The Odyssey is an epic fantasy action film written and directed by Christopher Nolan. It is an adaptation of Homer’s ancient Greek epic poem of the same name. Nolan is one of those directors who I am willing to watch anything they do. Considering the amazing films he directed such as The Prestige, Inception, Interstellar, The Dark Knight trilogy and Oppenheimer. I was absolutely hyped for The Odyssey! However, the film suffered a lot of backlash, even before release. Many complained of the casting choices, the costume design not being historically accurate and the modernized dialogue. Are the backlash justified or is the final product better than the complaints?
Let’s talk about one of the big controversial stuff, the cast. Yeah, none of them are Greek actors, they are all big Hollywood stars. Now do they all do a great job? Absolutely. Matt Damon would definitely not by my first choice for Odysseus but he does some a great job in the role. I think he captures the leadership nature of the character well and he does deliver strong emotional moments when he is with his wife, Penelope, played by Anne Hathaway. Speaking of Anne Hathaway, I think she does a stellar job in her small screen time. She really delivers on the pain and grief of her character with the lost of her husband and the stress of dealing with the suitors. There are a lot of surprising actors who appear and I think they all do an excellent job, even when they have small amount of screen time. Special mention goes to John Leguizamo who gives a surprisingly powerful and stand-out performance. Himesh Patel is also another stand-out as Eurylochus, Odysseus’s second-in-command and has a lot of screen time. Robert Pattinson is also great as the human antagonist by giving a performance that makes him so punchable.
I was very interested in seeing how Nolan would handle the more fantasy and magical elements of the Odyssey. I can say that Nolan does a phenomenal job in making magic and the Greek mythology frightening. There are two notable scenes, one involving a Cyclops and another magic, that are so horrific and a real illustration of how Nolan would do a horror film. What is so impressive was how amazing the Cyclops look which was due to the use of animatronics and a practical performance instead of CGI. On top of those scenes, there are a lot of incredibly memorable non-horror moments such as the invasion of Troy, the clash with the giants and the satisfying final act.
The story itself is also wonderfully engaging. Despite the long 170 minutes runtime, I was never bored and was completely locked into the film. The film is mostly about Odysseus perilous journey home as he deals with deadly mythical creatures and the whims of the gods while his wife and son are dealing with the suitors who are trying to take his throne. You could argue that the plot is a bit unfocused as it does involve Odysseus dealing with a bunch of side quest while attempting the journey home but these events are so interesting and entertaining, that it doesn’t feel like padding. Ludwig Göransson returns to compose the music score and he continues to deliver an amazing score. His score perfectly accompanies the scene with his score during the Troy flashback elevating it into an extremely tense scene. Hoyte van Hoytema returns to do the cinematography and its gorgeous. Having wonderful practical sets and designs while shooting on location, leads to some beautiful looking shots. I also found the costume design to be fine. Yeah it isn’t historically accurate to the Greek setting but it is a fictional story and I think the muted costumes complement the darker story well.
I only have a couple of minor nitpicks. One is very notable in the final act and that is the use of shaky cam. There were many action set pieces before this and it looked fine but for some reason the final one uses shaky cam. It leads to it being very difficult to fully comprehend what is going on in the scene. The modernize dialogue was a big criticism before the film came out. Personally, I found it to be fine in the film but there are definitely some moments where it does feel a bit odd. Now there are a lot of big star actors in this film, many have small roles and even small screen time. For example, Zendaya, Lupita Nyong'o, Elliot Page, Travis Scott are not even in this film long. They have roughly 2-5 minutes of screen time. They are fine in the role and they didn’t break the film for me. I do understand that actors would be willing to do a small role because of how amazing Nolan is. However, why pay these actors or singer millions of dollars when you could have just got someone less controversial and cheaper?
All in all, The Odyssey is without a doubt absolute cinema! It is truly epic and a magnificently well crafted film. Even after the credits rolled, I was still thinking and gushing about everything that happened. While I do understand some of the criticisms, I don’t believe they are enough of reason to bring this movie down. Christopher Nolan splendidly delivers on this film and I just can’t wait to see what he does next!
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