150 Word Review: 'The Odyssey' (2026)
Road trip!
The (only?) flaw in director Christopher Nolan’s earnest, spare-no-expense, anti-war adaptation of the ancient epic poem The Odyssey is familiar: he’s a deeply sentimental, serious-minded storyteller trapped in the body of a brilliant, technically proficient popcorn-movie mythmaker.
He desperately wants his audiences to weep. The loyal old dog almost wrecked me. Matt Damon gives a career-best performance as Odysseus, a middle-aged warrior lost at sea who isn’t as clever as he thinks. The practical and in-camera effects are transporting: a cyclops, armored giants, a witch sculpting men into pigs. Anne Hathaway is powerful as Penelope, the brave wife who waits. Samantha Morton, Elliot Page, and Zendaya are striking and vulnerable. The Odyssey is intoxicating at times. Occasionally apocalyptic. The fall of Troy is a tragedy. The final act is pure Jason Bourne and the Argonauts. Nolan dramatizes Western Civilization’s timeless values. Be kind. Show mercy. Don’t piss off the gods.
RANDOM RANKING
Top 5 Christopher Nolan movies [UPDATED]
5. ‘The Prestige’ (2006)
3. ‘Dunkirk’ (2017)
2. ‘The Dark Knight’ (2008)
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