The Odyssey ¦ Film Review (4*): Oh Father, Where Art Thou?

A One Mann’s Movies review of “The Odyssey”. (2026, 4*, 15).

Any Christopher Nolan film release is a big deal and “The Odyssey” has been billed as the biggest movie event of the summer. My Everyman screen was absolutely fully booked when I saw it last night on its opening night and IMAX seats for the film are like hen’s teeth. But how did Nolan’s 13th feature rack up with One Mann’s Movies? Read on.

One Mann’s Movies Rating:

Plot:

The film is based on Homer’s classic mythological tale. Odysseus (Matt Damon) has been away from his home of Ithaca for 10 years fighting the Trojan wars for the king, Agamemnon (Benny Safdie). He becomes a hero for his idea to hide men inside a wooden gift horse and so lay waste to the city of Troy. But his return home is thwarted and 10 years later he has still not returned. Most believe him dead. With Ithaca in peril and Odysseus’s son Telemachus (Tom Holland) still not yet of age, his wife Penelope (Anne Hathaway) is slowly being forced towards a marriage of necessity with one of the dozens of suitors occupying the home.

Certification:

UK: 15; US: R. (From the BBFC website: “Strong violence.”)

Talent:

Starring: Matt Damon, Tom Holland, Zendaya, Anne Hathaway, Robert Pattinson, Charlize Theron, Himesh Patel, Mia Goth, Lupita Nyong’o, Samantha Morton, Bennie Safdie.

Directed by: Christopher Nolan.

Written by: Christopher Nolan. (Based on the classic work by Homer.)

Running Time: 2h 52m.

Review:

Positives:

• This is Epic moviemaking, with a capital “E”. Nolan, in a wide departure from his normal type of project, throws a massive amount of investment – reportedly $250 million – at the screen and it really shows. The sets, the recreations of the ships of the time, the cast, the extras: its all done on a massive scale. It is such a different sort of project that I was constantly having to remind myself that this was a Nolan film and not a Ridley Scott production.
• Many of the action set-pieces are really exciting, sharply edited and well-paced. The sequence with the terrifying Cyclops and a herd of sheep is well-executed and the final battle in the finale is riveting stuff.
• The star-studded cast all perform adequately, and indeed Damon is good in the lead role. But there are scenes in the middle of the film featuring Samantha Morton that are just staggeringly good. Although she is only in the film for about 20 minutes, I wouldn’t be at all surprised if this earns her her third Academy Award nomination, and possibly puts her in a position to win it.
• Given all of the furore online about the casting of Lupita Nyong’o – bordering on blatant racism in my view – I really enjoyed how the character was introduced in the film: an appearance that subverted many of your expectations (even though – I think – the reason for this was never shown/explained?)
• In terms of the ‘technicals’: Production Design, Costume Design, Hair etc. is generally superb (subject to a few niggles as below); the music by Ludwig Göransson is excellent and will probably get an Oscar nomination; and the cinematography by Hoyte van Hoytema is magnificent. As this is the first ever film to be filmed in its entirety on IMAX cameras, I would suspect that the cinematography Oscar might already be tied on for van Hoytema.

Negatives:

(I almost hate to raise anything here, since there are an army of Nolan fan-boys who I’m sure will rip into any comments I make. But here goes… )

• The sound mixing. This has never been one of Nolan’s strong points as a director. Looking back at my reviews of previous Nolan films, I noted the same issue with “Tenet” and “Oppenheimer” and had the same issues here. The sound mixing, with dialogue constantly fighting against sound effects and Göransson’s music, made much of the speech completely unintelligible to me. This was particularly true for some of the actors – Jon Bernthal as Menelaus was a culprit – who seemed to mumble their way through their lines. It’s Nolan’s (no pun intended) Achilles heel.
• The film has been filmed for IMAX and filmed in 70mm. I’m sure this is great for those of you live near either the BFI IMAX in London, the Ronson Theatre IMAX at the London Science Museum or the VUE at the Print Works Manchester and you can manage to get tickets (the first available seat at the BFI IMAX is not available until August 21st). Or indeed near one of the other 38 cinemas worldwide than can show 70mm IMAX films. This is the way Nolan intends the film to be seen. Obviously you can also see the film in lower resolution IMAX at one of the other 1,700+ IMAX cinemas around the world. But the vast majority of the viewers seeing this movie will not be watching it in IMAX but in a cropped version on a standard cinema screen. And some of the framing of the cropped images particularly for some of the closer-up dialogue scenes, just looks plain odd. Here’s how the same image appears in IMAX and in ‘standard’ 16:9 framing:

• I would need to see the film a second time to validate this (I will be taking the Illustrious Mrs Mann to see this at some point) but I think another negative of filming it in IMAX, where the cameras are bulky and weigh a ton, is that the cameras really lacked dynamic movement. A lot of the ‘action’ seems to come from editing rather than the camera darting in and out of the action. For example, as Troy is ransacked, you see a static view of a woman caught by a soldier and then cut to another static view of her being put to the sword. The keywords here being “static”.
• I praised some of the production design, but some of the outfits appear far too stylish to reflect the age. The helmet of Agamemnon, for example, would probably have been made from “the tusks of wild boars…. constructed by sewing dozens of precisely sliced boar tusks—often 40 to 60 per helmet—onto a hardened leather cap, creating a formidable layer of defence.” This is a case of art not reflecting reality, since even in Homer’s “Iliad” Agamemnon’s helmet is described as being made of intricate pieces of bronze. But neither of these options reflect Nolan’s creation (or rather, his costume department’s creation) which rather looks like its come straight off a 3D printer!
• The Odyssey of Odysseus was supposed to have started in modern-day Turkey and ended up in Ithaca in Greece. Given he was lost for an extended period, he might have taken in some other Mediterranean locations. But I doubt that would have included Scotland and Iceland! Many of the locations used for the film just didn’t fit my expectations for how I imagine “The Odyssey”: I expect things to look much more like “The Seventh Voyage of Sinbad”…. not “North Sea Hijack”!
• Tom Holland is miscast. He is becoming unconvincing as the “teenage” Spider-man due to his changing looks. There was no way I believed that he wasn’t already “of age” in this film. Someone young and talented like Owen Cooper would have been a much better fit.
• This isn’t really a reflection on the content of the film, but I’m not sure this one will pass my “re-watchability” test. Whereas I can always seem myself reaching for the Blu-ray of “Inception” or “Interstellar” to rewatch at just about any time, I can’t really see myself doing that for this film.

Trigger Warning:

I can’t believe that this is the FOURTH review during this month alone (the others being “Shelter“, “Evil Dead Burn” and “The Last Viking“) that I have had to put this trigger warning…. but this film will also feature on doesthedogdie.com. Canine lovers may be greatly distressed by the treatment of a puppy near the start of the film.

Summary Thoughts:

I note that I’ve given this film more negatives than positives and I don’t want to give the impression that this is a bad film (although other opinions are available… see below!). It was an epic production and it left me hugely impressed at the scope of the film-making and the ambition of Nolan. But I think my 4* rating is a fair one (which probably means that it will now storm away and take “Best Picture” at the next Oscars without a fight from anything else!)

But, so be it. I’ll watch it again, and it might grow on me.

I commented that “other opinions are available”. But this was what my daughter Jenn made of the film:

“The Odyssey, what can I say? I went in with an open mind but this movie did nothing for me. Way too long, way too repetitive, way too many boats and beaches. The neverending CLANK of metal on metal grated on me right from the start. This movie was filmed all over the place – Scotland, Iceland, Greece – yet somehow every location looks exactly the same: what a giant waste of time.

This movie was filmed using big fuck-off 70mm IMAX cameras so you’ll only see the complete non-cropped version if you go to one of the 41 cinemas (worldwide!!) that can project it: what a giant waste of time.

Tom Holland was bland AF. The whole bit with Charlize Theron was mystifying. Samantha Morton rocked and she needs a movie just for her. So does Lupita. Every talented woman in this film was so severely under-utilised and had minimal screen time in favour of more footage of men in boats GRUNTING.

I don’t know anything about Greek mythology and maybe if I wasn’t such a massive philistine I would have got more out of this – I did follow what was going on but talking to LC (Lee Casey) last night it became clear this movie expected me to know so much that it never bothered to explain to me. Finally, for a film that’s so fucking long the whole thing felt so rushed – we’re just leapfrogging from one episode to the next (with lots of sea-based commuting in between zzzzzz) and even the ending (which rocked) felt like it was over before it began in the flashiest of flashes.

For what should have been a massively touching story that got me right in the feels this film gave me ZERO emotional payoff. I felt nothing. Except being pissed off at Christopher Nolan for being so preoccupied with his blimp that he forgot to give us a good film.

Would not watch again. I’d rather go to the dentist. Time stood still for me in screen 1 of the Everyman yesterday and being released into the fresh air outside I felt like Nic Cage feeling the sun on his face in Con Air. I knew I was in trouble when I looked at my watch and we were only 1 hour and 10 mins in….fuck.”

I can’t wait for their next episode of The Movie Bread Club podcast where they will be discussing this one!

Where to watch?

Trailer:

The trailer for the film is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f_bKjZeJBBI.

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