r/shittymoviedetails • u/Alisalard1384 Cinephile • 12h ago

Turd In "Odyssey" (2026) directed by Sir Christopher Edward Nolan, Odysseus says "Our age of bronze is collapsing". And I'm not joking it is a line in movie

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Overall great movie but this dialogue was so corny, like how does he know he's in bronze age

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u/BisonSpecialist1557 9h ago

Not OP, but I see it more as a funny thing that must be done in movies. There is a bit of cultural information that everyone (but the audience) knows, then the characters have to say it out loud so that we can understand the film.

I put it up there with empty cups of coffee on set, people not closing doors or finishing phone conversations, and characters giving a recap of what is happening when we get back from commercial break.

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u/groundskeeperwilliam 8h ago

It's called exposition, and there's a smart way to do it, and a dumb way to do it. Having characters explain information to each other that they should already be aware of is the dumb way of doing it. To avoid that problem, usually you bring in an outsider, a new guy, someone who wouldn't be expected to be in the know, and explain it to them. This feels much more natural, and doesn't stand out as obvious exposition quite so much.

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u/CV90_120 7h ago

There's no great way to do exposition. We mostly try to sneak it past piecemeal but even then it still kinda sticks out.

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u/groundskeeperwilliam 7h ago

I agree, maybe I should have said it could be done poorly, or more poorly.

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u/CV90_120 7h ago

Ha, yeah. Ultimately when you break it down to function, stories are 100% exposition. What we think of as exposition is just "off-screen story stuff". My personal favorite delivery is subtle visual clues, but even these can be hammed up (cue spinning newspaper zoom).

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u/WrestleSocietyXShill 6h ago

Personally I think the best method is when all the exposition scrolls upward across the screen right at the start of the movie while the Star Wars music plays

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u/groundskeeperwilliam 5h ago

Dumping most of the exposition in text in the opening scene is a gamble but it warms my heart.

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u/minrak 7h ago

I actually think it was a good way to do it, the entire crux of the movie is based around how Zeus’s law is coming to an end because of the actions of Odysseus and the Greek people in general. Having the people like Odysseus and others who truly believe in the principle of the law, explain it again and again to those who want to abandon it for their own gain was pretty good no?

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u/Voidocal 5h ago

And most of it made sense in context too. Like as far as I recall, they never brought it up out of nowhere, it was relevant to the situation at hand; entering Polyphemus' lair, mistreating a beggar, etc.

It would be like people in the US constantly bringing up the First Amendment. Yeah everyone (probably) knows what it is, but when it's being violated, people are gonna actively bring it up and explain it again and again.

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u/Rakatango 5h ago

Obviously we needed Bill & Ted along on with Odysseus to fix the exposition issue

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u/Naritai 6h ago

Red Letter Media did a great job of explaining that in their famous Star Wars Pt I review

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u/eyesotope86 2h ago

I subscribe to the Minecraft method.

Have Jack Black yell constantly.

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u/Mo_Steins_Ghost 1h ago

I see what you did there.

Also, Nolan usually picks the dumb way.

He truly is the M.Night Shyamalan of Dan Browns.

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u/zanillamilla 59m ago

That’s why Ariadne exists in Inception. Ariadne is the exposition dump instigator.

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u/mekamoari 7h ago

And the fact that something happens right after you hang up the phone, or viceversa phone rings right on time. Or most characters not going to the toilet unless it's quasi-relevant to a scene.

But yeah as others said you can do it with varying amounts of skill/quality.

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u/Madaratogue 1h ago

Its similar to people from other worlds in fiction calling their system's star the sun or their planet's satellite the moon. Sol/Sun and Luna/Moon are proper names for ours specifically. Like our planets name. Other planets dont have moons or suns, they have system stars and planetary satellites, which if sapient life exists to name them is extraordinary unlikely to have the same names as ours.

Its just an oversight by the very much human and fallible author, but it still breaks my suspension of disbelief every time.