Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey Review

Christopher Nolan is one of those directors where you just find yourself wondering, how in the world he is going to top this? After redefining Batman for a whole generation of fans then giving us mindbenders like Inception and Tenet, he finally got his well-deserved awards and accolades for Oppenheimer (my personal favorite of Nolan’s films). It seemed like he had already reached the apex of his career and there were no more lands to conquer. At least that is what I would have said before seeing The Odyssey.

I expected it to be good and fun theatrical experience, but I was not ready for the next level Nolan went with this film. This may sound like hyperbole, but I think that Christopher Nolan may be the best director working in Hollywood right now and The Odyssey is just further proof of that. There are some minor spoilers here, mostly regarding a 3000 year old story but I wanted to give a warning just in case.

I will talk about the cast first which was the center of a lot of internet rage and gnashing of teeth. I always thought Nolan was approaching this production like an elaborate stage play. He wasn’t telling actual history here the way he was with Dunkirk or Oppenheimer. With The Odyssey he picked actors that he felt could play each part the best for his version of a three-thousand-year-old myth. It never felt like there was an agenda or point being made, it was just Nolan doing his own thing which he has done since he started making movies. So for me, I was only judging the cast based on how they handled the material and direction that were given to them. Now with that out of the way, I can happily say that the cast here is excellent.

Matt Damon takes on the role of Odysseus and owns it. There is a heaviness and humanity to his performance, as if Odysseus is crumbling under the weight of his own myth for his deeds in the Trojan War. He has a commanding presence and you buy why he is beloved by his people. I saw parallels between Odysseus and Oppenheimer where you have two men who are lauded for their achievements in war but have guilt for the destruction and ramifications as a result of said achievements. He is not the perfect hero, with his biggest flaw being pride which results in him constantly at odds with the gods on his journey home, but in the end he tries to save his men and protect his family and the people he rules over. Even though I knew how the story ended I still found myself rooting for him to get home despite the flaws that we are shown and a lot of that comes from Damon’s portrayal.

The supporting cast doesn't slack off either. Anne Hathaway gives an award-winning performance as Penelope, the wife to Odysseus. She faces her own struggle from carrying the weight of holding everything together at home and wondering if the man she loves is still alive, all the while having to fend off potential suitors and rebellion in her own house. There is a sadness and grief to her that rarely gets out thanks to the shield of quiet strength that she carries herself with. It’s a very layered performance and she sells it splendidly.

Tom Holland stands shoulder to shoulder with her as he gives what may his best performance as her son Telemachus. He does such a good job of showing how mature and ready he is to be a leader while still having moments that remind us of how young and brash he can be at times. It’s a hard thing to balance but Holland and Nolan do a great job of riding that fine line without making him seem incompetent or straight up stupid. Just really good stuff and has me excited to see what he brings to his next performance as Peter Parker/Spider-Man in a couple of weeks.

There are some memorable side characters in this as well. Jon Bernthal is good as Menelaus, the guy who was at the center the Trojan War with his wife Helen being abducted. He brings a lot of Frank Castle to the role but it works since Menelaus is a veteran of the war and its clear he has not recovered from his own journey home. John Leguizamo plays Eumaeus, the faithful blind servant to the royal family of Ithaca who still believes that his master will one day return and has some great emotional scenes.

Then there is Robert Pattinson who is fantastic as the antagonist Antinous as he just makes you hate him as he tries to weasel his way onto the throne. You can tell he is having a lot of fun and the same could be said for Corey Hawkins as Polybus. They never feel over the top but evil enough that you cannot wait for them to get what’s coming to them.

We also have Charlize Theron as Calypso which is inspired casting along with Himesh Patel as Eurylochus who is Odysseus’s right hand man on his ship and acts as the collective voice and face for rest of the crew which was a smart choice by Nolan and he plays that role brilliantly.

Before I end my discussion of the cast, I will address the three that were the internet’s punching bag for the last several months. Lupita Nyong’o is good as Helen/Clytemnestra though she gets a collective (maybe) five minutes of screentime maybe so there was not much to really analyze. Elliot Page as Sinon does fine with the very limited screen time he has. There is an exchange between Page and Damon that was really well acted and you could feel Sinon’s hurt and disappointment in every line, however I do wish we had gotten another scene with them before that moment because most of their relationship is developed offscreen which lessened the impact slightly for me. It works well enough in showcasing the guilt Odysseus carries but it would have worked better for me if I had been more invested in that friendship.

Lastly, Zendaya plays Athena and I think she is perfect for that role. She is given very few lines but every time she appears she adds the kind of etherial presence you would want for that role while also being another manifestation of guilt for Odysseus. Also the reason why Athena chooses that form hit me like a ton of bricks and Zendaya helps really sell that.

The biggest question I had going into this movie was how Nolan would tackle the fantasy elements. His movies always had a grounded realism to them, be it real science used in Interstellar to explain black holes and their effects or how every bit of Batman’s arsenal functioned, they felt like they could exist in our world. Here that grounded feeling is kept, yet we still see the son of Poseidon the Cyclops, giants, sirens, and a sea creature that snatches men right from deck of their ship. I appreciated that it was never played for laughs or joked on in that self-detrimental humor that you often see with things like this. Characters act like this is a normal part of the world and Nolan does not shy away from the fantastical elements that have helped make this story so iconic.

It’s also with these elements that Nolan goes in a more darker and horror filled direction than I expected. I knew it would be intense with the battle scenes and there would be monsters, but thanks to that more grounded feeling and some excellent practical effects they really help make certain scenes feel even more unsettling. The Cyclops is horrifying and the one time we hear it speak, it does so in a way that chilled me to the bone. That would later be topped by a scene with a woman and some pigs that had me shutting my eyes because of what I was seeing. It never feels unearned or just for shock value, but services the story very well and makes the threats that Odysseus and his men face feel real and other worldly.

The scale of this movie is enormous and really adds to that epic feel and Nolan provides a visual feast for the eyes. Between sweeping landscape shots that felt reminiscent of Lord of the Rings to all the boat scenes that reminded me of the original Pirates of the Caribbean movies, I felt like I was transported back to a different time in cinema. This is another area where practical effects really help with that. Whether it's most of the scenes on the boat being filmed actually at sea or the Cyclops being a giant puppet enhanced by CGI, Nolan creates a world that invites the audience to get lost in. I found myself thinking, “How did they do that?” which I don't often do anymore. There is an element of that old fashioned movie magic that has been missing in a lot of blockbusters and it was nice to get it back here. We even get the iconic Trojan horse and see what it was like for the men to be inside of it for days which is something we have never really gotten as far as I know.

This also may be Nolan’s best action movie. I have never been the biggest fan of the way he directs action scenes and there are times where it felt like to me that Nolan wasn’t very interested in doing them either. The action here however is very well done, with one scene at the end involving one guy taking out a room of attackers that had me at the edge of my seat. The battle scenes in Troy were excellent and I could see what was going on which was nice (thank God no shaky cam).

Finally, I have to talk about the score by Ludwig Gorransson. I loved his scores for Tenet and Oppenheimer so I was really interested to see what he would do here. Nolan had told him he didn’t want the score done with a traditional orchestra but rather the instruments that were used in that day. The result is a score that reminded me of Hans Zimmer’s Dune music where it is there to help create atmosphere rather than emotion. Do not get me wrong, there is still some of that to, but it does such a good job of transporting you into that world and added that extra layer to a scene that helps suck you into what is going on. I have the CD in my collection and, while I may like those other two score a bit more, this one's really started to grow on me.

In case you have not figured it out, I really loved The Odyssey. Nolan delivers a movie that has not been seen in modern Hollywood in a while and it is worth the cost of a movie ticket. Even if fantasy movies are not normally your thing, there is a human story here that will keep you invested even with giant sea monsters and Cyclopes growling onscreen. You do not feel the almost three-hour length and, while the editing is a little frantic at the beginning, it immerses you in a way that will have you breathless at times. While Oppenheimer is still my favorite and I think his best film, I cannot wait to add this to my Blu-ray collection.

As always thank you for reading and if you wish to become a paid member for the extra perks or just to support my work, click the upgrade button on the page here! I will be back Friday with the news!

Recent articles:

Monthly Rewind Review: Mystery Men (1999)

·

Jul 13

Welcome to the July Monthly Rewind Review. As stated before, these will come out on the first Monday of every month (Unless there is a spoiler review being released that day in which case it would come out the following Monday like this one). On those Saturday posts I send out, feel free to request a film for me to review and I will do it as soon as I can. This is in addition to spoiler reviews and questions for the Friday pod for paid subscribers.

Why I am Happy About Scary Movie 2026's Success

·

Jul 15

Last month Scary Movie 2026 dropped in theaters, marking the first time a comedy was getting a major theatrical release since the Naked Gun reboot/sequel in 2025. On a 30-million-dollar budget it has grossed over 217 million at the box office in about a month since its release with almost half of the sales coming from the domestic side. This has…