So...I Watched The Odyssey

an early review of the most discussed movie of 2026

Okay, let’s do this. I can’t believe I’m finally reviewing The Odyssey.

I enjoyed my experience watching The Odyssey. For a movie that had been discussed to death long before its actual release, I went into the theater apprehensive, nervous, excited, and cautiously optimistic. As someone with a lifelong love of the text, and a self proclaimed Movie Person™️, the ingredients for this experience were incredibly enticing.

I’ll start with the good:

- In classic Nolan fashion, the soundscapes and score were epic beyond proportion. The way the music punctuated the script felt inspired and served as a beautiful homage to the poem’s origins, which were likely preserved through oral tradition and song.

- The non-linear structure is a natural fit for Nolan, who has always excelled at fractured storytelling (Interstellar, Tenet). The short, constantly shifting scenes made the 170-minute runtime feel surprisingly manageable. I never felt the film drag, which is an accomplishment on its own.

- I actually really enjoyed the stylized costumes and production design. I know history buffs have taken issue with the historical accuracy, but honestly, it never pulled me out of the film. The armor and costuming felt intentionally stylized rather than carelessly inaccurate, and I appreciated that commitment.

- The body horror and creature design were fantastic. They never felt cheap or gimmicky. If anything, I just wish we’d gotten more of them.

The not-so-good:

My biggest disappointment is how glossed over so much of it felt. The literary richness of the original text is largely sacrificed in favor of explaining everything outright. So many of the themes are stripped of their subtlety and repeatedly spelled out for the audience. For nearly three hours, the film insists on telling you what it’s about rather than trusting you to discover it. Why did Odyssey audiences not get the same trust that Interstellar audiences did?

I wish Nolan had trusted the audience more with this foundational text that has shaped the Western world. He’s an extraordinarily deliberate filmmaker with an incredible eye for spectacle, but spectacle alone cannot be the ceiling for a story like The Odyssey. Stunning visuals, thunderous music, and breathtaking production design all begin to feel a bit hollow when the emotional heart of the story never fully arrives.

More than anything, I wanted the film to have more feeling. More earnestness. More humanity. At times, it felt as though those things had been sacrificed in service of style. And while the style is undeniably beautiful, you can’t cover emotional shortcomings with a louder score.

One thing I will add, is that after 2 years of unrelenting discourse about the perceived “historical accuracy” of the film, the overblown outrage over casting choices, the costumes, and the accents; I can confidently say that every single one becomes arbitrary and irrelevant as soon as the lights go down. There’s something to be said about “discoursing” a movie to death before it even arrives in theaters…but alas, that will have to be a piece for another day.

I enjoyed watching The Odyssey. I genuinely did. But I think I wanted to leave the theater feeling fuller than I did, and instead I walked out admiring what I’d seen more than feeling moved by it.

---

If you liked my review, check out my prequel piece Let the Movie Lie to Me which explores our (sometimes detrimental) obsession with historical accuracy in film.

For more movie reviews, catch me on Letterboxd!