by Mike Favila, Senior Editor
At first, A Writer’s Odyssey doesn’t seem like it’s going to be anything like its trailer. One minute, it’s a gritty noir, with faint callbacks to crime movies of the past. But then the giants and killer snakes invade the screen and you don’t know what to expect next. A Writer’s Odyssey is a wild rollercoaster of a film, a total popcorn flick that should really be seen in theatres to appreciate the scale.
Part suspense parts supernatural thriller, it mixes so many high concepts effortlessly. The amount of suspension of disbelief that you have to give up is a mountain, but it’s a wild ride. A Writer’s Odyssey opens on Guan Ning, a desperate father who will do anything to get his kidnapped daughter back. With his supernatural ability to throw and control anything (like Bullseye without the goofy mask), he pursues every avenue, but comes up empty. It’s only when the CEO of a major corporation offers to help does he finally make headway. He offers more help, but only if Guan Ning helps him kill a young writer. His new book, The Godslayer, casts the CEO as the villian of the imaginary world, Redmane. Every damage the fictional villian takes affects the CEO in the real world.
The visuals in A Writer’s Odyssey are inspiring and imaginative. The attack on Beihan approaches the scope of the battles Game of Thrones, but painted with actual colors, instead of blocks of black and dark grey. Everything just pops when it should, and is somber when necessary. A great example of the color variations are the flying dragon ships in the initial battle in the dream world. Who could have thought interconnected blimps would look so fascinating and destructive at the same time?
Some parts of A Writer’s Odyssey have echos of animes and films from the past. The armor and the different protectors of Redmane verge on almost horror elements. The malevolent talking eye that the armor takes the form of is a little reminiscent of Vampire Hunter D, but that can be forgiven. The ending morphs into a modern action movie, which is both unexpected and welcome.
There feels like a few unexplained undeveloped dead ends, like the different special powers that belong to the father and the different assassins. There’s even a Marvel style tag at the end! It feels like the studio is setting up for a definite ‘future trilogy’. Luckily, the writers and director definitely play for keeps here, and leave it all on the table. If A Writer’s Odyssey is a standalone movie, it more than works.
Overall, I really liked A Writer’s Odyssey. It mixed a number of different genres that I adore, without being unbelievable. This film just begs to be seen in a big theater, even with this year’s pandemic circumstances. It’s already showing in a limited amount of theaters, so definitely go check A Writer’s Odyssey out and see a worthwhile spectacle and story.
Rating: [4/5]
ComicsOnline gives A Writer’s Odyssey 4 out of 5 that writer has to push up his glasses!
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