The Odyssey

We were really excited when we heard Nolan was making a film based on one of the most famous and ancient stories ever told — the Odyssey. After seeing the cast and the trailer we were almost losing our minds, and when the time came we sat through three hours in the cinema without a bathroom break which was genuinely hard. Turned out it wasn’t worth the sacrifice. But let’s start with the positives.

Nolan’s name alone gives any film a massive promotional boost, and the A-list cast only added to it: Matt Damon, Anne Hathaway, Tom Holland, Zendaya, Robert Pattinson, Charlize Theron, Mia Goth, Jon Bernthal, Lupita Nyong’o and others. The trailer was epic and did a great job building excitement.

Special shout-out to Robert Pattinson, who gave the best performance in the film. There’s something about him playing villains who don’t do their damage openly but quietly stab you in the back — he’s really good at that!

The whole Circe storyline was incredible, including the fact that they pulled it off without CGI, using animatronics instead — which is completely wild! The Cyclops was also a giant animatronic puppet rather than a digital effect. That’s impressive work and I have a lot of respect for it.

I also loved the idea of Zendaya’s character as Athena being the girl his warriors executed in Troy — the one Odysseus didn’t stop them from killing. The fact that the girl he failed to save became the voice of his conscience is brilliant, especially since Athena is the goddess of wisdom, civilisation, warfare and strategy — all of which fit this situation perfectly.

Another plus: the film has no intimate scenes, even between characters who are in romantic relationships. I noticed and appreciated that.

And I liked that the film doesn’t frame Odysseus as a hero at all — it makes you sympathise more with everyone who suffered at his hands than with him. I felt that most strongly in the Cyclops scene, which they attacked and injured for no reason at all.

Now for what didn’t work.

Language. For the first time ever I found myself constantly pulled out of a film by the dialogue. Actors used the word “fucking” several times, which immediately broke the ancient world atmosphere and reminded me I was watching a modern adaptation. And at one point Odysseus says “Our age of bronze is collapsing”, which makes no sense, since the term “Bronze Age” wasn’t coined until the 19th century. It felt like either a grab for an epic line or a nod to an uneducated segment of the audience to remind them of the historical period. Neither option is satisfying.

Locations. Some of them looked like the crew simply found ancient ruins and shot there without any preparation — no construction work, no decoration, no attempt to bring the space to life or hide how derelict it was. It just looks like ruins, which kept breaking the atmosphere.

Performances. I don’t want to comment on anyone’s appearance, but I will say this: cosmetic procedures are quietly damaging cinema if people don’t stop injecting so much botox and other substances that their faces can no longer express emotion. Some scenes lacked feeling simply because the actors couldn’t fully show it anymore, and the frustrating part is that most of these people are not even old enough to need it. I hope this trend passes.

The battle scene. The final sequence where Odysseus kills everyone in the castle felt far too long and more like a typical American action film than something grounded in the logic of that world, even accounting for gods and monsters. I expected something more considered from a filmmaker like Nolan.

IMAX. There were posts on X about the quality difference between regular and IMAX screenings, with a lot of complaints. And worth noting: there are fewer than 1,900 IMAX systems in the world. Around 800 are in China, around 400 in the US. Out of 195 countries, only 91 have IMAX at all. Filmmakers keep saying the cinema industry is dying because of streaming platforms, but I’d argue the problem isn’t the platforms. The problem is that certain films are being made into a privileged experience that only a fraction of the world can access properly. If you’re not lucky enough to live in the right country, you pay full price for a noticeably worse version of the film. So why would anyone overpay for an inferior experience when they can wait and watch it online or just pirate it? When creators make films like this without thinking about most of the world, they’re shooting themselves in the foot and helping the industry fall. Just my opinion.

I understand that my high expectations — built up after so many great films from Nolan — may have coloured my experience. Though I still think my criticisms are fair. Either way, maybe Odysseus had a point after all…