Odyssey is a colossal origin-myth story of postwar disillusion and a loss of innocence.”

Indiewire’s Anne Thompson assessed the film’s awards chances, including those for Best Picture: “Matt Damon could win Best Actor and a bevy of supporting thesps and noms will follow. The BP to beat.”

That site’s chief film critic, David Erlich, was not as sanguine, calling it “less despairing” than Oppenheimer, but “too clunky to be S-tier Nolan, but the last act rewards the

BurtReynolds wrote: Thu July 09, 2026 1:23 pm

spike wrote: Thu July 09, 2026 1:14 pm Would love to get Burt’s take on The Wiz.

It's fine. Michael Jackson transcends race.

What about the other blacks in the cast?

Anders wrote: Fri July 10, 2026 7:10 am touched by humor

spike wrote: Fri July 10, 2026 8:41 am

BurtReynolds wrote: Thu July 09, 2026 1:23 pm

spike wrote: Thu July 09, 2026 1:14 pm Would love to get Burt’s take on The Wiz.

It's fine. Michael Jackson transcends race.

What about the other blacks in the cast?

It’s worrying that everyone seems to be in love with what was most likely a very active pedo, or at the very least someone with very disturbing relations to kids.

I know you are joking with your q, but being black is wonderful though. We should celebrate all peoples and all colors. One human race.

spike wrote: Fri July 10, 2026 8:41 am

BurtReynolds wrote: Thu July 09, 2026 1:23 pm

spike wrote: Thu July 09, 2026 1:14 pm Would love to get Burt’s take on The Wiz.

It's fine. Michael Jackson transcends race.

What about the other blacks in the cast?

I'll have to go back and watch it again to determine if they are suitably black enough or too black.

Again, you're inadvertantly proving my point. Back in the day (when filmmakers knew what they were doing) they had the sense to alter the context to justify different characters. They didn't just virtue signal and lazily race swap characters, pretend it didn't change anything, and cynically assume the audience was too lacking in taste and discernment to care.

Plus, it's more high fantasy and set in a more modern time period, so, again, what race they are doesn't matter that much in that case. But good for them for using it to make something new anyway.

So it’d be fine if everyone in The Odyssey cast was black? Maybe rebrand as Godz in the Hood as well.

If the context were changed so that it made sense, yeah. There's been like a billion movies based on the Odyssey where the setting was changed to suit different characters and make something new. A name change would be wise, too.

If this is solely about historical accuracy, I got bad news for you that cyclopses aren’t real.

Cultural and mythological history is history as well, as the proven human lived history. Same with media history.

spike wrote: Fri July 10, 2026 10:56 am If this is solely about historical accuracy, I got bad news for you that cyclopses aren’t real.

Again, it's not about accuracy (see page 10) as you're thinking about it.

Why are so many people getting hung up on the cyclopses ? lol. Yes I know they aren't real.

epilogue wrote: Thu July 09, 2026 10:51 pmWho among us wouldn't love to see Idris Elba play King Arthur?!

Obviously, Burt. Pay attention.

Honestly, I have a much harder time buying Matt Damon as Greek legend Odysseus than I do Zendaya as Athena or Lupita Nyong'o as Helen of Troy. I’m actually a big Damon fan but Odysseus just seems too grandiose.

That's actually why Damon works for me. I've always thought of Odysseus less as a larger-than-life legend and more as an everyman soldier who survives through intelligence, grit, and persistence rather than sheer heroics.

wease wrote: Fri July 10, 2026 2:43 pm

epilogue wrote: Thu July 09, 2026 10:51 pmWho among us wouldn't love to see Idris Elba play King Arthur?!

Obviously, Burt. Pay attention.

I would have a problem but just because its Elba and he is basically on pilot mode these days. Or maybe ever? weird career that guy

tree_ wrote: Fri July 10, 2026 3:01 pm That's actually why Damon works for me. I've always thought of Odysseus less as a larger-than-life legend and more as an everyman soldier who survives through intelligence, grit, and persistence rather than sheer heroics.

you are correct

Oh God, Anne Hathaway is in this too? I don't know how much more of this I can take.

BurtReynolds wrote: Fri July 10, 2026 4:00 pm Oh God, Anne Hathaway is in this too? I don't know how much more of this I can take.

Why are you surprised? It is a Nolan movie. Pattinson, Damon, Hathaway are all in other Nolan movies. Some more than one! Also, Bill Irwin is playing the cyclops, and he was the voice of TARS in Interstellar.

I hope it's not too late to squeeze in Jack Black and The Rock.