Adventure
Drama
Review: ‘The Odyssey’ is a Spectacular Tale of Myths and Legends that Resonates Because of Its Humanity
July 15, 2026Ben MK
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Whether it's a sprawling, sci-fi space drama like Interstellar or a tense, time-bending heist flick like Tenet, Christopher Nolan's films can generally be summed up in one word — epic. And while his 2024 Oscar wins for Oppenheimer can easily be considered the culmination of his filmmaking achievements, it's abundantly clear that the 55-year-old director is nowhere near being done. Now, with The Odyssey, Nolan has managed to accomplish what only a select few filmmakers before him have ever even attempted — to bring to the big screen an adaptation of one of the oldest and greatest legends ever told. But will this big-budget retelling of the Greek poet Homer's nearly 3,000-year-old tale be capable of standing the test of time like the source material on which it's based? Odysseus (Matt Damon) is the King of Ithaca and the heroic warrior who helped turn the tide of the Trojan War. However, when we first meet him, he's far from the noble ruler he once was. It's been eight years since the battle of Troy and twenty years since he left his wife, Penelope (Anne Hathaway), and now-grown son, Telemachus (Tom Holland), behind to serve under the command of Agamemnon (Benny Safdie). And while Penelope has been obliged to entertain potential suitors in their house every night in his absence, Odysseus has been but a shell of his former self. Stranded on the island of the lotus eaters with Calypso (Charlize Theron) for the past seven years, Odysseus can barely recall who he is and where he's from. All that's about to change, though, as Calypso is finally ready to set Odysseus' mind free, allowing him to remember his painful past and the arduous journey he has been on to make his way home. Having survived such harrowing ordeals as the monstrous cyclops, the witch Circe (Samantha Morton), and even travelling to Hades and back, Odysseus has outlived every member of his crew. His final challenge, however, will come when he returns home, as he'll have to contend with a house full of traitors — none of whom want to see him dead more than Antinous (Robert Pattinson). Over the course of the last two decades, while Penelope has pined for Odysseus' return, Antinous has gone from being the teenager who would blindly follow his former leader into war to being one of the many men who lust after the crown. But much as he yearns for Penelope to choose him as her next husband — thereby finally closing off a lengthy and turbulent chapter in Ithaca's history — he'll first have to deal with Telemachus, the next in line for the throne. A young man who has grown up without a father and who only knows him by the songs that the Greek poets recite to eager listeners, Telemachus has watched his father's house fall into disarray as his mother dutifully obeys Zeus' law. After years of watchng helplessly and sitting on the sidelines, though, Telemachus is ready to take matters into his own hands. Making the dangerous journey to Sparta to meet with King Menelaus (Jon Bernthal), and his wife, Helen of Troy (Lupita Nyong'o), Telemachus hopes to learn something about his father's fate. Instead, what he ends up uncovering is the reality of a world lost to its own ways. And while Odysseus may not actually be dead, the dream of what Greece once was certainly might be. More of a reimagining than a faithful, word-for-word retelling, Nolan's own screenplay retains the core aspects of Homer's epic magnum opus, expanding upon certain key elements while foregoing others entirely, before ultimately weaving it all together with his trademark, non-chronological narrative style. What The Odyssey genuinely excels at, however, isn't its compelling depiction of ancient Greece or the way it keeps even those viewers familiar with the source material on the edge of their seats, but rather how it humanizes the larger-than-life myths and legends of the original tale, never losing sight of the magic and wonderment inherent in its various set pieces, but adding a much-needed degree of relatability that some might argue has since been lost in the roughly 2,800 years separating modern-day audiences from the original prose. Make no mistake, you don't have to be well-versed in Greek mythology to truly appreciate the masterpiece that Nolan has crafted here. For while the spectacle is undeniable, it's really the characters and their struggles that make the movie as resonant as it is. It's a consistent through line that has permeated Nolan's filmography ever since Batman Begins 21 years ago. And just like Homer's original tale, it's also the reason why future moviegoers will one day look upon The Odyssey as the timeless classic it's destined to become. The Odyssey releases July 17th, 2026 from Universal Pictures. The film has an MPAA rating of R for violence and some language. Its runtime is 3 hrs. |
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