{"id":352,"date":"2026-07-17T01:43:40","date_gmt":"2026-07-17T01:43:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bigmoviemouthoff.com\/?p=352"},"modified":"2026-07-17T01:58:31","modified_gmt":"2026-07-17T01:58:31","slug":"the-odyssey-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bigmoviemouthoff.com\/?p=352","title":{"rendered":"The Odyssey Review"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Nearly 30 years ago, Christopher Nolan burst onto the scene with Following<\/em>, and his rise to stardom has been nothing short of extraordinary. Fast forward to 2005, when he was handed the long-dormant Batman franchise with hopes of breathing new life into it, and not only did he successfully resurrect it, he delivered The Dark Knight<\/em>, which is arguably the greatest comic book movie ever made. Not content to stay within the confines of standard filmmaking, Nolan continued to push the craft into new and exciting territory, especially as he experimented with IMAX, a format he has long championed. Which brings us to today and his take on The Odyssey<\/em>, the first feature shot entirely in 70mm IMAX. Considering just how epic the tale he presents truly is, it\u2019s no wonder we needed the biggest film format possible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I imagine most people have either read Odyssey<\/em> or are at least familiar with its major elements. It follows the adventures of Odysseus (Matt Damon) and the decades he spends away from his family and kingdom, first while fighting at Troy and eventually just trying to get home. During that time, he and his men face angry gods, the Cyclops, Calypso (Charlize Theron), and the infamous sirens. Meanwhile, his son Telemachus (Tom Holland) searches for stories about his whereabouts, and his wife Penelope (Anne Hathaway) avoids the wiles of numerous suitors looking to wed her and take the throne as the new king of Ithaca.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One thing needs to be said right away: you need to see this movie in IMAX, full stop. People might think it\u2019s a gimmick to say it\u2019s the first one fully filmed in 70mm, but it makes a huge difference. We were able to see it in this way, and even at the back of the theater, the picture was so big it was a feat just to take the whole thing in. But even if you can\u2019t see it in the full 70mm presentation, watch it on the biggest screen possible, as it\u2019s worth the effort and extra money to do so. Okay, back to the review.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The Odyssey<\/em> is a story that\u2019s been adapted across multiple forms of media for nearly a century. Hell, even DuckTales<\/em> did their own take on it. Which is essentially to say that we know the ending and how we are going to get there, meaning a story that is literally named after and is about a journey should be rather stale at this point. There are no surprises, and we know about the monsters behind every turn. Or do we? Nolan takes what is familiar and makes it new, strange, and horrifying again, which shows why he remains one of the most accomplished filmmakers working today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do we really know what it was like to fight the Cyclops? Maybe, but we experience it in a much more visceral and intense way here. Circe\u2019s witchcraft in transforming his men is well-known, but the mix of CG and practical effects gives us a level of body horror you\u2019d be more likely to find in extreme genre films. What exactly is the siren song? We think we know, but in reality, it\u2019s something far worse than we could have ever imagined.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All of this is to say that it feels like we are experiencing this story for the first time, which is something I didn\u2019t think anyone could accomplish, even Nolan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I could probably keep going on about this film for another 1,000 words or more, as nearly everything in it is pitch perfect. The actors don\u2019t just breathe life into their roles; they completely disappear into them (well, mostly. Holland never quite drops his actor\u2019s fa\u00e7ade). The world itself is its own character, dripping with substance and personality. While it is a bit long and you can feel the runtime, every moment is still balanced delicately between being vitally important and becoming too precious or navel-gazing by Nolan because, let\u2019s be honest, no one is going to tell him no at this stage of his career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Simply put, The Odyssey<\/em> is everything I could have hoped for and then some. Gorgeously filmed and acted, with philosophical ideas as deep as the oceans Odysseus traveled, Nolan has crafted a classic. Do everything you can to snag tickets to see this on the biggest screen possible, and don\u2019t wait for it to hit streaming. As fantastic as this is, the experience will be wildly improved by viewing it the way Nolan and the gods intended\u2014on IMAX.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2605\u2605\u2605\u2605<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Nearly 30 years ago, Christopher Nolan burst onto the scene with Following, and his rise to stardom has been nothing short of extraordinary. Fast forward to 2005, when he was handed…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":353,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-352","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-movies","category-review"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bigmoviemouthoff.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/352","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bigmoviemouthoff.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bigmoviemouthoff.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bigmoviemouthoff.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bigmoviemouthoff.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=352"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/bigmoviemouthoff.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/352\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":363,"href":"https:\/\/bigmoviemouthoff.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/352\/revisions\/363"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bigmoviemouthoff.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/353"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bigmoviemouthoff.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=352"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bigmoviemouthoff.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=352"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bigmoviemouthoff.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=352"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}