first of all thanks to my wife for taking Lev over at this time so I can endulge my autism.
The Odyssey 2026 verdict: 6.5 out of 10.
Cinematography: Great.
If you’re a big fan of great Hollywood IMAX “image over story” pixel fests, then I whole heartily recommend this treat for you. Nolan’s cinematography is, even in a cam-torrented version on my laptop, genuinely epic. And action scenes are nice. My only gripe is probably some of the more ridiculous costume choices, Agamemnon was a hit, the trojan outfit a laughable miss, also the Laestrygonians Llegiones Cataegis looked rather, fakish..
Story: Crap. And yes, I’m going to be biased here and compare it to how I read it.
Homer’s Oddysey is, at its core, a (Greek) Mythological tale of Heroism and Man versus Gods, with an epic climatic ending where Odysseus re-conquers his home and family. Nolan’s current translation of that^ could very well have been dubbed “ the Quest” , and set some time in a post-techno future or middle Europe pre medieval soft fantasy with different character names. And it would have been just the same “ Great” movie, carried by its aforementioned cinematography.
Odysseus or “ the Smart man” is, or is supposed to be, a passionate adventurer who, by sheer whit, will and acts of heroism guides his crew eventually home and takes revenge on those who defiled his Kingdom. In this movie however he, as portrait by Damon, comes across more a war Veteran with PTSD and a guilt complex, who sort of “has to get on with it” diminishing much of his actual heroic qualities. he isn’t portrayed as a praiseworthy hero with a film who constantly elevates his crew, invents or imports material and all in all making him worse, fraudulent and sterile then he needs to be, and at the end honestly leaving me wondering why such a diminished figure even deserves to return home successfully, The end didn’t do much for me apart from find it somewhat satisfactory that Antinous died. One plus point I will grant is Nolan not going at this chronologically, which, for a film and especially for people who never read anything of the original tale, works.
And now before the choir of Nolan fans will go “Awkctuawly Sir..It was Nolans artistic choice to do this and therefor zats a fallacy”
No -> Shit excuse for this kind of subversiveness. Make better artistic choices then especially if you’re a director of Nolan’s Caliber and this is supposed to be your Magnum beeping Opus. Like said: if you want to tell a different story then the original just do a different (original) story...why subvert original works? What’s the point? And its not like there aren’t successful precedents in either his own corpus of works or others... Villeneuve nailed it with Dune, Jackson nailed it with LOTR, Nolan failed with the Odyssey here, toning him/the story way down, which is arguably precisely what Wilson’s/Nolan’s wanted for him. I blame the book as much as the film so 50/50 split on that.
In light of homer’s original work I judge this: Safe (stereo) typical, Hollywood “ Egalitarian” Shlop, of what should be IMO an epic mythical tale.
Which isn’t at all helped by the downtown LA “fuck this and fuck that” Dialogue and accents by the way... which segways us neatly into:
Philosophy/Ideology: Surprisingly and Moderately mainstream.
..The elephant in the room, The dreaded Wokeness factor (dundunduuun) that we got from the trailers and all the culture waring surrounding that prehoc release.
And I was glad to see that, its actually surprisingly absent and very much a non issue.
Yes there’s a black “ we wuz greekz & zheet!” Helen of troy for like 2 seconds, yes there’s a non-binairy “modern Greek soldier" in the entourage who gets pasted in the first minute or so and later comes back a bit Hades style, Chani from Dune makes the occasional appearance. But its not at all bothersome, preachy or on the nose, or in anyway very relevant to the whole thing.. It’s a bit like Villeneuve’s casting for Kines, Nobody except the die hard 4chan basement dwellers will probably care and I certainly didn’t. This movie isn’t woke, Its quietly and safely subversive Mainstream for “ modern audiences”. Ideology wise. Make of that what you will.
Style: Meh…
Nolan’s style of hyper realism worked for batman, it worked great for interstellar me thinks, It worked for Tenet, It sort of meh’d for inception and it doesn’t really work here, Nolan’s choice of using practical effects over the endless CGI shlop we’re used from Hollywood is on the one hand commendable, but on the other hand somewhat misplaced. A Greek Mythological epic, like the Oddysey, Jason and the Argonauts, Hercules, Theseus or Bellerphon would Imo on rare exception actually benefit from OT CGI. Not saying he should have gone the 300 route, but its all a bit too…..down to earthly for my taste. It also doesn’t help that a lot of the scenes look like somewhere in Overcast Northern Europe with Instagram filters instead of a Greece/ Mediterranean vibe.
Soundtrack: Fine.
Again, didn’t see it in Imax and sounded ok through my headphones for what the rip was worth..Liked the concept of not using a traditional orchestra. One of the better conceptual choices Nolan made.
Acting: Not great not terrible,
For the script he was given Damon actually did an ok job (dialogue not withstanding), but not good enough for me to feel genuinely invested him at the end of the movie. Pattenson’s acting was in my opinion the best.
All in all I think Nolan simply adapted the wrong (original) story...But as a film It kept me entertained for 3 hours with my newborn peacefully sleeping on my hand with good points, and bad points.
Here’s the thing though...where as I have films in my inventory that I can watch 10 times over and still be amazed.. I’m actually perfectly content not rewatching this movie again. Not a waste of time by any means, but also not a massive gain or addition..
my 2 cents.
