The Odyssey (2026)

Some of the Suitors Are Doing Bits - The Odyssey review by griggs

Attempted to dodge the reviews before seeing it — full Likely Lads energy, hands over ears, ignoring the group chat. Failed by Friday afternoon, and everyone had the same line: expect a wow in every chapter. Bold ask for any film, let alone one built like this — episodic by design, one voyage after another, some choppier than others.

So the wow-per-chapter promise didn't hold up. A few stretches feel like solid, workmanlike rowing rather than anything spectacular. But when Samantha Morton turns up, the whole film sits up straighter — a wow and a half, and worth the ticket on its own. Robert Pattinson's having a whale of a time too, doing his best Olivier-as-Richard-III as Antinous — all silk and menace, thoroughly enjoying being the worst man in the room.

Christopher Nolan's version leans into the cost of the war rather than the wonder of the journey — less myth, more comedown from one. Different emphasis to most versions I've seen, and it mostly earns it.

Matt Damon carries the whole three hours without breaking a sweat about it. And for a three-hour film, it shifts — I checked my watch once, out of habit, and was startled by how far through we already were. Some of that's down to where you watch it, too.

Saw it at the BFI in 70mm IMAX, and the format earns its keep — the scale turns even quiet scenes into something you feel behind the ribs. The score does its own damage on the sly, never once showing off. It plays darker than I expected, mind — not in mood, in actual candlepower, with shadow doing most of the set dressing. The person next to me — turned out she'd worked on the film — had already sat through it on a standard screen and reckoned the IMAX cut was basically a different film. How you watch this one changes what you get.

I did worry, after seeing pictures from the midnight screenings, that this could go full Star Wars or Lord of the Rings — togas in the foyer, the film playing second fiddle to the event. Mine was too early in the morning for anyone to bother, thankfully, but if that habit catches on properly, it'll drown the spectacle it's meant to be celebrating.

Uneven in patches, but the highs are rare enough to make it stick. A voyage worth taking twice.