Review of the IMAX film ‘The Odyssey’ (2026)
Different sources from ancient Greek Literature tell the legend of a war fought by Achaeans against Trojans, ending up with the destruction of Troy.
The Odyssey, in particular, is a mythological poem composed by bard Homer about the fate of Odysseus, also called Ulysses, after the war. If you jump to the data sheet at the end of this review, you will find the genre of this film: Fantasy. For the scope of this review, Mythology is just Fantasy once intended to be taken as truth. All kind of fantastic creatures appear in the story: Gods, Cyclops, Giants, Sirens… Odysseus, King of Ithaca, takes his ships in a route towards home, but comes across many detours and misadventures. Some gods favour the return of Odysseus, such as Athena and Hermes, whilst others oppose it, such as Poseidon and Calypso. Homer makes a innovative narrative decision: instead of starting at the beginning of the trip, Homer starts the narration at the end and wraps it in a conflict: the delicate situation of Queen Penelope and Prince Telemachus at Ithaca, where Odysseus is believed dead and many suitors pressure Queen Penelope to marry a new King. Young Telemachus starts his own search for Odysseus, while at the same time, somewhere, Odysseus tells his story to an audience.
Nolan’s 172-minute adaptation manages to respect Homer’s original structure and to tell the essential events with enough attention to detail, which is an achievement. Nolan manages to tell so much in so little time because of writing dialogues that, in spite of being short, manage to convey all of the essential information. Besides that, Nolan makes a series of choices:
Erase the gods from the story: Only Calypso appears, but she’s never introduced as a goddess and Odysseus even dismisses that possibility. As for Athena, she does not really appear as a goddess but instead as an hallucination from Odysseus.
Make it serious: Take out all of the comedic or vaguely comedic parts.
Make all encounters hostile: Every time Odysseus and his men come across strangers, the encounter becomes hostile, and many times it does so immediately and without a single attempt to communicate. It gets to a point where it becomes cartoonesque.
Make Odysseus regretful: Nolan touches the theme of war veterans failing to return home because of war still being inside them, with Odysseus being traumatised and saying that he doesn’t want to return. However this does not happen because of spending so many years in a war or losing so many companions – it is because of Odysseus’ conscience about the destruction of Troy. Now, regret from taking part in war crimes would be a right choice to add to any character – except for Odysseus himself, where it does not make sense because of himself always being ready to spill more blood.
Include the story of the Horse of Troy, referenced at Homer’s Odyssey but frustratingly omitted. This happens probably because at Homer’s time that story was already told through other works, but at present those works are lost and we only know the story through the much later work The Aeneid.
Introduce the character of Sinon from The Aeneid, make it poor and related to rich Antinous through an unfulfilled promise, thus introducing the struggle of classes in the story – and also, Odysseus can learn of the resentment of Sinon over his command.
Leave undefined most of Odysseus’ companions: Eurylochus is the only well-defined one, the rest are a mass of undistinguishable people.
Have some unrealistic details: Odysseus’ men wearing combat armour at all times; Menelaus and sometimes Odysseus shooting arrows in target without aiming.
Let’s say that Nolan’s script is solid, but not brilliant. But if Nolan’s script has some flaws, Nolan’s direction is excellent. Brilliant scenography, a great sense of rhythm that does make the film look short, and the signs of a good acting direction. Nolan has also a pedagogical approach that helps the spectator not to get lost inside a story so dense, showing quick flashbacks whenever a past event is referenced. As usual, Nolan chooses the film to be low on light and colour, and the excellent cinematography from Hoyte van Hoytema delivers that result. The music, as in the two previous films, is theme-less music composed by Ludwig Göransson, who has better himself, going from the lacking score for ‘Tenet’ to the good score for ‘Oppenheimer’ to this great score for ‘The Odyssey’ that plays no themes but suits the action perfectly.
Time to speak about the image. This is said to be the first feature film entirely filmed with IMAX cameras. Well, I am not sure of that, but I will tell you what I know. Since the invention of sound film, an issue arises: cameras using film, that has to be moved with a motor, make noise that pollute the sound recording – so in order to get a clean sound, Studios have to resort to re-record the entire sound for the film in a sound studio, including the sound effects and the actors recording their lines while lip syncing to the images. It is only since ‘Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the clones’ (2002) that films begin to be filmed with digital cameras that use no film and are silent enough as to allow direct sound recording of the action. This is the novelty for “The Odyssey”: IMAX develops new cameras that still use film but are silent enough to allow direct sound recording of the action.
‘The Odyssey’ is fully filmed with IMAX cameras with a 1.43:1 aspect ratio, and it is shown in that same way in IMAX cinemas. However, watching it in regular cinemas presents two hindrances:
Small hindrance: In order to adapt the image to a 2.20:1 aspect ratio, the width of the image is preserved but the height not, the top and bottom of the image being cut off. This hindrance is small, because of the image being carefully framed as to always keep the relevant action in. In the entire film there are only a couple of moments where something is missing – people waking towards the castle of Ithaca and the top of the castle being off the top of the screen, or Odysseus and Athena walking together and Odysseus’ head being half-off the bottom of the screen. Almost unnoticeable.
Medium hindrance: The high quality of IMAX cameras comes with a trade-off, a depth of field thinner than the one provided by 35mm films. Because of the thin depth of field, in some group scenes there are actors noticeably off-focus. Watching a film filmed with IMAX cameras in a regular cinema gets the worst of both worlds: loss of the higher quality (even though the quality is good nevertheless) and some of the action being off-focus. It does not ruin the experience, but is definitely noticeable.
Is ‘The Odyssey’ worth to watch in IMAX format? My verdict is: not really. The image is better but the advantage not so much. A small reflection off the review here: Nolan is the filmmaker doing the most to promote the IMAX format, but he is not the one profiting the most from it. Nolan likes his scenes dark and close-up, not light and wide. His focus is in the story, not in providing astonishing views. So, his films are not that much better in IMAX format compared to regular format. Dennis Villeneuve, for instance, profits more from the IMAX format than Christopher Nolan does.
Time to review the acting:
Weak acting by Benny Safdie as an Agammenon only in size, that succeeds in wearing an impressive armour but fails to act either by voice or by body expression. Not weak acting but weak casting for Helen and Clytemnestra, both played by Lupita Nyong'o - she is to represent Helen, the most beautiful mortal woman, but she is not even the most beautiful actress in the film.
Good acting from Travis Scott, Tom Holland, Elliot Page, Ryan Hurst, Logan Marshall-Green, Zendaya, John Ales, Mia Goth, Will Yun Lee and Brian Vernel. Also good acting by Robert Pattinson, playing a villain in classic British style. Also good, but no more, Matt Damon - his quality of representing transparent characters makes himself good for blockbusters but works against him for this role that requires depth.
Highlighted acting from Jarreth Merz, Himesh Patel, Charlize Theron, Jon Bernthal, Kate Fuglei, and Samantha Morton.
Excellent acting from Anne Hathaway, John Leguizamo and James Remar,
All in all, an excellent classical story. 4 out of 5.
Title: |
The Odyssey |
Genre: |
Fantasy |
Year: |
2026 |
Nationality: |
United Kingdom, United States |
Colour: |
Colour |
Director: |
Christopher Nolan |
Writer: |
Christopher Nolan, Homer |
Cast: |
Travis Scott, Matt Damon, Robert Pattinson, Corey Hawkins, Jarreth Merz, Niko Nicotera, Tom Holland, Elliot Page, Shiloh Fernandez, Rafi Gavron, Anne Hathaway, Elyes Gabel, Iddo Goldberg, Jamie Harris, John Ales, Raimy Lang, Mason Cufari, John Leguizamo, Mia Goth, Ryan Hurst, Kate Fuglei, Benny Safdie, Adam Croasdell, Mickey Shilowich, Katerina Antemel Mpa, Himesh Patel, Jovan Adepo, Andrew Howard, Josh Stewart, Logan Marshall-Green, Nick Tarabay, Charlize Theron, Zendaya, Jon Bernthal, Jimmy Gonzales, Jesse Garcia, Ryan de Quintal, Will Yun Lee, Anthony Molinari, Stephen Murphy, Matt Lasky, Ian Casselberry, Sean Avery, Yannis Kokiasmenos, Bill Irwin, Maurice Compte, Lupita Nyong'o, Xavier Brown, Jessie Cohen, Chess Lopez, Craig Gellis, Artoun Nazareth, Chris Riggi, Tyler Beardsley, Daniel Dorr, Barnaby Nolan, John King, Samantha Morton, James Remar, Brian Vernel, Michael Vlamis, Kamden Riley |
Producer: |
Christopher Nolan, Emma Thomas |
Executive producer: |
Thomas Hayslip |
Production designer: |
Ruth De Jong |
Cinematographer: |
Hoyte van Hoytema |
Film editor: |
Jennifer Lame |
Casting: |
John Papsidera |
Art Director: |
Jake Cavallo, Dafni Kalogianni, Samuel Leake, Aline Leonello, Silvia Stroppa |
Set Decorator: |
Larry Dias |
Costume Designer: |
Ellen Mirojnick |
Music: |
Ludwig Göransson |
Running time: |
172 minutes |
Language: |
English |
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