{"id":14746,"date":"2026-07-17T15:56:14","date_gmt":"2026-07-17T19:56:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/?p=14746"},"modified":"2026-07-17T15:57:50","modified_gmt":"2026-07-17T19:57:50","slug":"the-odyssey","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/2026\/07\/17\/the-odyssey\/","title":{"rendered":"The Odyssey"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"The Odyssey<\/strong> (2026)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Universal\/Fantasy-Action\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 172 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated R (violence and some language)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Christopher Nolan\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Christopher Nolan\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Ludwig Goransson\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Hoyte van Hoytema\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: July 17, 2026 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Matt Damon, Tom Holland, Anne Hathaway, Robert Pattinson, Lupita Nyong\u2019o, Samantha Morton, John Leguizamo, Zendaya, Charlize Theron, Elliot Page, Jon Bernthal, Corey Hawkins, Mia Goth, Logan Marshall-Green, Ryan Hurst, Himesh Patel, Will Yun Lee, Jimmy Gonzalez, Andrew Howard, Jovan Adepo, Jesse Garcia, Josh Stewart, Sean Avery, Anthony Molinari, Iddo Goldberg, Michael Vlamis, Benny Safdie, Bill Irwin, James Remar, Elyes Gabel, Kate Fuglei, Travis Scott.<\/p>\n

Rating<\/strong>: ****<\/p>\n

\u00a0The wait is over. The Odyssey<\/strong>, the year\u2019s most anticipated movie, is finally here. Does it live up to the hype it\u2019s been getting for the past year? It sure does! It\u2019s not only the best movie of the summer; it\u2019s one of the best of the year. I predict we\u2019ll be hearing a lot about it come Oscar time.<\/p>\n

\u00a0The Odyssey <\/strong>is a true epic in every sense of the word. It\u2019s a brilliant, exciting, visually stunning adaptation of the epic poem by Homer. It\u2019s been brought to life by Christopher Nolan, the man who successfully resurrected Batman and dropped us right in the middle of the Dunkirk evacuation before teaching us about the tortured physicist behind the first WMD. Now he takes us on a journey through Greek mythology is his telling of the tale about Odysseus and his long, long journey home after the Trojan War. He gives The Odyssey<\/strong> the treatment it deserves I\u2019m happy to say.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Nolan, who writes and directs, takes a non-linear approach to The Odyssey<\/strong>. He divides the film\u2019s nearly three-hour run time between three narratives. The first has Odysseus (Damon, The Bourne Identity) on an island with the nymph Calypso (Theron, Monster) trying to remember how he came to be there. She\u2019s been feeding him lotus flowers in a deliberate attempt to keep him there, but she\u2019s had a change of heart. She helps him remember his ordeal trying to get home to Ithaca after his victory at Troy. She also lets him recall the family he left behind twenty years earlier.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Back home in Ithaca, Odysseus\u2019 wife Penelope (Hathaway, The Devil Wears Prada 1 & 2) is under a lot of pressure to remarry. Almost everybody believes he husband is dead leaving Ithaca without a king. There are many suitors jockeying for the position with the nobleman Antinous (Pattinson, The Batman) leading the pack. Penelope wants none of it and keeps stalling the guys who have basically taken over the home she shares with her and Odysseus\u2019 son Telemachus (Holland, the Spider-Man movies). He eventually decides to strike out on his own to find out what happened to his father.<\/p>\n

\u00a0No adaptation of The Odyssey<\/strong> would be complete without an account of Odysseus\u2019 adventure as he and his men face one obstacle after another trying to return to their home. Why are they having all this trouble? It seems the gods are angry with Odysseus for what he did in Troy. And, of course, there\u2019s that nasty business with Cyclops (Irwin, How the Grinch Stole Christmas), the son of Poseidon. The whole time, the goddess Athena (Zendaya, the Spider-Man movies) keeps appearing to Odysseus to stoke his guilt.<\/p>\n

\u00a0The term \u201coverpraise\u201d doesn\u2019t apply to The Odyssey<\/strong>. \u201cEpic\u201d, on the other hand, does. It really is that great. It\u2019s also huge. It belongs in the same class as Lawrence of Arabia and Peter Jackson\u2019s Lord of the Rings trilogy. It was filmed in IMAX 70mm and that\u2019s exactly how it should be seen. It\u2019s a grand-scale movie with a cast of thousands (as they used to say). The special effects are amazing. It\u2019s CGI, but it doesn\u2019t take you out of the picture like the CG imagery in the woeful Clash of the Titans remake in 2010. Scylla the sea monster looks especially impressive. The battle scenes are well orchestrated thanks in no small part to the deft editing by Jennifer Lame (Oppenheimer).<\/p>\n

\u00a0You don\u2019t see too many movies with all-star casts anymore. That\u2019s another reason I love The Odyssey<\/strong>. Nolan cast some interesting actors starting with Matt Damon. I\u2019ll be honest. I didn\u2019t think he could pull it off. I just couldn\u2019t see him as Odysseus. Well, he crushes it. He adds depth to Odysseus playing him as more than just the hero of an old story. His Odysseus is a complicated man dealing with the psychological toll demanded of his \u201cheroic\u201d actions. He witnesses the slaughter of innocent people including woman and children. He believes he deserves the punishments meted out by the gods. I realize this is very 21st<\/sup> century, but it adds to rather than takes away.<\/p>\n

\u00a0The rest of the cast does stellar work, especially Pattinson as the vilest of all the suitors. He makes you hate him from the moment he appears on-screen. Hathaway does a fine job as Penelope, the queen who doesn\u2019t want to believe she\u2019s a widow. She has to hold onto hope that her long-absent husband is alive and on his way home. Holland gives a solid performance as the prince not quite ready to assume the throne.<\/p>\n

\u00a0The name cast also includes John Leguizamo (John Wick) as Eumaeus, Odysseus\u2019 faithful servant; Samantha Morton (Minority Report) as the witch Circe; Lupita Nyong\u2019o (A Quiet Place: Day One) as Helen of Troy and Elliot Page (The Umbrella Academy) as a young soldier. They all do a good job. Also, look closely for James Remar (48 Hrs.) who appears briefly in the scene in Hades.<\/p>\n

\u00a0WOW! I don\u2019t know what more I can say about The Odyssey<\/strong>. It\u2019s exciting and intelligent. It\u2019s long but never boring. It includes the bit about the Trojan Horse which wasn\u2019t in the poem, but whatever. It\u2019s a cool scene. I absolutely LOVE this movie. You should definitely get out and see it.<\/p>\n

P.S. I saw it in regular format because my local multiplex doesn\u2019t offer IMAX. I\u2019m planning to see it in IMAX 70mm next week. I\u2019ll add to my review afterwards. Stay tuned.\"\"<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Odyssey (2026)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Universal\/Fantasy-Action\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 172 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated R (violence and some language)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Christopher Nolan\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Christopher Nolan\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Ludwig Goransson\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Hoyte van Hoytema\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: July 17, 2026 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Matt Damon, Tom Holland, Anne Hathaway, Robert Pattinson, Lupita Nyong\u2019o, Samantha Morton, John Leguizamo, Zendaya, Charlize Theron, Elliot Page, Jon Bernthal, Corey […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":14748,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[41],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14746","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-now-playing"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/The-Odyssey-POSTER.jpg?fit=620%2C981&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14746","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14746"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14746\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14749,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14746\/revisions\/14749"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14748"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14746"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14746"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14746"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}