The Odyssey: Myth, War, and Humanity

Release Date：Jul/17/2026

Genre：Action Epic/Adventure Epic/Dark Fantasy/Fantasy Epic/Quest/Sea Adventure/Sword & Sandal/Adventure/Drama/Fantasy

Director：Christopher Nolan

Cast：Matt Damon、Tom Holland、Anne Hathaway、Travis Scott、Robert Pattinson、Corey Hawkins

Viola's Rating：9.0

Matt Damon is stranded and in need of rescue once again in Oscar-winning director Christopher Nolan’s latest feature film, The Odyssey.

Adapted from the epic poem the Odyssey by ancient Greek poet Homer, this adventurous action fantasy drama epic is full of sword-and-sandal elements and centers on a quest across the sea. It’s even more interesting to cast Damon as the leading actor, considering that his previous characters in Interstellar, The Martian, and Saving Private Ryan also needed to be rescued.

After the Trojan War, Odysseus (Matt Damon) faces a dangerous voyage back to Ithaca, encountering creatures such as Calypso, the Cyclops Polyphemus, and the Sirens along the way.

As a mythology, the Odyssey is essentially about a bunch of gods. However, Nolan’s The Odyssey specifically focuses on the humanity of its protagonist. Although this doesn’t mean that no gods are shown in the film, the number of divine characters and their screen time are limited enough that their appearances can be interpreted as Odysseus’ fantasies or imagination.

While Nolan made a number of changes to the original text, they either convey the director’s core values in making The Odyssey or serve the purpose and smoothness of the cinematography. For example, as one of the three prominent suitors of Penelope, Antinous of Ithaca (Robert Pattinson) is inherently an off-putting character, but in the flick, he becomes a more well-rounded antagonist. Other adjustments related to the scenes in which Odysseus visits the dead, he and his crew encounter the Cyclops, and Odysseus builds his raft to go home offer audiences familiar with the original text a brand-new understanding.

Loyalty is also a main theme in The Odyssey, as seen in the appearances of Odysseus’ dog, Argos, his swineherd, Eumaeus, and, of course, his wife, Penelope, who has waited 20 years for him to come home. Moreover, Nolan adds a newly created character to the motion picture who doesn’t play an important role in altering the original plot, but emphasizes certain core values throughout The Odyssey.

Interestingly, much like his previous work, Oppenheimer, which is also essentially a movie about war, The Odyssey contains anti-war messages, giving itself a more modern meaning as a retelling of an ancient story. Even moviegoers nowadays who are not interested in literature would be able to understand the weight carried by the protagonist and his struggles along the way.

All in all, The Odyssey may not be Nolan’s best picture, only the second-best after The Dark Knight, but it’s definitely one of the best feature films of the year and worthy of being included on the all-time list.

Picture Credit: IMDb