Odysseus, the legendary King of Ithaca, embarks on a long and perilous journey home following the Trojan War. Throughout his voyage, he is forced to confront the whims of gods, mythological monsters, and trials that stretch both his cunning and his humanity to the breaking point.
Rated 3.0 / 5 from 10 logs on Katalog
The Odyssey is a 2026 epic fantasy adventure film written and directed by Christopher Nolan, based on Homer's ancient Greek epic. The story follows Odysseus, the King of Ithaca, as he embarks on a long and perilous journey home after the Trojan War, encountering gods, monsters, and mythical beings as he attempts to reunite with his wife, Penelope, and his son, Telemachus. Nolan's epic lives up to the expectations surrounding it. The screenplay is tightly crafted and consistently engaging, keeping you invested from beginning to end. As expected from a Nolan film, the narrative unfolds through a fragmented structure that gradually reveals the full scope of Odysseus' journey, adding depth and intrigue. The cast is full of big names, led by Matt Damon, who delivers a stunning performance as Odysseus. He is supported by an impressive ensemble that includes Tom Holland, Robert Pattinson, Lupita Nyong'o, Samantha Morton, Zendaya, Charlize Theron, and Anne Hathaway, all of whom contribute meaningfully to the film. Visually, The Odyssey is breathtaking. Nolan and his team create a world that feels both grand and immersive, while the score perfectly complements the action and drama, enhancing the tension and emotional weight of key moments. I recommend watching The Odyssey in an IMAX theater to get the best possible experience of this epic film. 9/10
This is definitely not a 2 ⭐ movie nor is it a masterpiece. After hearing mixed reviews I really didnt know what to expect so I expected everything from Odysseus going back in time to destroy the golden apple of discord to faithful retelling of the story. It’s visually stunning even if it has more cuts than wrist of an emo kid, its constant action without filler scenes and still it’s unnecessarily too long. I have read the odyssey such a long time ago that I totally forgot about it, but as I was watching it the story started coming to me and it’s obvious that a lot of it is changed or just omitted so don’t expect it to be true to Homer or you’ll be disappointed. Watch this as a fun action movie not the odyssey and you’ll like it because it’s not a bad movie.
I'm a bit dissapointed. I'm not dissapointed because of casting or design reasons, I'm dissapointed because the whole film feels rushed. Maybe that's weird critisism for a nearly three hour film, but there's not really a moment to actually grasp what we're watching. It feels as if Nolan is just checking boxes. There are some scenes that are nice and actually pretty good even, but the majority isn't. Another thing that actually annoyed me is the visual language. It's not really different from other Nolan films, but an epic without the epic shots doesn't hit as hard. Agamemnon's entry is staged in epic fashion, but otherwise the shots either look like every other blockbuster or they're so short that we can't actually take the whole image. It may have worked for Oppenheimer, but it doesn't work here. That aside, there are some elements that absolutely work. The locations are amazing and the "magical" encounters are generally done well. Robert Pattinson delivers a very nasty performance that sometimes drifts into caricature, but is always fun. Maybe I need to give the film some time, but as of right now, I think The Odyssey is unfortunately one of Nolan's weaker films.
Like many, I have a love-hate relationship with Nolan, I think in some aspects — mostly technical ones — he's incredibly thorough and positively stubborn, while in others — primarily the moment to moment writing — he's clumsy to say the least. After reading the horrendous impressions from the Katalog trend-setters I was fully prepared to dislike this film, I'm usually very hit-or-miss on his films and all the casting announcements (not the racist part but just the sheer amount of A-listers), viral marketing campaigns and the Nolan fanboys has me soured before even seeing a single frame of this film. I'm usually very adamant about separating the art from the fanbase (which is why I'm still able to enjoy things like #[tv:60625:Rick and Morty (2013)], #[tv:45790:JoJo's Bizarre Adventure (2012)] and #[game:12517:Undertale (2015)]) and I had decided that it wasn't going to affect my assessment of this film. Furthermore I hadn't actually read The Odyssey, I'm very familiar with the story as I had absorbed it through pop culture over my 30 years of living. So, with all that context out of the way, let's get into the actual review! Technically everything is stellar (except the fucking Polyphemus scream how the fuck is that legal I literally had to cover my ears because it was so long and so loud fuck you Nolan you're not clever or bold for that shit it's just annoying), the film looks and sounds great yadda yadda you know what to expect. But I did not expect it to be so grounded and small in scale. There's really mostly a handful of soldiers in most scenes and a lot of the magic and mystique is toned down to be more "realistic". Scylla looks like some sort crustacean, an animal evolved to camouflage itself in the seaside cliffs. Charybdis is just a small consistent whirlpool. Zeus and Poseidon don't show up as characters with spoken lines, instead they're the wild sea and loud thunder. I'm not saying that this is GOOD, and I'm not saying a fully whimsical adaption would be worse in any way, but I am saying that this works surprisingly well! The story and themes are a sort of mixed bag, or better yet, slightly wasted potential. I really really like what Nolan tried, and I would say largely succeeded, to do here. However, I don't think he committed to the concept fully and ultimately pussied out a bit. Odysseus carries the burden of normalizing the breaking of Zeus's law into this world. Because of that many around him suffer and pay the price. His crew is punished, his closest friends in Ithaca are bullied and abused for a decade and he himself is punished by the gods for long periods before he's allowed to return home. However I really wish that Odysseus wasn't this stoic, honorable badass from the very beginning. His only three sins are ||the Trojan horse, deceiving Sinon and shooting a pointless arrow at Polyphemus as they were running away||. He's never shown killing anyone who isn't already trying to kill him, he doesn't pillage or rape or do any of that bad shit that's implied to be done by his army. And then they're all punished by death while he has the levity of knowing that he will be fine! Like, his crew has to resist eating Apollo's herd because they're hungry and will die but he knows that he will be fine regardless and that he cannot do anything about it except be a smart-ass. Anyways, perhaps I'm missing some larger point about accepting destiny or some shit like that but I'm not interested in it and I don't think it works well in tandem with other themes of the film. But, ultimately the "twist" with the ||"sea people" and the end of the bronze age I think is very thematically cohesive and executed well but it could've been so much better.|| It was a pleasant surprise regardless! Things I didn't like is the pacing of the film, it just doesn't stop or breathe at any moment. I know that's to be expected from Nolan but I think for a guy who drones on and on about his fellow soldiers and how much he should honor them I sure did not see a single scene of them just chatting or being buddies. There's no levity, almost every line of dialogue exists exclusively to serve the plot and keep it moving forward. Maybe one of the fifteen explanations of Zeus's law could've been used to show Odysseus and Eurylochus sharing a meal and exchanging some warm moments. Or maybe instead of Odysseus looking into the camera and saying ||"this will be the end of our bronze age"|| he could've shared an intimate moment with Telemachus to flesh out that relationship a bit, but Nolan doesn't know how to do that and apparently refuses to get someone else to do it! There are some hard lines here and there, like ||"ten years of rage flooded the streets of Troy"|| but the moment-to-moment writing leaves a good bit to be desired. All in all, I still very much enjoyed this film and I think It's my favorite Nolan flick despite all the flaws. The sacking of Troy, meeting with the dead and the Polyphemus scenes are breathtaking and, as I said earlier, the themes do largely work — I'm just a bit angry that it could've been so much better with just a little tweaking. Might be a 4.5 instead of a 4, I'll sit on it a bit more and I'm sure I'll rewatch it at some point.
Okkk, soo.... This is the best Nolan's work, perhaps ever? Came in with not so big expactions as his films are a hit or miss, big in some ways and in others lacking very much. However, from the first scene, I new I would love each one that follows. The pace is, Nolaesque, super erratic, but still I found the rhythm effortlessly flowing. The story is loosely based on the real work, and for me it doesn't matter at all, because the movie doesn't try to make it rightous nor 100 percent true. Indian and black actors being cast works wonderfully, because their skin colour is just.. There? It doesn't serve a point, it's not relevant to the plot, they are just.. Not white. And so, I loved the characters, I loved how tense the film was (beach scene with the dead was super uneasy), I adored the anti-war thesis which transcendes ancient and modern times, the ending, some of the many twists... How divided and morally grey Odyssey really was, and the burden he carried through his life. I found Nolan did not live up to the task in last couple of films (Tenet, Oppenheimer). He wanted to make something big and deep and important but it came off as shallow, pretentious and rather complicated. Here, he found both depth and simplicity, beateing his former errors and bringing magnum opus to the light.
Like I've read by other people, it is visually really beautiful and stunning. Nolan and his philosophy to do as much as possible without CGI is really felt through the lense of the camera. Besides the technical aspect of the movie where I have not much to say cause they are good as expected, Story wise there's a lot that feels wrong? Like the story is globally good and maybe "basic" but I guess it was also the blueprint for a lot of stories that came out since then. doesn't take of of the epic of it though I felt the grandeur of everything. My problem was the beginning is only exposition almost, at some point I was ready to just say fuck it and watch an resume of the story cause fuck this but I mean that would be weak minded shit. Anyways after the struggle and 30 min with Tom Holland and exposition we follow Matt Damon that does some more exposition (ahaha kill me). Anyways for some time the story takes off, we go from challenge to challenge and with each challenge came some uneasiness in me, the feeling there was something missing and what was missing was me giving a fuck about anything happening on screen. I literally couldn't care less for any character for the longest time. I don't know if the issue lies with me or the way the characters act or are written but man ayooow if they died or not no fucks given. I only got "emotional" when the reasons for Odysseus ||not per se wanting to go back were explained with images of Troy being fucked || Than they fucked that up by repeating it like 3 times ? ( I beg of you I'm not watching my phone in cinema's you don't have to explain everything 3 times) Gosh anyways lots of struggle with how some parts of the story were told, I also feel like it has to do with the lack of time for each event which asked Nolan to probably push the story to go faster, lot's of the challenges could take more time to be explored and let us build up some attachment to the characters and what happens to them. Like I said to my friends, shouldv'e been a series of like 6 1 hours episodes if not more and let's go. Acting wise everyone was okay to me, The illusion worked and some emotions could be felt (eventhough the script wasn't helping per se) Robert Pattinson looked a lot like Mickey from Mickey 17 for me so was kinda hard but otherwise great bad guy acting. Other actors felt a bit blend or without emotion but I guess that is normal for Nolan's actor direction. anyways don't wanna type much more I'm getting tired boss
I expected many things, but I did not expect to be SO.DAMN.BORED. It was just so....boring, all 3 hours of it. The cast is stellar, of course, but my problem with this movie is that at no point did I get drawn into the story enough to forget I'm watching Matt Damon, Anne Hathaway, and the rest. I wasn't watching Odysseus trying to go home; I was watching Matt Damon in a costume, acting. If that makes sense? The only other thought I have is that Agamemnon looked ridiculous. 😭😂
I love fantasy and I love epics. Unfortunately I also love stories and this one is very Nolan. A technical masterpiece that has many cool shots, a handful of captivating scenes, and zero emotional weight. I’m only on book 10, but so far, women make The Odyssey. They set it all in motion and are key in some of the best stories. Nolan succeeds quite incredibly at mishandling those completely. Athena, Calypso and Circe are so butchered I was left a little speechless. The magic is gone, twisted narratively, and their motivations, intentions, and characters are all butchered. There’s something so superficial about all of this. A-listers in every shot, everyone looks cool as hell, but the dialogue, the editing, it’s all so shallow. Nothing lingers, nothing has depth, nothing captures real emotions. The characters with such sinister intentions in the book are all stripped away. Everyone is pale. It feels as though they’re in the movie, but are they really? It feels like a story from far away, and we get only glimpses at who people are. Which is the fundamental flaw of all Nolan films. Spectacle, yes, but it’s raw emotion that stays with you. It’s long, eerie shots that overstay their comfort. It’s astonishment not at technical marvel, but at stories and characters. This does none of that, as usual. The Cyclops is a technical marvel. It’s a gorgeous shot. Yet it holds no weight. A chair-vibrating bassline isn’t a replacement. I didn’t feel anything, no fear, no cunning, no courage. Just people standing on Designated Standing Positions so the Practical Effects Cyclops could be aligned. Very cool to watch, very forgettable. The shots on the open sea taking men’s lives. Very cool to watch, very forgettable. Random metal monsters walking out of a sudden fog and chasing them through a random forest. Very cool to watch, very forgettable. It’s a relentless slideshow of very cool to watch, very forgettable. Agamemnon looking like a child in an oversized costume. Very cool to watch, very forgettable. We saw it in IMAX, which I was told was ThE wAy NoLaN InTenDeD. It was OK. I wasn’t bored in any moment, I just wasn’t moved either. Troy, Kingdom of Heaven or Lawrence of Arabia are more moving, coherent, and human. I would love to see a version by Garland, Herzog, or Robert Eggers instead of Nolan.
