‘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.

[u/ChiefLeef22]

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/odyssey-box-office-2026-practical-effects-1236652219/

[u/dwide_k_shrude]

Yeah this article is stupid.

[u/sundler → u/dwide_k_shrude]

It's also very insulting to all the artists who make those computer graphics. As if they don't work just as hard.

[u/fascfoo → u/sundler]

Yup. This just pushes this CGI bad narrative when its BAD CGI thats bad. Great CGI is basically invisible. Now well just have more filmmakers essentially lying by saying they're doing everything "in camera" in promo material.

[u/f0xD3N → u/fascfoo]

Not to mention PHM and The Odyssey both feature tons of CGI

[u/pm_plz_im_lonely → u/fascfoo]

The discussion surrounding CGI and oners is risible.

People google "oner" and "cgi" for 2 minutes, then larp this gatekeep is their personal standard while rejecting all the footnotes. Then, film promotion deliberately feeds into this amazing taste bar, as a form of collective industry gaslighting.

[u/Worthyness → u/fascfoo]

Great cgi can also be visible. The dinos in jurassic Park, Thanos and Davy Jones as performance capture entities. Godzilla and his modern takes. Everyone knows they're cgi, but that isn't a bad thing.

[u/bloodychill → u/sundler]

What’s way more insulting to visual effects artists and incredibly lazy is the push by some studios and big tech stakeholders for AI-generated effects.

[u/respected_prophet → u/sundler]

Call me crazy but I don’t think plugging in green screen backgrounds on Moana is as hard as shooting 40 people on a boat in the actual water

Edit: just want every whining person who downvoted this to look me in the eye and tell me The Rock standing in front of an incredibly fake golden hour sky looks good. Please.

[u/PRSArchon → u/respected_prophet]

You pretend like the odyssey doesnt use CGI, Nolan uses a TON of cgi in most of his movies (except Oppenheimer).

[u/Churba → u/PRSArchon]

Even in Oppenheimer, he used a bunch of digital VFX(which most people call CGI), they just tried to use and manipulate shot elements where possible, but then taking those shot elements and using digital effects to put them in the film, or make them work. Sure, he's not using any wholly generated elements, but there's a number of things that are the cinematographic equivalent of building an image in photoshop by taking bits and peices of real photos to put it together.

He's got a long working relationship with DNEG, who he's been working with as his primary VFX studio since Batman Begins, and they do incredible work.

[u/dragonmp93 → u/respected_prophet]

So Nolan actually found a Cyclops monster to film ?

[u/kattahn → u/dragonmp93]

No but they did build a 60' puppet ...

https://nofilmschool.com/the-odyssey-practical-effects

[u/dragonmp93 → u/kattahn]

Well, it's a 60' doll to give the actors some reference, but it looks nothing like the Cyclops.

Also the article is claiming that Scylla's whirlpool was made with jet skis going on circles.

[u/blueSGL → u/dragonmp93]

So they needed to edit out the jet skis... I bet that was all done by hand not a computer in sight.

And jet skis would leave a wake but not the central dip... hmm maybe they did use some CGI here...

[u/respected_prophet → u/dragonmp93]

My point is that one movie is shooting on location with massive crews and the others are actors on fake backgrounds.
It’s the same reason any B-movie from the 70’s-90’s looks wayyyy better than most of the movies today.

I am aware there is CGI in the Odyssey.

[u/ringwraithfish → u/dwide_k_shrude]

The fact they included "The Mandalorian and Grogu" at the same level of "CGI-stuffed" movies like Supergirl and Moana tells me it's a worthless article.

Putting opinions of the movie aside, The Mandalorian and Grogu were heavy in practical effects.

[u/Worthyness → u/ringwraithfish]

And say what you want about the state of star wars, but their vfx work is fucking immaculate every time. Even in rise of Skywalker the vfx work is incredible.

[u/yes_ur_wrong → u/dwide_k_shrude]

yeah are we just upvoting anything that says Odyssey good?

[u/dragonmp93 → u/yes_ur_wrong]

The article is 1 hour old and it has 12k upvotes.

So yes.

[u/yes_ur_wrong → u/dragonmp93]

i'm pretty sure its just boosted as part of the marketing for the movie.

[u/KalaUposatha → u/dwide_k_shrude]

What movie is not made with “sweat”? Like, even the worst movie ever made required a shitton of effort. Movies don’t just pop into existence.

[u/dragonmp93 → u/KalaUposatha]

I have always wondered if the anti-CGI crowd wants Hollywood to go back to the era of Orson Welles ending with severe sciatica pain after filming the sewer sequence from the third man.

[u/N8CCRG → u/dwide_k_shrude]

Also, PHM had lots of CG too. They sure as hell didn't fly a spaceship to other planets. And I haven't seen The Odyssey yet, but I'm pretty sure they didn't row a boat into a real whirlpool with a real sea monster.

How much CG is in a movie these days is a continuous sliding scale, not an on/off switch.

[u/LuinAelin → u/N8CCRG]

The whole less CGI is pretty much marketing speech now as well

[u/Carvj94 → u/N8CCRG]

And for Project Hail Mary the scene is when he's in the glittering Petrova lit area over Adrien is fuckin gorgeous.

[u/dragonmp93 → u/dwide_k_shrude]

According to this article, Nolan actually found a 10 foot tall Cyclops monster and gave it a job.

[u/_Eggs_ → u/dwide_k_shrude]

"The Odyssey made a lot of money. Now listen to my completely unrelated conclusions about what audiences want."

Audiences in 2026 are sending a clear message to filmmakers: We want movies to look real — and for you to sweat while making them.

Audiences in 2026 are sending a clear message to the world: we want all movies to be filmed on water - and for you to wear funny hats while filming them.

[u/jackofslayers → u/dwide_k_shrude]

Basically every article from the Hollywood Reporter.

[u/jilko → u/dwide_k_shrude]

It's saying the reason is that it's the movie making method, but in reality it's that these successful movies are new and different. By new and different, I mean not another Star Wars, Superhero, or live action Disney Remake.

Audiences want to see variety again and they're mostly done with derivative safe bets that've been boring several years ago already.

Backrooms wasn't successful because they built a set.