r/movies • u/ChiefLeef22 r/movies Contributor • 4h 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/fs2222 4h ago

This is is just cherypicking to push a narrative. The highest grossing films of the year will be Spiderman, Avengers and Super Mario Galaxy, all CGI-stuffed. And plenty of films made the 'hard way' underperformed. Remember Bone Temple?

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u/FribonFire 4h ago

Beyond that, Odyssey and Project Hail Mary are also packed full of CG. Subtle doesn't mean it's not there in every other scene. 

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u/Baelorn 4h ago

The anti-CGI crowd are telling objective lies about how The Odyssey and PHM "didn't use CGI".

There's a bunch of popular posts going around about how Nolan didn't use CGI for the Cyclops and I have to wonder if the people sharing it and circlejerking about how amazing Nolan is have even seen the movie. Because the Cyclops is 100% CGI. During filming they used a large puppet rig for lighting and reference but the one in the movie is CGI. Not the puppet.

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u/Churba 2h ago edited 2h ago

The anti-CGI crowd are telling objective lies about how The Odyssey and PHM "didn't use CGI".

I mean, that's nothing new. We saw the same thing with both recent Mad Max films(or even worse, complaining one had a bunch of CG, the other had almost none, when in reality they both had about the same amount), we saw it with the barbie movie, we saw it with Top Gun maverick, we see it with the Mission impossible movies.

On top of that, people just don't seem to realize what is and is not CGI, both literally when they see it, and just in concept - Like, they'll say "Oh, but that's just a digital paint-out of some wires/cameras/etc, that's not really CGI", without realizing how difficult that actually is, and how often it can mean rebuilding whole elements of the environment completely digitally. Or they'll look at BTS shots where they actually did shoot a thing, and assume that means that whatever was shot is what ended up on screen(with some editing), when there are times where virtually the entire frame is CGI, and the parts shot on set were used as reference when building the shot digitally.

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u/TheGrandWhatever 1h ago edited 1h ago

I remember this bullshit also being used with Oppenheimer. They used one of the worst visualizations for a nuke I've seen in a movie in a long time. I almost couldn't believe it like I was being pranked when I saw it because of how bad it was.

"BuT NoLaN uSeD REAL pRAcTIcAl EfFeCtS fOr ThE nUkE", yeah and instead of using some CGI or even some archive footage they went with some jank ass sparkle bomb

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u/Churba 1h ago

While I can't speak to the accuracy - I'm not any sort of nuke expert - they walked a fine marketing line on that one. They said, exactly, that they "didn't use any computer generated elements" - which is technically true!

But it's true in the same way top gun maverick "real flying in real jets" was true - the nuclear test shots were built from real filmed elements. They just took those elements, recombined them like building blocks, recoloured some and added some filters to get the final product. It's built from real filmed elements, but saying it's not CGI is some pretty deliberate sophistry.

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u/Zalvren 2h ago

It's always the same, people confuse the practical effects used for reference with the final shot which is often replaced with CGI. Barbie, Top Gun Maverick, Mission Impossible, Fast and Furious, The Odyssey (and other Nolan movies),... They all tout their practical effects in marketing when there are thousands of CGI shots in those movies.

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u/curiousjosh 2h ago

No no it was filmed in space. It’s all real.

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u/hokie_u2 4h ago

Also the Mandalorian uses puppetry instead of CGI for Grogu, which people loved when the TV show originally aired. The movie flopped because it seems stale and unnecessary, not because of CGI

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u/Comic_Book_Reader r/movies Veteran 4h ago

And also the show has at this point just faded into irrelevancy. Had it come out 4 years ago, it would probably be a hit.

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u/CosmackMagus 4h ago

Had they told a big story the movie would have done a lot better.

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u/mike_b_nimble 3h ago

Yes! The movie had decent production value, the story was just….small. It felt like 3 episodes of a TV show. First we had “Adventure to retrieve macguffin” then we had “adventure to use macguffin” then we had “revenge of the macguffin’s owner.”

I’m usually INCREDIBLY forgiving of plot and dialogue in Fantasy/Sci-Fi but this movie was so disappointing.

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u/blueSGL 2h ago

it was the script for the next season of the show cut down and put out as a movie.

Why? Who knows... Why would you make the first Star Wars film in 7 years be an anime "recap movie"

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u/Exile688 4h ago

We could have had Luke Skywalker return to the movie screens in his prime. Instead we got Lizzo and Jack Black cameos from all the KK interference that sucked all the oxygen out of the franchise.

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u/LettucePrime 3h ago

guys for the love of god. KK doesn't interfere. if anything THAT was her problem. she gave the creators unchecked freedom & like 2/3rds of them were George Lucas-branded dumbasses who never should have had that much leeway to begin with. she just gave Star Wars to people and some of them were idiots. now those idiots are in charge & you'll dream of KK coming back

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u/Exile688 2h ago

Nobody associated with George Lucas wanted a Vespa gang in the Book of Boba Fett. John Favreau said no but KK said yes. Luke giving Grogu back was pure interference. Cope and seethe while you wish KK comes back.

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u/CosmackMagus 4h ago

I thought it was a fun adventure for Mando and Grogu, but not a story worth going to the theater for.

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u/OnceMoreAndAgain 3h ago

Yeah, the problem with the Mandalorian is that not enough people find it entertaining. I'm one of those people. I got bored of the show by like episode 4 and I have no interest in the premise of the movie either.

The concept just doesn't land well with me. Could've been the best visual quality movie ever filmed with beautiful cinematography, but that wouldn't matter to me since the concept is uninteresting to me. Guessing the same is true for a lot of people out there. I mean, I like Star Wars and loved Andor, but Mandalorian just ain't it for me.

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u/JSmellerM 1h ago

The Mandalorian and Grogu felt too much like a cash grab that came too late.

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u/rh_underhill 4h ago

Today I learned there was a Mandalorian movie :O

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u/Hayterfan 4h ago

I honestly forgot Bone Temple came out THIS year. Then again right after it came out life hit like a freight train of bricks.

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u/Conscious_Test_7954 4h ago

Also PHM had tons of CGI, I don't know why there's this narrative about movies with tons of CGI are inherently bad.

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u/locoghoul 4h ago

Plus Dune is releasing in Xmas too

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u/raptorlightning 3h ago

I don't know if a movie called "Bone Temple" was ever going to perform well. It's either very 80s or very innuendo, both not great. Titles do matter to get asses in seats.

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u/NamelessGamer_1 3h ago

Bone Temple was awesome, I can't believe no one's talking about it anymore

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u/TheKingOfTCGames 2h ago

Bone temples problem is that none of the other movies were split like that

It like stutter stepped its release with the 28years later without a real cliff hanger?

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u/guesting 4h ago

they're different markets like fine dining and mcds, kids movies are to placate children. the odyssey is trying to prove it's worth spending money on taste

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u/Pyro-Bird 3h ago

Most sequels, reboots and remakes bomb. That's a fact.

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u/lordcheeto 3h ago

The economy sucks. Normal people don't go to the theatre very often.

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u/Zalvren 2h ago

The Odyssey has likely thousands of CGI shots like always with the "no CGI" movie, it's just marketing.

Project Hail Mary has 2018 CGI shots.

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u/gr33nwalker 1h ago

Toy Story 5 should beat Mario, but your point is correct.

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u/Capital-Economy-5655 4h ago

Actually, it will probably be Spiderman, Avengers, and The Odyssey.

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u/vTheCurrentEvent 4h ago

Dune III

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u/BlooregardQKazoo 4h ago

Dune 2 grossed $715 million worldwide. Mario Galaxy has grossed just over $1 billion. Do you really think Dune 3 is going to improve on Dune 2 by 50%?

If anything, I expect Dune 3 to underperform Dune 2. I don't know anyone into those movies, and they have zero place in the zeitgeist. Who are they for?

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u/xNeoNxCyaN 3h ago

Looks over at the avatar franchise