Nate At The Movies

THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS.

My personal film-loving renaissance began in 2022 under pretty silly circumstances (that aren’t important to this story, so I’ll save them for another time), and as my love of film grew, one of the big events I remember early in that development was Barbenheimer in the summer of 2023. I was determined to see both Barbie and Oppenheimer in order to fully experience the cultural moment, but in all honesty, I was mostly there for Barbie. Morgan and I saw Barbie first that weekend and became obsessed, but the next night, Oppenheimer caught me totally off guard. I wasn’t super familiar with Christopher Nolan at that point, having only seen Interstellar (when I was 13—I did not understand it) and The Dark Knight, but Oppenheimer put my eye squarely on Nolan. Long story short, I—like many people—have been anticipating The Odyssey for a while. Thankfully, Nolan gave me no reason to worry.

The Odyssey was an absolute spectacle from start to finish. There are few other directors I’d trust over Nolan to bring such an expansive, mythical world to life. Nolan and Hoyte van Hoytema translated the scale of the story perfectly; every scene looked as grand or grander than I imagined it. The wide visuals in particular were amazing, and the practical sets, stunts, and effects blew my mind. There were a couple times where I had to zoom out and remember that they had to film all of this somehow; Nolan truly doesn’t make them like anyone else. At times more impressive than the visuals, though, was the sound. There were multiple scenes in our IMAX theater (specifically, the Cyclops sequence and any storm scenes) that got me to the edge of tears simply because of how overwhelming they were, both visually and sonically. Ludwig Göransson also wrote another fantastic score, though I’ll need to give it another listen because its presence was more subdued than some of his past award-winning scores.

I’ve seen a few 3-hour movies in my day, and it’s rare that those movies end up feeling shorter than their runtime. Pivoting gracefully between Odysseus’ journey home on the high seas and a political thriller in Ithaca, The Odyssey flew by, feeling more like two hours than three. The pacing was perfect, probably because there were so many new people to meet, places to go, and enemies to vanquish. After the flashback-heavy opening 20 minutes, the film reached a flow state unlike anything I’ve seen this year, outside of Project Hail Mary. The action sequences were sprawling and intense, with a few scenes in particular (the sacking of Troy, the killing of the suitors, and the Cyclops —oh my God) really impressing, though the movie’s ability to get really emotional really quickly was startling. The Hades sequence—and Sinon’s monologue—was haunting. Nolan’s tilt towards horror in multiple sequences was also welcome, and I’ve heard he wants to make a horror movie in the future? I’m all in; he clearly has the chops.

As was to be expected in a Nolan epic at this point in his career, every performance was spot-on; Nolan brought the best out of his actors. The main three players—Matt Damon as Odysseus, Anne Hathaway as Penelope, and Tom Holland as Telemachus—were equally amazing, and I’d be shocked if they didn’t all get Oscar nominations in January. It’s been a second since Damon held down a big blockbuster like this, but it was clear that he still has it in him; I was just as engrossed in his performance here as I was in The Martian. There was also a surprising crop of supporting performances that deserve a lot of love. John Leguizamo as Eumaeus was the most impressive—that’s Sid the Sloth!—though Robert Pattinson was delicious as Antinous, Hamish Patel garnered an unexpectedly large role and delivered, and the aforementioned Elliot Page brought the house down in his limited screen time. The female characters, while still not as fleshed out as the men, were more layered than I was expecting, especially Helen (played by the amazing and perfect-for-the-role Lupita Nyong’o) and Penelope (who was already pretty developed in the book, but came alive in the movie).

As far as adapting The Odyssey is concerned, I enjoyed how accurate this movie was to Emily Wilson’s translation. I’m glad that I decided to read her translation beforehand; not only was it worthwhile to dive into a difficult classic like this, but I could totally see myself getting lost in this giant story without knowing it ahead of time. The only nitpick I have with how Nolan adapted this story—and it’s one I wouldn’t have cared about if I hadn’t read the story —was his utilization of Athena. Zendaya was excellent in her unfortunately limited screen time, and for how much Athena impacts Odysseus’ journey in the written story, she should’ve been in the movie more. I understand that Nolan was using the Athena pin as a sign of Athena’s presence, but because of how associated that pin was with Penelope, it may not have clocked for everyone that that was a sign of Athena at work (it took me a second to realize, and I read the book). In a movie with a thousand correct decisions made by Nolan and his team, though, I can excuse this one oversight. I’m glad Athena still had a large presence, but if you’re going to cast Zendaya, put her on the screen, not the pin!

Because this movie had been built up for so long, it had to endure an unreasonable amount of shallow criticism, from Nolan’s choice to use modern English (which, by the way, Emily Wilson did, too) to the not-historically-accurate costumes (it’s not a true story) and Nyong’o’s casting (you’re telling me that face wouldn’t launch a thousand ships? Be so for real). I’m glad that those criticisms will be put to bed when people see this movie, because it’ll stop you in your tracks. Imposing, intense, emotional, and grand, The Odyssey was one of the most awe-inspiring movies I’ve seen, and a perfect adaptation of one of the oldest stories in human history. On first watch alone, I can’t say it’s better than Interstellar. Fortunately, I’ll be seeing it again next week in IMAX 70MM, so hopefully I’ll have enough information to make up my mind by then. Regardless of where it stacks up in Nolan’s filmography, The Odyssey was one of the best movies of the year, and it’s a shoe-in to win Best Picture, as well as a bunch of other awards.

Finally, from one film enthusiast to another, please try to see this not only in theaters, but in one of the premium formats if you can. Watching this in IMAX was truly special, and I’m not sure it can be replicated at a standard movie theater. It definitely can’t be replicated at home, so please don’t wait until then.