The Odyssey (2026)

Nolan delivers a visceral, grounded take on Homer’s epic that blends fantasy with the horrors of war and the pain of homecoming. The film excels through its spectacular IMAX imagery, strong female performances, and a masterful score, marking Nolan at his finest.

Nolan reinvents the Homeric legend as a colossal story of postwar disillusion and the true cost of war, with an epic cast and film-making of thrilling ambition. The critic singles out the gasp-inducing IMAX landscapes of loneliness and full-tilt battle sequences for praise.

Nolan has turned one of the great legends into a blockbuster for the ages, stripping the epic of antique trappings to expose its soul with grandeur and intimacy. The critic singles out the thrillingly all-over-the-place tonal palette and technical brilliance of sequences like the Cyclops cave for praise.

Nolan’s ambitious adaptation stands as his most formidable work, combining epic spectacle with intimate emotional detail and trauma themes in a groundbreaking 70mm IMAX production. Standout performances, especially from the female cast, and an extraordinary score elevate this Homeric tale.

The critic calls it a monumental piece of work and a worthy new translation of the ancient text. They single out the ambitious scale of filmmaking, seamless integration of practical effects and other techniques in the set pieces, and Nolan's thematic focus on human folly, war, and flawed heroes.

Odysseus emerges as the quintessential Nolan protagonist, torn between vocation and family in a sprawling, spectacle-driven epic that feels like a career endpoint. Damon's weary performance and sequences like the Circe encounter are praised, though the film stays intellectually distant from deeper emotion.

The critic finds the film epically satisfying as a monument to movie craft and a moralistic take on Nolan’s recurring themes of memory and empire. She singles out the impressive practical effects, IMAX cinematography, and monsters for praise while noting it skimps on Odysseus’s ego and lust.

Nolan's adaptation is uneven and occasionally snoozy due to the source's episodic structure and some casting choices, but it delivers muscular spectacle, strong ensemble work, and resonant themes of war, trauma, and homecoming. The Circe sequence with Samantha Morton stands out as a highlight.

The critic praises Nolan’s monumental adaptation as a passionate, virtuosic spectacle that bridges art film and blockbuster with thematic depth and kinetic thrills. She singles out the film’s existence as a polished, star-filled studio entertainment that turns the ancient poem into thoughtful pure cinema.

The critic praises Nolan's adaptation as a strong meditation on storytelling itself, highlighting its spectacle, non-linear elements, and strong performances from the cast including Damon as a burdened Odysseus and Hathaway as Penelope.

The critic hails the film as Nolan's purest and one of the most epic and beautiful ever made, comparing its action and scale favorably to the Lord of the Rings trilogy while praising its visuals, score, and performances especially Leguizamo.

Nolan's film is his best yet, a mournful horror story about guilt and hubris rather than action. Praised for its emotional sensitivity and terrifying visuals.

Nolan's adaptation is a humanistic, anti-war exploration of time, memory, and patriarchal damage. The critic praises its restrained staging and emotional depth, particularly the reckoning with war's consequences.

Nolan's adaptation overwhelms with its massive scope, grandeur, and IMAX spectacle but feels messy and drags due to overambition and uneven pacing. The powerful emotional finale, arresting imagery, and sense of wonder provide the main highlights and tie into themes of war's aftermath.

The critic notes that Nolan replaces the chaotic Greek gods with a more distant, moral deity emphasizing hospitality and avoiding war, resulting in a version focused on reckoning and modern virtues rather than divine intervention.

The critic praises the film's epic scale, stunning IMAX visuals, and emotional depth as a love story and homecoming tale, while noting its fidelity to Homer's epic and strong performances, particularly Samantha Morton's.