“The Odyssey”: Great Visuals Can’t Save Nolan’s Emotionally Empty Epic

Despite being directed by Christopher Nolan and shot entirely on IMAX’s 70 mm film cameras, The Odyssey‘s promotion has been centered mostly around diversity and feminism. How much of that talk is true, and how much was done just for the clicks? Let’s find out.

After weeks of controversy and online debate, the time finally arrived to watch Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey. This release had me quite apathetic due to both the insufferable promotion of the project and the casting of every A-lister I’m sick of seeing everywhere. 

Despite not being a Nolan superfan, I really enjoyed some of his work, and I consider him one of the best directors working today. So I was open to liking the film, at least a little bit. 

The Odyssey‘s story and characters need no introduction, so I’m going to dive straight into Nolan’s version and get into that heavily publicized “female perspective” later on. 

A “Realistic” Myth

The first point to discuss is the way Nolan chooses to approach the story. And that is taking away most of the mythological elements, or making them “realistic.” Do you remember the gods and creatures that get involved in Odysseus’ story? They are not important presences in the film at all. 

I’m no expert in Greek mythology, but I remember being quite into it when I was around eleven or twelve years old. If my memory does not fail me, in the myth, Odysseus’ confrontation with Cyclops Polyphemus causes the wrath of Poseidon, his father. Poseidon’s constant interference is precisely what prevents Odysseus from reaching his home for years. This is explained, and the characters know it. In Nolan’s film, Odysseus’ men believe that Poseidon is against them because they heard Polyphemus say his name. The Cyclops doesn’t really talk to them, so it’s an assumption, and the film treats it almost as a superstition. 

Even Athena, who appears to be a constant companion for the hero, does not have the same purpose as in the myth. In fact, later in the film, it’s revealed that the Goddess looks like Zendaya because of a priestess whose execution Odysseus witnesses in Troy. So either Athena takes that form to torture him, or his trauma is causing hallucinations. Probably the second option. 

However, cyclopes exist, the sirens exist (though they are not shown on screen), Circe has magical abilities, and Lotus flowers can erase memories. So, which is it? Is the film realistic or not? 

I know Christopher Nolan can do whatever he wants, but you know what would be nice? A film that depicts every mythological creature, where gods are powerful and scary, and there’s a real sense of adventure. Why does everything have to be sad and colorless? Where is the sense of wonder? 

Deconstructing a Hero (Again)

When it comes to the male protagonist, Nolan’s Odysseus is not the brave and intelligent hero you remember from the myth. Now he is a traumatized man who feels guilty about fighting a war and coming up with the idea of the famous Trojan Horse.

His men don’t really respect him; he is lectured by Circe, he needs therapy from Calypso, and Zendaya haunts him. We all know that being eaten by Polyphemus was the best thing that could have happened to this guy. He spends the entire movie wishing for someone to put him out of his misery.

Matt Damon is good in the role, but from the get-go the script fails to capture what makes Odysseus interesting as a character and fails even harder at humanizing him. Again, Hollywood cannot possibly give us a strong male hero who is not full of psychological issues.

The Same Five Faces 

Is the industry aware that there are millions of actors ready to work? Maybe they are not, for they keep casting the exact same people in every single film. 

So of course, we have Zendaya (God forbid she is missing in some project), Tom Holland, Robert Pattinson, and Anne Hathaway. These four are a must. We only needed Pedro Pascal and Timothée Chalamet for this to be perfect. 

Aside from them, there’s Matt Damon in the main role, Lupita Nyong’o, Samantha Morton, Elliot Page, John Leguizamo, Jon Bernthal, Charlize Theron, and Mia Goth. In short, everybody in Hollywood and their mother is in the film. Except for the Greeks. They are too short on diversity to deserve a spot.

The problem with seeing too much of the same actors is that they stop being believable in different roles. It’s hard to get immersed in the film when I’m watching the usual faces, some of whom display evident “period-inaccurate” plastic surgery. I don’t see Telemachus or Athena; I see Tom Holland and Zendaya in a costume. Add the fact that Odysseus’ army looks like the cast of a Disney movie, and you have the full picture. 

Is The Myth Female?

Oh, wouldn’t Lupita love that? Sadly for her, I don’t think so. 

Most of the women in The Odyssey‘s cast were desperate to tell us how “female centered” the movie was and how much space Christopher Nolan has given to these poor oppressed women who did not have a big part in the story. 

The truth is, the female parts have the exact same impact on the film that they had in the source material. If anything, Nolan actually cut their participation. But why are the actresses saying those things then? Well, because their characters get to complain about the patriarchy on screen. 

Penelope is furious that the throne of Ithaca is considered empty when she has been there all along. Helen sends an apology to Penelope for the war that has been fought in her name. Just to her, the rest of the people do not matter. And Circe gives Odysseus a lecture about men being disgusting monsters (and also potential rapists, as far as I could understand), so they deserve to be turned into pigs. The monologues are pretty bad. Not Barbie levels of idiotic, but you can tell that they were shoehorned in there. 

As tiresome as it is to listen to the same lectures in every single film, these moments represent a minuscule amount of the almost three hours. Had the entire promotion of The Odyssey not been constantly focused on the subject, I would still have rolled my eyes at the scenes, but they would have been something fleeting within the film. So my question is: why promote the project that way? Who benefits from this? 

Not the actresses, that’s for sure. Lupita even got herself compared to Rachel Zegler. I don’t think she is aware of how terrible that is.

The Usual Style Over Substance… But Now On IMAX

You may have guessed it already: I didn’t like the film. But I would like to explain why, leaving all the woke puns aside. 

No one can deny that Nolan is a great director or undermine The Odyssey from any technical angle. Some scenes are genuinely impressive, and with 90% of modern films crammed with bad CGI, of course his commitment to practical effects is appreciated. 

Making charismatic movies is not Nolan’s style, and I don’t see that as a problem. It’s simply not what he does. But adapting The Odyssey called for something different, and that is what left me feeling so underwhelmed. 

Because Nolan had an unlimited budget, the best cameras, the best sets, and all the recognizable faces in the industry, and yet he failed at creating what was most needed: a true sense of immersion. We already talked about the diverse and prestigious casting and about the feminist rants, and I should also mention the unbearable “modern speech” and the irritating soundtrack. All those things took me out of the story, but the biggest mistake, in my opinion, was the lack of focus on the plot and the characters. 

The most important thing about every film, especially if you are narrating an epic adventure, is for the audience to be invested in the hero’s journey. What does it matter that you built a real ship and shot with the world’s best 70mm camera if I have no interest in Odysseus whatsoever?

A great shot can surprise you on the first watch, but I’m convinced that the films and scenes that stick with people are the ones that speak to something human. The Odyssey offers none of that. Even the sense of adventure is lost, with action scenes that feel long and random for no reason. 

Like Disclosure Day, The Odyssey is not bad in the way commercial movies are; it’s bad in a prestigious way. It looks way better than the average film we have in theaters these days, but at its core it suffers from the same emptiness and disconnection as every other thing Hollywood is producing. 

Box Office Results

After weeks and weeks of controversy and speculation, the opening weekend left a global box office of $263,799,900. The question would be: is this the clear win the media says it is?

Some will likely argue that the film is doing well because IMAX tickets are way more expensive than average ones. And they are. But let’s not forget that according to the media, Furiosa’s screenings were empty because people were waiting to watch it on IMAX, and it still flopped. As much as I profoundly disagree with its values, the film did well this weekend because there is interest from the audience. 

Compared to Oppenheimer (Nolan’s last theatrical release, in July 2023), The Odyssey has had a much better opening weekend, as you can see illustrated in the table below. 

However, Oppenheimer cost less ($100,000,000 against The Odyssey’s $250,000,000 reported budget), and it had the impulse of the Barbenheimer marketing campaign that lasted for weeks, as well as no relevant controversies to speak of. We’ll have to wait a few weeks and see whether all the controversy-driven promotion has worked in The Odyssey‘s favor.

Honestly, I don’t think it’s going to fail. At least not extravagantly. There is a portion of the audience that will find the visuals inspiring enough to have a good time, and Nolan has a dedicated fan base that will consume and praise whatever he does. 

But in the rare case The Odyssey does fail, it would have been completely self-inflicted. There are many who have been saying that Nolan is overhyped for years, but he is one of the few directors whose sole name still attracts people to theaters. He didn’t need the big Hollywood cast; he didn’t need the diversity talk; he just needed to make the film and release it. And he would probably have succeeded anyway!

I’m genuinely puzzled as to why he would play this game. Maybe he really wants another Oscar, and he needed to check the diversity boxes for that? And in that case, is it worth staining your image with a part of the audience that actually pays to watch your movies?