by Alex Billington
July 17, 2026
“After years of war, no one could stand between my men and home… Not even the gods.” For Christopher Nolan’s next trick, he will adapt one of the greatest stories ever told. Can he pull it off? Of course he can. But the real question is not about if he pulls it off, it’s about how he pulls it off. Of course he brings to life this story of Odysseus’ grueling 10 year journey back home across the Mediterranean Sea in the most spectacular way featuring the biggest movie cameras ever built. Nolan’s dream of making a movie entirely filmed with IMAX cameras with IMAX-sized film finally comes to fruition 18 years after it began with The Dark Knight in 2008. The Odyssey drfifts into movie theaters around the world, playing not only in IMAX but in every cinematic format currently available – including 35mm & 70mm prints and every other screen size / digital format around. True to his ultimate vision, this is the grandest storytelling on the grandest scale to make the grandest point about humanity’s darkness taking over. It is everything cinema should be and can be and it is an exhilarating experience. But is it Nolan’s best movie so far? I don’t think so –but it’s up there. It’s flawed and fractured and doesn’t quite have the emotional impact his movie’s before have had but it’s still riveting.
The Odyssey is written and directed by Oscar-winner Christopher Nolan, his 13th movie so far. Adapted from the iconic story written by the Greek poet Homer (even historians aren’t entirely certain if he really existed and really wrote this) about the life-changing journey of Odysseus. This is far from the first time this story has been adapted, as Odyssey (and its prequel The Iliad) has been adapted many times before on stage & screen aplenty. There are even different translations & interpretations in book form. What matters with Nolan’s version is that it’s simply an expression of his own artistic & narrative desire to bring this story to audiences in this way. He modernizes it in many ways with modern dialogue, a mix of ethnicities playing all the different characters, even using Viking longship designs instead of more authentic Greek ships from that era. Being accurate to how things were in ancient Greece when this story occurred is irrelevant since it is all merely artistic interpretation. This is how cinema works. Plus there are the Greek Gods and monsters and magic and many other fantastical occurrences throughout. The most important question on my mind while watching Nolan’s version of The Odyssey is: why? What is he trying to say, why tell this story now, what is the point of bringing Odysseus’ story to the screen now and what is his ultimate message with The Odyssey. There is one, obviously, and it turns out that it is directly connected to Nolan’s last movie Oppenheimer.
It couldn’t be more fitting that Nolan continues exploring the same dark themes and messages worked into Oppenheimer by directly connecting it to Odysseus’ story in The Odyssey. Both movies are about one man who has brought upon great destruction & destabilization to the world, inviting great darkness, and dealing with the consequences of their actions & decisions. Both of them are about how these men, once they realize what they’ve done, must come to terms with their actions and must deal with the extraordinary harm it has brought to humanity. Oppenheimer brilliantly works this into its story with the trial and the tragedy of what happened to him after the war was over, but that’s as far as it gets. The Odyssey feels like a continuation of that same journey, taking Odysseus/Oppie on a literal journey through Hell (literally to the underworld) and back as he comes to understand what he has done and how it has ended up causing more chaos. Nolan’s desire to tell this story is expressed continuously in the movie as references to “Zeus’s law” (basically the Golden Rule) and an examination of the darkness of humanity that spread after Odysseus first left Ithaca some 20 years before his eventual return. And yes this is mirrored in the world today, with war returning all over the planet, with men doing evil things and making harmful decisions. At least in this story he returns realizing what he has unleashed & takes it upon himself to clean up Ithaca and “take out the trash” so to say.
The heaviness of this theme, and the sadness of what Odysseus is realizing across his journey, is eloquently expressed by colleague Jillian in this recap: “Once you settle into its rhythm, it becomes less a hero’s journey more a mourning for a civilization unraveling. Your body feels the full weight of Odysseus as bonds collapse and the world slowly forgets what made it human.” Putting this kind of heaviness into this story that is so spectacularly presented on screen is an exhausting experience. As wondrous as it is on the big screen, the emotional impact of it may be different for each viewer. As with James Cameron’s Titanic, we all know the story, we all know what’s going to happen, we all know he’s eventually going to return to Ithaca & unleash hell. Watching this movie feels at times like simply going through the motions. Nolan can’t drift too far from the original story, though there are some truly enlightened moments where he lets his own interpretations take over. The subplot with Elliot Page as Sinon, and Odysseus’s encounter with him in the underworld, is one of the most invigorating parts. Nolan spends less time on the Gods and monsters aspects of ancient Greece, and more on the tragedy of it all. Tom Holland as Telemachus and his reckoning with his father’s legacy is also powerful to watch. I was most impressed by Himesh Patel as Eurylochus, Odysseus’ second-in-command, who is depicted here as much more wise & humble than foolish or cowardly as in the original.
Even with some reservations and some narrative concerns with the movie overall, there’s no doubt about it – The Odyssey is an extraordinary cinematic achievement. It has been explained over & over in copious marketing material before the movie arrived, but experiencing it in its full 3 hour splendor in the cinema, it’s truly astonishing to behold. Nolan’s commitment to shooting as much as he can practically, on location, in real places, with real armor and boats and action, results in a movie that feels fully lived-in and visceral and authentic. Nolan’s filmography has always been more grounded, more gritty and real (even Interstellar cutting out aliens). With The Odyssey it’s no different. His fear of depicting the Gods or anything fantastical other than a few mythic creatures and the Laestrygonian giants does feel like it limits the ultimate grandeur of the original Greek poem. It’s not about being realistic, it’s about respecting that the story isn’t realistic, it’s a fable. However, Nolan’s version of this fable is all about the believability of the big screen imagery the actual God-like element of this story of Odysseus going home. His vision is to pull us into this experience, make us feel like we were there, and we have been through all that Odysseus has as well. That’s filmmaking in the most grandest of ways and it’s always exciting to sit and fully experience Nolan’s cinematic creations.
My favorite scenes are any of them on Odysseus’ ship from the first half into the middle portions – shot for real on a real sea-worthy boat in the actual sea. I’ve been to the Greek islands numerous times, I’ve taken big ferries and small boats around these same waters, and there’s no way to replicate this without actually being there. It’s beautiful and haunting and intoxicating and frightening. To see what he captured on these IMAX cameras is entirely jaw-dropping. Especially with these ancient ships in rough waters (ruled by Poseidon)– to watch as the waves bash them, soldiers fly off, sea sickness creeps in, and weariness begins to sweep over like a fog. It’s not realism only for the sake of realism or authenticity. It’s realism for the sake of cinematic glory. Which I am all for. This is what I love about Nolan and why I continue to be in awe of everything he films, everything he creates. He doesn’t need to go shoot on the sea, but he does it because the final effect on the audience, the way it makes people feel watching this on screen, is fully worthwhile. Even the sweeping helicopter shots from above of Odysseus alone on some beach feel more powerful and meaningful because they’re actually shot on real beaches. But this is also where I noticed one problem with The Odyssey–he’s better at these shots than he is at the close-ups & dialogue scenes. Using IMAX cameras for these moments is a bit cumbersome and it gets slightly distracting compared the epic glory of the rest of Odysseus’ journey.
What works is Nolan’s grandeur – this is cinematic spectacle of the highest order and it’s magnificent to get lost in it. A grueling, gripping journey where you can practically taste the salt in the air watching so many real waves splash the ships. What doesn’t work are a few narrative choices in the first and middle portions, along with fight scenes & some action disorder. Nolan has infamously been criticized for his inability to shoot action cleanly and clearly ever since The Dark Knight. For years I defended him anyway, but now it’s plain as day with The Odyssey. The grand finale showdown in the Ithaca palace is dark and confusing and it’s hard to see much of what is happening. Maybe it depends on your experience at your local theater, but this took me out of it. Maybe he’s afraid of showing violence so clearly on screen? Yet this movie is full-on R-rated with blood and violence throughout. Within Nolan’s filmography, his most flawless and finest films are those without much action: Oppenheimer and The Prestige (my top two). These stories do not need as much action and therefore his limitation in being able to film action doesn’t get in the way. But here in The Odyssey, so much of the story is about action – wars and massive battles and fights galore. The grand finale in here is literally one giant inside action scene, necessary to wrap up the plot correctly with Odysseus finally getting back home, but it’s too messy to feel complete and connected to everything that came before.
Nonetheless, The Odyssey is still awesome. My favorite performances include Himesh Patel as Eurylochus who is excellent and the real standout among the ensemble; John Leguizamo as Eumaeus, the most loyal person in this story, the real heart of it all; Tom Holland as Telemachus really digging deep; Samantha Morton as Circe, of course; and Matt Damon as Odysseus. Anne Hathaway as Penelope is good, but she lacked the nuance I was hoping for, instead being too much of a blubbering mess to powerfully hold onto to Ithaca until her husband comes back. Her best moments are where she is tender and quiet, not when she is yelling or upset. While I didn’t feel as emotionally connected to this story, I am moved by how it handles the great tragedy of Odysseus as a follow-up to Oppie’s life. And just like that movie, Nolan has made this vitally relevant to the times we’re in now. We’re in dark times again, humanity has also lost any care or concern for “Zeus’s law”, becoming as vicious as all of the Ithaca suitors. What wowed me the most with this movie is how much Nolan is reminding us of the importance of storytelling –of passing down messages and ideas through stories. This particular tragic fable is thousands of years old yet it has been updated and revitalized by a modern day cinematic artist, becoming as essential as ever once again. Stories do mean something, they always will, and utilizing the visual wonder of cinema to retell them is always exhilarating. Especially in the hands of a master like Sir Nolan. He takes us back to ancient Greece to make us reflect on how we live today.
Alex’s Rating: 8.5 out of 10
Follow Alex on Twitter – @firstshowing / Or Letterboxd – @firstshowing
