The Odyssey

★★★☆

The Odyssey (2026)

Runtime: 172 minutes

MPAA: Rated R for violence and some language.

Let's get back to the assigned star rating later. When the trailer for Christopher Nolan's newest film The Odyssey was released, it was savagely condemned for controversial casting choices and lacking Greek representation. Yet, the outcry was almost instantly silenced the moment the film hit theatres, with the majority deeming it a masterpiece. Again, perplexing online discourse and the insistence to use superlatives or derogatory statements. Can we have an era of thoughtful conversations instead of instant verdicts?

Back to the topic. It's a bit of a surprise that Nolan has pivoted from intellectual logic mazes to a complex biography in Oppenheimer and now Greek mythology in The Odyssey. Based on Homer's poem, he injects the ancient epic with his signature nested and non-linear storytelling, ear-splitting action sequences, Shepard tone, paired with Ludwig Göransson's overlay of accelerating Risset rhythm, technical spectacle and marvelous set-pieces. It's overloaded with style, which fortunately serves a human core, while the fragmented narrative structure becomes a mirror to memories, grief, the perception of time and how they feed into a person's trauma. It's a heavy and serious piece of work, one that demands your investment and willingness to commit, powering through several drawbacks.

Ithaca has been without a king for twenty years ever since Odysseus (Matt Damon) departed for the Trojan War. Penelope (Anne Hathaway) has been sitting on an empty throne, pressured by suitors like Antinous (Robert Pattinson) to remarry, while Telemachus (Tom Holland) secretly embarks on a quest to obtain information of the whereabouts of his father Odysseus. There, Menelaus (Jon Bernthal), the King of Sparta, recounts the story of where they split paths when they departed. See, they won the war ten years prior, when Odysseus came up with the idea to deceive Troy by hiding inside a wooden horse presented to them as a gift, which Sinon (Elliot Page) sacrificed his life for. Since Troy is now in devastation and they have claimed victory, Odysseus and his army discuss about heading home, but a multitude of arguments causes Menelaus and Agememnon (Benny Safdie) to leave first, where separate fates occur. Odysseus, alongside his second-in-command Eurylochus (Himesh Patel), embark on a slower route home, which takes years as they repeatedly land on islands and lose increasingly more soldiers along the way.

The first half of the film is basically an extended adventure after another, as they encounter a cyclops Polyphemus, whom Odysseus attacks and causes it to cry out Poseidon, resulting in harsh sea conditions. They subsequently land on Aeaea, but giant Laestrygonians brutally kill most of them. Not long after, they seek refuge with a witch Circe, who turns most of them into pigs, which Odysseus convinces her to do otherwise. That's not all, as Circe instructs them to cross Oceanus into Hades, in order to return to Ithaca. I'm not going to reveal further details, but think of it as a mixture of bad luck, divine punishment and bad decision-making by Odysseus and his crew. Working with mostly practical effects, Nolan captures these in heart-pounding ways which makes this world fully realised.

None of this spectacle would've worked as well without reflection and pause, in pivotal moments that conveys the guilt of our protagonist. On the surface, it's a man-versus-gods and monsters tale, but it's also man-versus-himself, where every decision leads to long-lasting consequences. Seeing more of his men die eventually gets back to him, but persisting and trying to remember fragments of his past to get back home becomes essential to his character, something that the seemingly jumbled narrative structure nails. When he returns, he doesn't carry pride, but trauma and distrust, revealing oneself's erosion through the passage of time. Damon, in what essentially already is the fourth film of an unofficial series of films involving his character heading back home, plays this role with restraint, capturing the weight of all that's happened throughout the voyage.

As for the rest of the cast, it's admittedly a little off-putting. While Hathaway, Pattinson and (to some extent) Holland overcome the suspension of disbelief one has to make, the majority of other characters occasionally take you out of the moment. It is quite awkward seeing Zendaya as Athena, Lupita Nyong'o as Helen of Troy, an action star like Bernthal here, Elliot Page, and even merely observing Travis Scott on screen, despite them demanding complete seriousness over what unfolds in front of us. Comparatively, even Charlize Theron as Calypso is arguably a close match to its source origin, but can't quite establish the transportative Greek atmosphere Nolan and his crew intend to achieve. The center of the film is undeniably Odysseus, but one also gets the feeling that the star-studded cast, including the likes of John Leguizamo, Mia Goth and Logan Marshall-Green, are somewhat underutilised despite the 172-minute runtime.

While impressively striking and experiential otherwise, other elements outside of Odysseus' tale are a tad undercooked. Penelope is adamant on waiting for her husband to return home, while Telemachus wants to prove his worth and reunite with his father. Both stories here become comparatively minor to the large-scale worldbuilding, which increases the tension and stakes but risks simplifying the populated ensemble into one-note roles, something he occasionally addresses. Nolan's rendering of action, paired with the increasing urgency of the situation, makes for dazzling combats and strategising, which adds an additional layer of engagement into their wars and mishaps. When he leans a little too much into these, he sacrifices some subtlety and poetry, but the overwhelming intensity of it all largely overrides this small missed opportunity.

So, about the assigned star rating. It corresponds to what I perceive as the film's quality, which I thought was immersive and had a thoughtful, introspective core, save aside several reservations. They're less significant as an experience, whether that's in theatres or on a huge screen. It's kind of an oxymoron to say this, but it's a pleasant assault to the eyes and ears, and the wonder of it all is eminently cinematic. Add an additional half-a-star to my current star rating in this aspect, because even though I didn’t think it was a great film, it was undoubtedly a great viewing experience.