The Odyssey Reviews: Critics Call Christopher Nolan’s Film His ‘Best’ Ever

Considering how well Oppenheimer performed among critics, at the box office and, eventually, during awards season, the stakes were high for Christopher Nolan’s follow-up, The Odyssey.

An adaptation of Homer’s Ancient Greek epic, much has already been made of the film’s star-studded cast, massive scale and the gruelling shoot that its actors and crew were put through to bring the story to life.

Fortunately, if reviews are anything to go by, it was all worth it.

Critics have almost unanimously given The Odyssey a glowing reception, with words like “monumental”, “spectacular” and, of course, “epic” being thrown around already.

Meanwhile some are hailing it not just as the best film of the year, but of Nolan’s whole career (indeed, it currently boasts his highest score on the reviews site Rotten Tomatoes).

Here’s a taste of what critics have said so far…

“A worthy new translation of an ancient text, and yet another monumental piece of work from one of our boldest filmmakers.”

“[A] breathtaking epic of men, monsters and moral metamorphosis […] This is a film with thrilling ambition, boldness, seriousness, generosity and flair. There are some broad-brush moments in the dialogue, yes, but even these are applied with a muscular flourish.”

“Christopher Nolan’s massive, fearless adaptation is his best film to date […] It deserves to be the film that defines him.”

“The film is a masterpiece in every way […] there is a palpable yearning for primal storytelling and a need for art that can inform and instruct as well as entertain. Nolan has done it. This is the artwork.”

“Make no bones about it: The Odyssey is a remarkable film, and quite a monumental achievement […] It feels like there will be a ‘before The Odyssey’ and ‘after The Odyssey’ line drawn in cinema now.”

“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.”

“When the floor of the BFI IMAX quakes and the sound thunders up through the seats and into people’s bodies, it’s no false omen. It’s a pant-shaking signal that for the next three, humdinging hours you’re in for a colossal piece of cinema.”

“There are delights in every aspect of The Odyssey, from production design to costumes […] that sort of all-around excellence is a staple in Nolan’s filmography, be it in The Dark Knight, Interstellar or Oppenheimer. The Odyssey is truly special even among those, though, making a 3,000-year-old story feel fresh and original again.”

“There’s so much to feel here at a sensory level that the film gets away with its slightly aloof, soul-skirting chill; we leave it feeling that we’ve been to hell and back, and exhilaratingly so.”

“Extraordinarily staged and brimming with profundity, The Odyssey is a thunderous, anti-war screed on the persistent damage of patriarchal arrogance.”

“‘Epic’ does not begin to describe how massive the whole enterprise becomes. And when the time arrives to take it all out on those real Mediterranean waters, the wind could never be higher at the movie’s back.”

“There were moments when the transitions felt too abrupt, and the modern dialogue clunked heavily in places. There are some weird bits, too, not least the way Nolan dresses Agamemnon like a Bronze Age Batman – an in-joke, surely – and the fact that Odysseus sails not in a Greek galley, but a Viking longboat. But as journeys go, The Odyssey is spectacular.”

“Once you endure its opening stretch – an expositional barrage with the pace of an obnoxious cop show – The Odyssey ascends as a monument to movie craft with shuddering ships, rough-hewn landscapes and practical monsters who snatch and grab men at random from above like giant skill cranes.”

“Those seeking the impressive colours that Ancient Greece was known for may be put out by this muted palette, but it’s hard to think of a contemporary filmmaker who mounts a spectacle with as much finesse as Nolan.”

“A meditative action movie both immense and intimate, albeit one whose flow is impeded by the inherently episodic nature of the nonlinear source material and some questionable casting choices […] It’s ironic, given the foundational influence of the text on modern Western storytelling, that there has never been an indisputably great screen version of Homer’s Odyssey, though Nolan, who also penned the adaptation, gets closer than some.”

“There’s little in The Odyssey that breathes. It churns so dutifully toward its predictable conclusions […] that you begin to wonder if it wouldn’t be a better use of your time to just stay home and read The Odyssey.

“We want and need more movie artistry – and more dedication to the craft, which Nolan, no matter what you think of him, surely espouses. But a movie still needs to add up to something you actually want to watch, not just a testament to a filmmaker’s solemn dedication to the hallowed tradition of filmmaking.”

The Odyssey is in cinemas from Friday 17 July.