Summertime is usually sprinkled with a few large-scale, star-studded, expensive film releases hoping to act as financial tentpoles for the entire year. But this summer hasn’t had many of these tentpoles so far. "Masters of the Universe," "Supergirl," and "Disclosure Day" were released earlier this summer, and none of them made enough money to be called financially successful.
But two more tentpole films are being released this summer. One is a "Spider-Man" sequel scheduled to open July 31st. The other is "The Odyssey," an imposing, adventurous, period drama running at two hours and 53 minutes long.
After reaching monumental praise and popularity with the three-hour biopic "Oppenheimer" (2023), director and screenwriter Christopher Nolan makes an even loftier narrative reach to adapt the famous epic poem from ancient Greece, "The Odyssey." After winning the Trojan War, mighty warrior Odysseus (Matt Damon, "Air," 2023) makes his journey home with his army of men and fleet of ships. But his journey home takes 10 years as he moves through storms, sea monsters, a cyclops giant, the dead of the underworld, and magic spells. "The Odyssey" is all about swords and shields, gods and goddesses, and matching brawn with brains.
Even though this story is incredibly long and complex, "The Odyssey" poem has been adapted before on both the big and small screens. "Ulysses' starring Kirk Douglas was released in 1955, and a two-episode miniseries called "The Odyssey" was released on network TV in 1997 starring Armand Assante and Isabella Rosellini. The most popular past adaptation is probably the comedy heist "O Brother, Where Art Thou?" from 2000 setting "The Odyssey" in the 1930s deep south.
Christoper Nolan uses his expected non-linear style and succinct dialogue to tackle the many characters and many events of this famous story, and you know something? I had mostly a good time watching this.
Viewers often see actors over-reaching in films like this with widening eyes and bombastic lines of speech. Just watch the most recent ancient Greek mythology adaptation before "The Odyssey,' called "Clash of the Titans" (2010), for an example. I was surprised to learn "The Odyssey" doesn’t have this magnified drama. All the actors give remarkably restrained subdued performances which gives this whole film a surprisingly contemporary feel.
A big part of this contemporary feel is the dialogue. Nolan’s adaptation is oddly light with words, and the words actually used are laconic or compact. I understand this decision to make a contemporary succinct adaptation, because it makes the story more accessible and easy to understand for more viewers. But using the word “dad” instead of “father”, the word “stuff” instead of “thoughts”, or swear words to show incisive anger all feel strangely out of place. Those words make it seem like Mr. Nolan is trying too hard to make this film feel current or hip to younger audiences.
Something else I felt was distracting here was the timing. The closer the ending approached, the more I felt the story was being accelerated to get viewers through all the necessary details leading to Odysseus’ return home. In a few moments, this film leaned slightly into being a theme park ride pushing me incessantly through death after death and memory after memory. Accelerating the narrative is something this director has done many times before and I totally get why ("The Dark Knight Trilogy," 2005-2012, is the clearest model of this). But it felt like the increasing speed was too much in the latter half. While sitting in the movie theater, I thought, "Shouldn't we spend more time exploring the emotions or psychology of the main characters instead of the action sequences?" That question was answered with a "No."
I liked "The Odyssey," but it likely won’t be on my list of best films of the year. It’s a wonderfully immersive experience, and I didn’t even watch it on an IMAX screen like its director intended. ("The Odyssey" is the first feature-length film in history to be shot entirely in the IMAX format.) If you’re going to the movie theater, then at least watch this for its sheer technical brilliance. Showing giant ships floating across the sea, the Trojan Horse being pulled past enemy gates, or a stone palace atop a grassy Greek mountain (all captured with minimal CGI), you will be easily swept away by the rich realism of "The Odyssey" and its dynamic visual grandeur. Even though this film has its faults, I have to be honest about something else. Any other mainstream film director working today could NEVER have grasped this daunting material with such confidence, scale, and splendor.
