Hiya!

Let me tell you something this early on: I have not boarded or ever have boarded the Christopher Nolan hype train. I will say I like his movies a lot and he deserves a lot of praise for his works. Even so, I’m not the type of person who will get excited because Christopher Nolan has completed his latest cinematic magnum opus. To me, he’s a good filmmaker, maybe even a great filmmaker, but he’s not the savior of cinema.

What I am, however, is someone who is incredibly interested in Greek mythology. It all started with, of all things, Disney‘s Hercules and its subsequent animated series. I loved learning about the very imaginative stories and those led me to look at the actual Greek myths these stories were based on. So, when I learned Christopher Nolan was doing a movie about the Greek philosopher Homer‘s The Odyssey, I can safely say this was the first time I was actually excited to see one of his movies.

Well, I did see it. I took the day off work and paid my own money to see it. So, what did his self-made Greek myth maiden think about Christopher Nolan’s version of The Odyssey? Well, I can definitely say this is more a moviegoer’s movie than a Greek myth lover’s film in general.

By the way, I know a lot of you have yet to see The Odyssey as it hasn’t been officially released in some territories. I also know I’m in the minority in that I am very familiar with the original story and all its ins and outs. So, this review will be a SPOILER FREE review. I will not be mentioning any major plot points from both the film and the source material to keep things shrouded in mystery. So, yeah. SPOILER FREE review!

Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey does generally follow the story of Homer’s epic poem. The long and drawn-out Trojan War has ended and King Odysseus and his crew set back home to Greece. Almost 10 whole years have passed since then and yet Odysseus has still not returned. This leads numerous suitors vying for the hand of Penelope, Odysseus’ wife and queen of the land, mostly to simply take advantage of Penelope’s hospitality. The behavior of the suitors does not sit well with Telemachus, Odysseus and Penelope’s son. Both mother and son still hope for Odysseus to return but it does not look good. While this is happening, Odysseus and his crew are struggling to find their way back home and their journey is more than just harrowing; it has been downright deadly.

First off, I do have to say I really liked the acting and performances by everyone here. I was a little perturbed by the casting of Matt Damon as Odysseus as I could never really picture him in the role. However, after seeing the film, I understand why Christopher Nolan picked him for it. They needed someone with some really good acting chops for some of the bigger emotional scenes and Matt Daman pulls it off. I also really enjoyed Tom Holland‘s Telemachus. While the character doesn’t really do much in the original story by Homer, Christopher Nolan really expanded his role here and it does work out to really enhance the story. It certainly helps that Tom Holland looks so young despite being… he’s 30 years old? I’m actually older than him by 1 year? Special mention has to go to Himesh Patel as Eurylochus, Odysseus’ right-hand. He does give a very layered performance as someone who, while trying to remain loyal to his master, the time and all of the hardship he has been going through because of the long journey home is slowly eating away at him. It’s a subtlety good acting job I found really enjoyable.

However, for me, the best performances have to go to Robert Pattinson as Antinous, one of Penelope’s numerous suitors and John Leguizamo as Eumaus, Odysseus’ loyal swineheard. While he was already a despicable character in the original story, Christopher Nolan upped the ante here by giving him a backstory to make him even more conniving and vile and Robert Pattinson did a good job of bringing this extremely awful person to life. He was a character you just hate to love because of how deliciously disgusting of a person he was and it looked like Robert Pattinson understood the assignment.

John Leguizamo really got to show off his acting chops here as, if you didn’t know it was him (and I didn’t until I saw the credits), you wouldn’t know it was him! You would have just thought this was a very good actor giving a very heartwarming performance. It was so good I watched the credits to see who was playing Eumaus and, imagine my surprise, the guy who played the lead in The Pest was giving this tour de force acting job! Yeah, I know John Leguizamo has done more serious stuff… but c’mon! He’s The Pest, which just makes this much more surprising!

I’m a little more hit-or-miss when it comes to the overall look of The Odyssey. I will admit there is a level of epicness and grand size to a lot of the scenes. Even the smaller scenes feel very important because of how well the movie is shot. However, I do have an issue with the “sameness” of a lot of the sets. There are a lot of places which just look too similar. As this is a SPOILER FREE review, I won’t be mentioning any specific places which were visited. What I will say is there were times when I just think they found a nice looking beach and shot all of the scenes which had a beach in it in that one location. I know that’s not true but a little variety with each beach wouldn’t have hurt!

The action scenes can also get a bit wonky. While shaky cam isn’t utilized from what I remember, I still did have some difficulty with the action for one reason or another. Sometimes, it’s more with the editing as there were times I had trouble following the characters as the move from one cut to another. Other times, they would zoom in too close, obscuring what’s happening as the action is just a little out of frame. It doesn’t hurt the experience but I do think Christopher Nolan needs a better action choreographer or cinematographer.

I do also have to comment on the sound design of The Odyssey. One thing I was worried about was if I was going to be able to hear the dialogue clearly as this has been my biggest gripe with a lot of Christopher Nolan’s previous films. There would always be a scene where the characters would talk in whispers or the background noise and/or music would be too loud. This thankfully wasn’t the case here. I could hear everything clearly. The music is very… Christopher Nolan-y. You know what I mean? The loud horns which don’t have any real melody but just sound epic? Yeah, that’s what you get here most of the time. It does add the feeling of making things feel big but I wouldn’t buy the soundtrack.

Finally, I have mixed feelings about the story. The Greek mythology geek in me didn’t like it that much because Christopher Nolan did take a lot of liberties with Homer’s original epic poem. As expected, there were things which had to be altered to not only condense it into a 173-minute film but to allow Christopher Nolan to add more things like character backstory and character development. Still, there were some parts of the story and even characters who got the axe here. On the other hand, though, the moviegoer in me thoroughly loved it. Even though the movie is almost 3-hours long, it didn’t feel like it. Okay, there were a few minutes here and there when things did feel like they were dragging their feet but those were very minimal.

The moviegoer in me also actually appreciates some of the edits made to the original story. If I were being honest, the original Odyssey story can get a little repetitive, somewhat stupid at times and also a little too weird. Christopher Nolan did a great job of kind of grounding some of the more unbelievable fantastical elements to make them fit a more “realistic” vibe. Yes, there’s still magic and sorcery involved but it never rises to where it feels like magic is a deus ex machina. This change also makes Odysseus more of a master of his own fate and, in turn, making him come off as more heroic than how he’s portrayed at times in Homer’s original work.

So, in the end, I will say The Odyssey is a great movie but definitely something a Greek myth lover can pick apart. As a film, it feels like it’s telling a grand story and, truth be told, the original work is. However, Christopher Nolan tunes it in a way so it feels more accessible to today’s audiences’ tastes. It is something I’m actually willing to watch because of the spectacle of it all. It does get the bones of the original story right but fudges a lot of the details to make it a better movie than if it strictly followed the story. I say go watch it but, if you love Greek myths, be prepared to get a little bit annoyed.

Byee!

Have you seen The Odyssey? What did you think of it? Let me know in the comments section below!