First, a quick disclaimer: this is not a comparative study of Homer versus Hollywood. Anyone looking for a deep literary analysis should look elsewhere. This is strictly a review of Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey as a movie – and on that front, it is a monumental achievement.
While three hours is a big ask, The Odyssey absolutely justifies the trip to the theater. This isn’t something you want to watch on your couch with a phone as a distraction; you need a giant screen and a room full of people. The scale of the battles is seismic, and it needs that theatrical horsepower to really land.
Nolan’s take on the Trojan Horse is an absolute marvel of production design. First glimpsed half-submerged on a beach, this towering monolith is a far cry from a simple wooden statue. The way this giant structure is transported and then actually deployed to trample Troy is one of the most inventive, jaw-dropping stretches of the entire film.
Even with Odysseus at the center – played with career-defining finesse by Matt Damon – Nolan’s script doesn’t let his sprawling ensemble get lost in the shuffle as the story tracks the decade following the sacking of Troy. Odysseus’ journey unfolds in flashbacks as Calypso (Charlize Theron) urges him to remember what happened to his fallen men.
As those memories resurface, specific key moments spring to life in all their violent glory. Athena (Zendaya) serves as his spiritual guide and moral compass while he struggles to make sense of everything that’s somehow been wiped from his mind. A rush of stunning sequences from Odysseus’ perspective follows, including the sacking of Troy, a terrifying, almost gruesome encounter with a Cyclops in a sheep-filled cave, and the creeping dread of horrifying prophecies he fought so hard to avoid.
While Matt Damon carries the film’s heavy emotional weight with a grounded, weathered performance, the star-studded supporting cast is what keeps the three-hour runtime from dragging. Anne Hathaway brings a quiet resilience to Penelope, struggling to keep Ithaca from falling to a horde of parasitic suitors desperate to have Odysseus declared dead.
Tom Holland plays Telemachus, Odysseus and Penelope’s only child, with a desperate, youthful grit. Playing a son forced to step up before he’s ready, Holland lets us see the lingering kid underneath the heavy armor of someone forced to grow up too quickly. Holland nails Telemachus’ struggle to find his footing in a home with almost no allies left.
John Leguizamo is perfectly cast as Eumaeus, Odysseus’ fiercely loyal friend who serves as a heartbreaking link to Odysseus’ ancient hound, Argos. Nolan’s remarkably deep supporting bench of actors makes the absolute most of their limited screen time, with Lupita Nyong’o handling dual roles as sisters Helen and Clytemnestra and Jon Bernthal delivering battle-hardened gravity as Menelaus. An unrecognizable Benny Safdie, an imposing Ryan Hurst, and an intense Himesh Patel help make Nolan’s The Odyssey feel fully populated by memorable characters.
Yet even in this absolutely loaded cast, it’s Robert Pattinson and Samantha Morton who threaten to run away with the movie. Pattinson, continuing his streak as one of the most impressive actors of his generation, plays the rotten-to-the-core suitor Antinous with a menacing, magnetic arrogance. Meanwhile, Morton is far more understated but no less unforgettable, radiating a chilling, quiet authority as the enchantress Circe, punishing Odysseus’ men for their brutish behavior.
Nolan has assembled a powerhouse behind-the-scenes team to bring The Odyssey to life and separate it from past sword-and-sandal epics. Ludwig Göransson’s haunting score lingers after the credits, practically demanding a second screening just to appreciate how seamlessly it blends with the film’s striking visuals. Ellen Mirojnick’s stunning costumes feel lived-in, conveying both the beauty and brutality of the Bronze Age. But it is production designer Ruth De Jong who is all but guaranteed to be kept busy during the upcoming awards season. Her outstanding visual world-building – including a genuinely nightmare-inducing take on the Cyclops – ensures that even the film’s most mythic heights remain heavily grounded in a physical reality.
Predictably, The Odyssey has already drawn the ire of internet purists, sparking bad-faith debates over two-time Oscar winner Christopher Nolan’s diverse casting, the costumes’ historical liberties, and the cast’s American accents. None of that matters. Nolan didn’t set out to film a dry, sterile history textbook. He made a commanding, uncompromising cinematic epic, and audiences are all the better for it. The cast is flawless, the costumes are spectacular, and if you’re spending three hours distracted by American accents, you are entirely missing the transportive magic of Nolan’s film.
GRADE: A
Rating: R for violence and some language
Runtime: 2 hours 52 minutes
Release Date: July 17, 2026
Studio: Universal Pictures