{"id":786035,"date":"2026-07-07T12:33:09","date_gmt":"2026-07-07T12:33:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/786035\/"},"modified":"2026-07-07T12:33:09","modified_gmt":"2026-07-07T12:33:09","slug":"an-absolute-triumph-first-reactions-to-christopher-nolans-odyssey-are-ectastic-the-odyssey","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/786035\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018An absolute triumph\u2019: first reactions to Christopher Nolan\u2019s Odyssey are ectastic | The Odyssey"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Odyssey, Christopher Nolan\u2019s three-hour version of Homer\u2019s epic poem, world premiered in London on Monday night, and critics who saw the film there and at early screenings in the US have been sharing their takes on one of the year\u2019s most hotly anticipated films.<\/p>\n

\u201cChristopher Nolan\u2019s Odyssey is a colossal origin-myth story of postwar disillusion and a loss of innocence witnessed by the dead,\u201d wrote the Guardian\u2019s Peter Bradshaw, ahead of the reviews embargo lifting next Wednesday and next Friday\u2019s worldwide release.<\/p>\n

IndieWire editor-at-large Anne Thompson called the film the best picture contender to beat, and added that Matt Damon<\/a> \u201ccould win best actor\u201d. \u201cMy high expectations were met,\u201d she added, calling the film \u201cstunningly mounted\u201d.<\/p>\n

Multiple pundits described the film as \u201cflawless\u201d and \u201cbreathtaking\u201d, with others singling out Robert Pattinson\u2019s villainous Antinous for particular praise.<\/p>\n

Erik Davis called the film \u201can absolute triumph and a crowning cinematic achievement from one of the great film-makers of our time. It feels like everything Nolan has been working toward with Imax has culminated here.\u201d The film was shot entirely using large-format Imax film cameras, although it will also be screened in non-Imax cinemas.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe production design is incredible,\u201d continued Davis, \u201cthe action is breathtaking, and the scale is unlike anything he\u2019s done before. What really surprised me is how much he embraces horror. Some of the film\u2019s biggest moments are genuinely unsettling, adding a whole new dimension to his film-making while never losing sight of the humanity at the story\u2019s core.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Davis added: \u201cAnne Hathaway is incredible, Matt Damon is excellent, and Tom Holland continues to prove he can do just about anything. But Robert Pattinson absolutely stole the show for me. He\u2019s so conniving, manipulative and endlessly entertaining to watch. Pattinson leans all the way into the character\u2019s villainy, and it results in one of my favorite performances of his.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meanwhile Matt Neglia praised the set-pieces, calling the film \u201ca colossal achievement of scale, even by Nolan\u2019s standards\u201d, while IndieWire\u2019s David Ehrlich described it as \u201csurprisingly natural\u201d as well as \u201cless despairing\u201d than Nolan\u2019s most recent film, Oppenheimer, which swept the 2023 Oscars and took almost $1bn at the box office.<\/p>\n

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However, Ehrlich also commented that the film was \u201ctoo clunky to be S-tier Nolan, but the last act rewards the journey\u201d.<\/p>\n

The classical historian Tom Holland, meanwhile \u2013 no relation to one of the film\u2019s stars \u2013 defended the movie on X, saying: \u201cI\u2019ve now watched it twice, and it is by some way the best cinematic adaptation of a Greek myth I have ever seen. It honours Homer while simultaneously making something new of him.\u201d<\/p>\n

With an estimated budget of $250m and a considerable worldwide tour to fund, the film will need to take at least $500m to break even. Yet signals are strong that the appetite for cinema-going is currently in the resurgence, thanks to the strong performance of blockbusters such as Toy Story 5 as well as unexpected low-budget hits including Backrooms and Obsession.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Odyssey, Christopher Nolan\u2019s three-hour version of Homer\u2019s epic poem, world premiered in London on Monday night, and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":786036,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[49,48,75,337],"class_list":["post-786035","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-entertainment","tag-movies"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/786035","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=786035"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/786035\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/786036"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=786035"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=786035"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=786035"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}