The Odyssey is a ‘colossal piece of cinema’, critics say in rave reviews

The Odyssey, the latest film from Oscar-winning director Sir Christopher Nolan, has received rapturous reviews from critics.

The film, adapted from Homer’s epic ancient Greek poem, is Nolan’s first since 2023’s Oppenheimer, which won the Academy Award for best picture.

The Telegraph described The Odyssey as the “film of the year”, while Metro declared that the movie would “change cinema forever”.

The Times, meanwhile, described it as “a masterpiece in every way”, and the Standard praised the film as a “colossal piece of cinema”.

The Odyssey, which will be released in the UK on Friday, stars Matt Damon, Zendaya, Tom Holland, Robert Pattinson, Anne Hathaway, Charlize Theron and Lupita Nyong’o.

It follows Odysseus (Damon), the Greek king of Ithaca, on his long and perilous journey home from the Trojan War to rescue his wife and son (Hathaway and Holland).

His fantastical journey sees him encounter mythical beings along the way. Meanwhile, the cruel antagonist Antinous has his eyes fixed on the queen while her husband is still away.

Variety’s Guy Lodge said: “A genuinely grand, gutsy vision, The Odyssey thrills generously for the bulk of its near three-hour running time.

“Every few minutes, it seems, it throws at its audience another mighty setpiece that, in almost any other summer studio spectacle, would be a climactic standout.”

There was further praise for the “staggering” set pieces from the Standard’s Nick Howells, who said The Odyssey was a “far more astonishing experience” than Oppenheimer.

In a five-star reivew, Metro’s Tori Brazier said The Oddyssey was “a watershed moment for filmmaking”.

“It’s somehow both the most Nolan-esque film I’ve seen, while being nothing like Oppenheimer, Inception or anything he’s previously made,” she said.

The Hollywood Reporter’s David Rooney cautioned that the film was somewhat “uneven”, but praised the ensemble cast.

“Damon is superb, going to dark places seldom if ever explored in his previous roles,” he said. “Hathaway is a model of steely self-possession masking vulnerability; Pattinson bites into his character’s villainy with gusto.”

Another critic, Deadline’s Gregory Nussen, singled out Spider-Man star Holland.

“His performance certainly seems tinged with the courageous naivety of Spider-Man, insisting on trying to influence those much more cunning and physically capable than he,” he wrote.

“Holland may be playing a child, but his performance is bursting with a newfound maturity. It is his strongest one to date.”

Although there were hardly any negative reviews, some critics said they had difficulty hearing the film’s dialogue in places.

This is frequent complaint with Nolan films because of his tendency to only use audio that was recorded on set, rather than have actors re-record certain lines later.

There was also some scepticism about the dialogue itself, with the Financial Times’s Danny Leigh saying the use of certain words “jarred me out of the past”.

“Nolan has called using contemporary language ‘a no-brainer’. Respectfully, in this case, I would argue it was a brainer,” Leigh wrote.

“Maybe it only clangs because the rest of the dialogue doesn’t, and even a harsh judge is soon distracted. As Odysseus sets sail for Homer’s adventures, Nolan’s spectacle slips into gear… he is a very talented action director.”

Nolan’s other previous films include Interstellar, Dunkirk, Inception, Memento and The Dark Knight trilogy.

“Nolan’s stamp is all over the film – this is intellectual, brutalist, muscular Hollywood fare – yet it never wavers in its commitment to, and comprehension of, its source text,” said the Independent’s Clarisse Loughrey.

“There’s not a single decision here that’s been thoughtlessly made, nor that I imagine Nolan himself couldn’t easily defend.”

Amy Nicholson of the LA Times said the film was “epically satisfying”, but added that it deviated somewhat from the source material and “skimps on the character’s ego and lust”.

“Damon’s Odysseus is stubborn, overconfident and sacrilegious, but doesn’t bear that much resemblance to the conniving, hypocritical egotist of lore who fretted over his wife’s fidelity,” she noted.

“The chasteness of Nolan’s version bugs me as it’s insulting he doesn’t trust audiences to grapple with this hero’s moral complexity – and I’m gut-sick that he’s probably right.”

The Odyssey was shot entirely on Imax cameras, and had a reported budget of $250m (£185m).

Universal Studios will have high hopes for the film at the box office, after Oppenheimer took $975m (£723m) globally.

However, Oppenheimer enjoyed a huge audience boost from the Barbenheimer phenomenon, the 2023 viral trend that prompted movie fans to buy tickets to see Barbie and Oppenheimer on the same day.

The Odyssey is a film with “thrilling ambition, boldness, seriousness, generosity and flair”, wrote the Guardian’s Peter Bradshaw, awarding five stars

“There are some broad-brush moments in the dialogue, yes, but even these are applied with a muscular flourish,” he added.

The Odyssey is “the definition of epic”, according to Empire’s John Nugent, in another five-star review.

“The scale and scope here is, frankly, jaw-detaching,” he said. “It is filmmaking at a magnitude few modern directors could ever realistically imagine, demand, or execute.”

Also awarding five stars, the Telegraph’s Robbie Collin said: “Nolan and his collaborators have constructed a strange, fearsome and trailblazing machine of a movie – by some distance, the best of the year so far.

“Its creator is known for playing tricks with time, and this may be his grandest yet: turning one of the oldest stories in literature into a vote of confidence in blockbuster cinema’s future.”