Alright! Today I'm reviewing Christopher Nolan's 2026 epic film The Odyssey, an adaptation of Homer's 3000 year-old poem that tells the incredible voyage of Odysseus, the mastermind behind the Trojan Horse that won the Battle of Troy. On his way home, he encounters Cyclopes, giants, sirens, witches, and sea monsters, while his son Telemachus tries to free his house from the 100 suitors vying for Odysseus' wife Penelope's hand in marriage and the throne of Ithaca.
The first thing to be commended is the absolute scale of the story. The poem is already very long and packed with details, characters, and unique locales, and this film adaption never collapses underneath that weight. Iconic features such as the Trojan Horse and Odysseus's ship are brought to life through incredible propmaking and framing, and the cities of Troy and Ithaca feel large and alive. It's a breath of fresh air after so many disgusting-looking CGI blockbusters, and there are more than a few moments that will have you asking, "how did they do that?"
In that way, the only true comparison I can make to The Odyssey are the 1950s epics like Ben-Hur and The Ten Commandments - the big studio epic that we just haven't been getting since Cleopatra bombed. While it doesn't feel as dirty as, say, Gladiator, The Odyssey does feel like an expansive and fleshed-out wonderland... with one exception. Even though the scale of the movie is intense, the scale of the landscapes is not. More establishing shots, larger shots of the ocean, or lingering camera movements would have gone a long way to making the story feel more steady and real.
The Odyssey is a Christopher Nolan movie, which means that we have come to expect a few things. Yes, the editing is choppy - too many cuts, too many flashes, not enough pauses and reflection for actors to act. His dedication to IMAX and their <3 hour runtime ran him into the ground here, and the movie cuts and cuts and cuts to get to a 172-minute runtime. The limits of local theaters are stretched as well, featuring some excruciatingly loud sequences and one particular sequence that merits a seizure warning. But this time the dialogue is intelligible, so that's good!
When adapting such a renowned and well-known story as The Odyssey, there is no shortage of amazing moments to adapt. My favorite parts of this movie, however, were actually from The Iliad! The sacking of Troy and the Trojan Horse steal the show at crucial moments throughout the narrative. One almost wonders if Nolan actually wanted to adapt Homer's prequel with how impactful and epic these scenes are, although the sea stuff isn't done poorly by any means!
I found the vignettes involving Polyphemus, Circe, King Atreus, The Land of the Dead, Agamemnon, Antinuous, Odysseus's deception, the reunion with Penelope, and the killing of the suitors particularly awe-inspiring, while the siren song and laestrogynians were underwhelming. Circe and Scylla, meanwhile, were total misfires. This is where larger shots would have aided greatly, because we never get the chance to feel the pull of Charybdis and the design of Scylla is uninspired (And yes, I saw it in IMAX). Calypso's island is also depicted as stark and desolate for some reason, which is odd when it has to provide food and timber for Odysseus.
Christopher Nolan makes an interesting point to not show any of the Greek gods in this story, choosing to represent them through forces of nature and the superstitions of the pagan characters. It's a gamble that works completely, and even Athena's crucial role in the story works in this context. It does beg the question, however - in a story where cyclops, sirens, and sea monsters are all shown as absolute reality, why stop at Zeus and Poseidon? Surely we can revive Clash of the Titans' clay arena.
One of the best surprises is the element of horror that The Odyssey has. The scene with Polyphemus is already notable in the book, but it's certainly the most memorable part of the movie! The creature design of the monstruous cyclops is breathtaking, and his scale is epic and immense. We do miss the fun dialogue between him and Odysseus, however, as he is depicted as a non-speaking character (A shame, as Polyphemus has the best lines of the poem). The scene where Circe transforms Odysseus' men into pigs is particularly gruesome - while the action generally feels PG-13 (aside from three f-bombs), the pig transformation is gnarly.
With some of the biggest actors in the world involved, one might wonder who steals the show in The Odyssey - and that answer, ladies and gentlemen, is easily Robert Pattinson. He plays the primary antagonist, Antinuous, chief of Penelope's suitors, and is deliciously slimy and conniving in the role. It makes me wish he was playing more villains than Batmen these days, but it's nice to have while it lasted. Anne Hathaway and Jon Bernthal are also superb, Samantha Morton is expectedly great, and Matt Damon is surprisingly good. I loved the way Travis Scott was used in the movie as an analog to the oral tradition of the source material, and I like that the story of Troy is sampled in the soundtrack. To that end, Ludwig Göransson provides what is possibly the best part of the movie with yet another score ripe for an Academy Award. The use of traditional Greek instruments is notable, and the score oozes a deep melancholy.
The writing, however, is where the movie takes another hit. There are a few objects that immediately stick out as thematic tokens to come into play at the end (The Athena pin and little black stick), and the Law of Zeus is harped and harped on despite being easily understandable. The dialogue, which should compliment the scale and epicness of the film, is not particularly memorable until the final monologue, which includes an uninentionally hilarious name drop for the collapse of the Bronze Age like Joker in Batman Begins. The first act is also laden with foreshadowing for the third act, an element that feels unnecessary given the renown of the source material.
As a general talking point, The Odyssey has a very modern morality about it that severely alters the character of Odysseus; in the poem, he's a conniving, clever, vain, war-hungry man that only stops massacaring his subjects because Zeus himself stops it like the end of Monty Python and the Holy Grail. In Nolan's movie, however, many of the worst parts of Odysseus are sanitized, excised completely, or given a retroactive lens of modern morality. While I agree with removing the affairs with Circe and Calypso (It's vague in the poem and it undermines his love of Penelope), the decision to depict him as PTSD-ridden and peace-inspiring is puzzling and problematic.
It's all for the theme of the movie - Odysseus is haunted by his actions in Troy, leading to a moral about how people need to be kinder to each other and an overall very anti-war message. On one hand, this is obviously a very relevant message that auteur Christopher Nolan wanted to pass on to the audience - there is no altruism in war and needless suffering is wrong. On the other hand, the story of The Odyssey requires Odysseus to be cruel, impetuous, and war-mongering. He must antagonize the cyclops, he must listen to the siren's song, he must fight Laestrogynians, he must threaten Circe's life, he must lie to his men about Scylla, he must murder 100 suitors in the finale, etc. The poem revolves around Odysseus making selfish or rash decisions and his men suffering the consequences: when these are underscored by grief, regret, and stoic heroism, it doesn't come off as deep, but rather as distinctly 21st century - The Odyssey is just the next in a long tradition of historical dramas that focuses entirely on the guilt the conquerer feels rather than dealing with what happened to those he conquered.
On one hand, it's part of the tradition - The Odyssey has been passed down from generation to generation, each translation emphasizing different aspects of the poem and Odysseus' personality. In today's age, the medium of the people is film, and Christopher Nolan is just the next in a long line of artists to adapt Homer's tale. But changing the theme of the poem and the character of Odysseus makes the entire movie an anachronism, always reminding us that you're watching a movie with a pointed moral, not seeing a story unfold. I think a few more shades of The Northman's historical brutality were needed, plus a touch of Vinland Saga for the transition to peace.
All that put aside, The Odyssey is still Nolan's best film since Interstellar and a terrific companion piece to Inception, as well as incredibly epic and an engaging adaptation of the classic poem. While it's not perfect, it's as close as modern cinema gets.
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| Robert Eggers would have done a biblically accurate nude final fight |
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