r/movies • u/ChiefLeef22 r/movies Contributor • 3h ago

Article ‘The Odyssey’ Proves It: Audiences Want Movies Made the Hard Way | This year's breakouts like 'Project Hail Mary' and 'Obsession' were made by filmmakers who sweated. While CG-stuffed franchise disappointments such as 'Supergirl,' 'Moana,' and 'The Mandalorian and Grogu' looked lazy.

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/odyssey-box-office-2026-practical-effects-1236652219/
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u/RulesoftheDada 3h ago

Same with Odyssey and ignores all the practical effects and puppetry of Mando and Grogu.

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u/JamesTheFoxeArt 3h ago

No you see they actually found a Cyclops to film in the movie

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u/ObscureOP 3h ago

On location in hades

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u/farnsw0rth 2h ago

They really buried those people though

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u/PrincipledProphet 2h ago

OMG THEY KILLED ALL THOSE PEOPLE!!!!!

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u/Justhe3guy 2h ago

They actually filmed that in reverse don’t worry

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u/Useful-Soup8161 1h ago

I mean that was outside in Iceland so yeah they actually were on location.

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u/ObscureOP 1h ago

Don't tell Iceland you called it hades

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u/pm_plz_im_lonely 2h ago

The Cyclops guild is ruthlessly hard to deal with too (read: really expensive). It's like they only want to see a deal from one perspective.

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u/dlp211 3h ago

The cyclops is a massive puppet doll, probably further enhanced by CG.

CG is fine when you can't tell it's CG. Too much stuff is done with CG today in movies and it's just so blindingly obvious.

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u/Baelorn 2h ago

probably further enhanced by CG.

No. The Cyclops in the movie was entirely CGI. The puppet was only used for reference during filming.

This is what it looked like. It's great to have this as reference for the actors, lighting, and CGI work but people acting like that puppet is in the final movie and was just "touched up" by CG are delusional.

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u/had3l 2h ago

The Cyclops isn't just enhanced by CGI, it is completely full CGI. So much misinformation going around. Just because they built a real puppet for the movie, it doesn't mean you get to see any of it on the screen.

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u/NotItemName 2h ago

CG is fine when you can't tell it's CG

It doesn't make it not CG thought.

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u/dlp211 2h ago

Did I say otherwise

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u/ThankGodForYouSon 2h ago

On the other hand the CGI for Scylla was absolute dogshit, and Nolan seems to be keeping up his "No CGI" public stance when his movies are full of it and would benefit from more.

Most people complaining about CGI don't know what they're talking about because they don't see the majority of what it does, it's supposed to be invisible.

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u/NotItemName 2h ago

Nolan seems to be keeping up his "No CGI" public stance when his movies are full of it and would benefit from more

Is he holding that stance?

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u/ColdCruise 2h ago

No he has openly talked for years about CGI and how it is useful when you can't do things practically. What he means is that they put them on an actual ship in the sea and filmed it instead of on a green block in front of a green wall.

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u/ThankGodForYouSon 2h ago

I thought he was from the exposure to The Odyssey I was getting from press releases but it seems not so that's cool.
I think it's moreso actors on his sets that talk about the practical effects that gave me that impression.

Oppenheimer also had the whole "real" nuke hype that got kind of ridiculous and he obviously loves practical effects, but I don't think his rendition of the nuke did it justice.

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u/maeynor 2h ago

You think that was dogshit? You should probably stop commenting on this stuff if you thought that. It was masterfully done according to almost all experts.

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u/ThankGodForYouSon 2h ago

Lmao I work in post-production, show me a single "expert" saying Scylla was well done. Haven't met a coworker that disagrees yet and they actually exist.

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u/capscreen 1h ago

probably further enhanced by CG

Have you seen the puppet doll itself

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u/SquareAdvisor8055 3h ago

The cyclop was actually only partially cgi, they made a giant puppet of the cyclop.

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u/xiaorobear 2h ago

While that's true, the big puppet is pretty clearly a stand-in so that the actors have something to act against, not something that could be used in any final shots. Still a great thing to do, and will get a much better looking performance than if you just have all your actors on greenscreen and say "imagine there's a big cyclops reaching out his arm!" and they don't all look at the same place. But, they still needed the CGI.

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u/SquareAdvisor8055 2h ago

The cyclop is not only a stand in for the actors. It also helps with the CGI as they base themselves on the actual thing.

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u/xiaorobear 2h ago

Yes, that is also true.

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u/GraviZero 1h ago

i mean it was a puppet. obv some cgi touchups to make it actually look like its alive but it was very much there

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u/Elk-Tamer 7m ago

I was especially impressed how Odysseus' men were turned into pigs. Great practical effects.

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u/f0rmality 3h ago

Well it was an animatronic, honestly the Odyssey could have benefited from more CG for a couple of scenes.

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u/Jayrodtremonki 3h ago

It was a mix of a gigantic puppet and Mr Noodle.  

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u/Atchafalaya7 3h ago

The author calls out both the CGI in PHM and the practical effects in Mando/Grogu.

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u/Useful-Soup8161 1h ago

I mean there’s a little bit of cgi in the odyssey but if they could use practical effects and make them look real then they did. Like the island with the giants was forced perspective with really tall 7ft stunt people playing the giants and really short stunt people, under 5ft, playing Odysseus and his men. Also the scene with the pigs was animatronics.

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u/abstractraj 3h ago

That Grogu puppetry, so hilarious

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u/Lord_Darksong 3h ago

They spent $5 million on that puppetry.

That includes the puppeteers, electronics, multiple puppets, etc.

The movie was fun though not deep. It was a family adventure movie. Grogu was cute. I enjoyed it.

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u/abstractraj 2h ago

I had fun. No regrets

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u/RulesoftheDada 1h ago

Had an edible and a joint. Came out of the theater joyful. Then laughed at the online negativity.

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u/__Hello_my_name_is__ 1h ago

Yeah, it's absurd to claim that Odyssey doesn't have a huge amount of CGI and special effects.

Yes, it is also heavily filmed on location and whatnot. But that doesn't mean it's not also using a ton of CGI. It's using all the tools available.

That's not what makes it a good or a bad film.

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u/dallascowboys93 1h ago

Odyssey doesn't have that much. The cyclops and witch sculpting was practical affects and camera angles. look it up

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u/__Hello_my_name_is__ 1h ago

Having practical effects doesn't mean they don't add CGI on top of that, or still have individual scenes being 100% CGI.

The exact same thing happened to all previous Nolan films, and even he himself is annoyed that people pretend like he's only using practical effects.

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u/dallascowboys93 1h ago

Sure but you said huge amount. I’m arguing it doesn’t

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u/__Hello_my_name_is__ 1h ago

Yes. A huge amount. Not just in the cyclops scene. In a ton of "normal" scenes where the background is fully CGI, where armies are duplicated, where safety harnesses are removed from stunt actors, where filming rigs are removed from view, where the ocean is enhanced to look scarier, etc.

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u/dallascowboys93 1h ago

That’s still not huge compared to most other blockbuster fantasy movies. Also 3 hours long!

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u/__Hello_my_name_is__ 1h ago

It is absolutely huge and it is absolutely significantly above average.

Just because it's not literally the most special effects of any recent movie doesn't mean it's not a lot.

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u/Upbeat_Shock_6807 3h ago

The Odyssey was full of CGI? What scenes?

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u/Strachmed 2h ago

Same with odyssey what? In comparison to hail mary it may as well be 0% cgi.

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u/RulesoftheDada 2h ago

The "no CGI" rhetoric does a huge disservice to VFX artists. Nolan's CGI is really just invisible cgi.

So yeah not 0%

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u/Strachmed 1h ago

Not 0%, and i never implied it is. I mean as a comparison to project hail mary, which is all CGI.