The Odyssey (2026)

Stunning, spectacular & jaw-dropping production values make up for a mediocre script & story - The Odyssey review by Timmy B

We are now, without a doubt, living in full Christopher Nolan obsession times. There is practically no other filmmaker who generates not only complete reverence but also sky-high anticipation for anything and everything he does. Solidified during his incredible handling of The Dark Knight trilogy, every film of his now comes with the same levels of expectation that Kubrick used to generate, back when films like 2001 completely rewrote what we as the audience expected when we went to the cinema. And make no mistake, I am so grateful that this titan of storytelling is so powerful in his craft, as well as his fanatical defending of cinema, film and physical media.

But... and it gives me no pleasure in saying this, with The Odyssey, Nolan is now for me missing as much as he hits. Odyssey now joins Tenet, Dunkirk and Inception as films which whilst they were visually spectacular, have serious story/script issues, some more than others. For example, Inception is such a cold, at times miserable experience, which was made all the more stark by The Adjustment Bureau dealing with many of the same topics and being almost flawless. Dunkirk was a film where you really had no-one to root for, just multiple nameless people in a war zone saying stilted dialogue. And Tenet was absolutely terrible, full of pretentious ideas which not even the cast could fully understand...

The Odyssey retells the famous poem by Homer of Odysseus, King of Ithaca, who takes part in the war of Troy then has to make his way home, battling against demonic monsters & gods. Back home in Ithaca, his wife Penelope has to try to cope with his kingdom being overrun with parasitic suitors & her son Telemachus determined to rise up and become King.

The biggest issue for me with this film was simple: I was never, ever taken in by it. I always felt like an outsider looking in. Over 3 hours, I watched many battles, quiet moments and confrontations, but it never grabbed me. I was never invested in the character arcs, despite some good performances. And when you compared this to Oppenheimer, where within 5 minutes you were totally engrossed by and hooked by his journey, in The Odyssey, I can honestly say I didn't care. The soliloquies & exposition, whilst absolutely said with feeling and passion, were just like many other historical dramas I have watched.

I remembered feeling exactly the same way with The Last Duel, another historical drama with Damon as the lead. Directed by Ridley Scott, another master filmmaker, it was full of battles, confrontations & exceptional production values but again left me feeling cold & unengaged. I'm not for a second saying Damon is at fault here, more that these types of films can often not land, especially with the politics which inevitably is intertwined within them.

But having said all that, I still have given The Odyssey 3 stars, and that score is quite simply because of everything else about it, which is exceptional. I watched this the way it was meant to be seen, in 70MM IMAX film at the BFI IMAX. This is the 1st film completely shot in 70MM, after adaptations were made to the cameras, due to the massive amounts of noise they generate, making recording dialogue almost impossible. And in terms of production, cinematography, sound, colour palette, costume, spectacle, I mean literally every single thing is jaw-droppingly incredible. This is the sort of film that not even a master of the epic like David Lean would be able to muster.

And that is why I have so much frustration towards it. I adore films and never set out to dislike anything I watch. I go in with an open mind and want to be blown away. And in The Odyssey, quite simply the spectacle is there, the script is not. I wanted to care about the characters and their journeys, but the story left me unmoved.

Self-consciously 'epic' re-telling of Homer's masterpiece - The Odyssey review by PD

Christopher Nolan’s love affair with the Premium Large Format moviegoing experience peaks with The Odyssey, a gigantic undertaking that marks the first feature shot entirely with IMAX Film Cameras. The result is a self-consciously 'epic' action film which attempts to be both immense and intimate, albeit one whose flow is impeded by the inherently episodic nature of the nonlinear source material.

The protagonist is of course played here with introspective intensity by a commanding Matt Damon — whose internal transformation, from a hubristic warrior to a man humbled by trauma and loss, is as near to a continuous plotline as the film gets. It’s very difficult to effectively dramatise someone piecing together memory fragments on a gradual path to moral and existential awakening, and Nolan just about brings this off, although the ending is perhaps a bit too rushed for this is to be completely effective. It's harder still when much of that process happens in a dream-like haze on an island beach, where the nymph Calypso is keeping Odysseus as her lover; these interludes aren't nearly tense enough for me, and therefore merely halt the narrative flow as a result. Another problem is that the writer-director never finds much balance between the parallel journeys of Odysseus and his son Telemachus, making the film feel structurally clumsy at times (it doesn’t help that Tom Holland seems wrong for the role, sapping the gravitas from Telemachus’ path to maturity). Classicists might also grumble about key incidents from Odysseus’ voyage home being skipped altogether or given such hasty treatment that they carry no weight - blink and you might miss Scylla, the six-headed sea monster that Odysseus and his men dodge while steering their long boat around a whirlpool, and only those with excellent recall of their English studies are likely to have much idea what’s going on when the man-eating giants called Laestrygonians make a rampaging appearance.

On the other hand, several key episodes work very well. The dramatic escape of Odysseus and his men from the cave dwelling of the sheep-herding one-eyed giant Polyphemus is well-handled, and has consequences for the voyage given that the enraged Cyclops is the son of vengeful sea god Poseidon. There’s eerie poetry in the crew’s fear as they pass the island inhabited by Sirens whose songs lure sailors to their death on the rocks, with Odysseus in agony as he’s tied to the mast to resist their call. Perhaps the standout interlude is the soldiers’ visit to the island domain of Circe, a treacherous witch played with deceptive calm by a truly chilling Samantha Morton. The climax that ties together the almost 3-hour film comes when Odysseus at last makes it back to Ithaca, disguised as a beggar to throw off those who want him dead. Van Hoytema’s cameras seem to be everywhere at once when Odysseus launches into a visceral clash; it's exactly the kind of large-scale set piece at which Nolan excels, a high-stakes melee in a confined space, triggered by a test set by wife Penelope, played with just the right balance of steely self-possession and vulnerability by Anne Hathaway. It’s here too that the film's themes finally acquire potency — about the sobering disillusionment that follows war; the fragility of heroism; defiance of the gods; the uncertainties of homecoming after a long absence. Perhaps the most resonant theme is conscience, as Odysseus weighs his achievements against his sacrifices, from the drowning of his men to the slaughtered Trojans, tricked by a gift to the gods in violation of all that is considered sacred.

Unsurprisingly, it's a visual feast, with stunning sets and costumes, whilst the preference for in-camera spectacle over digital fakery wherever possible pays off. All in all, not the masterpiece that some have claimed, and no match for the intellectual complexity of 'Oppenheimer', but an enjoyable watch all the same.