The Odyssey Review: Christopher Nolan Has Made His Masterpiece

Christopher Nolan's adaptation of "The Odyssey," the epic Greek poem attributed to Homer, is loud, frightening, thrilling, exhausting to watch, visually spectacular, and packed to the brim with great performances. Whatever the Oscar-winning director of "Oppenheimer" endured to finally craft this epic was worth it; "The Odyssey" is Nolan's masterpiece.

I did know, going into Nolan's take on "The Odyssey," that this would be a technical marvel and a visual wonder — it's not like the moviegoing public writ large doesn't know precisely what the man can do with an IMAX camera and his regular cinematographer and fellow Oscar winner Hoyte van Hoytema by his side. Still, you're not fully prepared for the overwhelming, all-consuming feeling of "The Odyssey," which semi-faithfully adapts the poem (and pulls inspiration from other ancient works here and there) and brings the story of the lost hero Odysseus, played beautifully by Matt Damon, to the fullest life possible.

I'll back up for a moment! Ultimately, the gist of "The Odyssey" is "local man faces the consequences of his own actions," in that Odysseus, the King of Ithaca who comes up with the idea for the Trojan horse that definitively wins the Trojan War, veers wildly off-course during his journey home. (Nolan's move is not shy about the fact that it's Odysseus' sheer hubris and assumption that he knows which way the winds might blow that results in his dangerous, death-defying journey back to Ithaca ... and the deaths of all of his men.) During the screening, I muttered to my friend, "Men will literally get lost at sea for eight years before asking for directions." Snark aside, though, this is a doggedly human approach to the story of "The Odyssey," a fanciful tale of gods and monsters that ultimately interrogates and critiques the hubris of man.

I'm not going to pretend that Christopher Nolan isn't a master storyteller; the man knows what he's doing, obviously. I will say that hardcore Greek mythology fans might feel disappointed by the fact that Nolan omits some of the poem's more mythical and magical elements, including direct involvement and interference by gods (save for Zendaya's ethereal Athena, who appears to Odysseus in moments of need), focusing instead on the aforementioned hubris of man.

Not only does Odysseus decline to follow Agamemnon (a well-deployed Benny Safdie) home from the Trojan War, getting his whole crew lost at sea, but after several of his men are eaten by the Cyclops Polyphemus (Bill Irwin) in a genuinely horrifying sequence, he shoots the monster in the eye, angering Polyphemus' father Poseidon and dooming his journey from that point on. Some parts of the story also get a lot more play, like Polyphemus and Circe (Samantha Morton), while others get zero explanation (try to familiarize yourself with the Laestrygonians before you sit down and watch). Some people will quibble with the modernized language; I love and hate it in equal measure as of this writing.

The performances, though! Anne Hathaway's steely, determined Penelope delivers a scathing monologue at her son Telemachus (Tom Holland, the weakest in the main cast by a country mile) that had me audibly gasping. Samantha Morton, a reliable pinch hitter, is spectacular in her limited screen time as Circe, and Himesh Patel delivers a supremely layered performance as Odysseus' right-hand man Eurylochus. Lupita Nyong'o, the Oscar-winner who launched a thousand discourses, is great here ... but plays a very brief role. Nolan knows how to direct actors, obviously, and "The Odyssey" shows some of them at the top of their game.

Small misgivings about adaptation and storytelling aside, the performances in Christopher Nolan's take on "The Odyssey" are largely unimpeachable — this may well end up being the defining performance of Matt Damon's already excellent career – but let's not overlook the visuals.

Throughout his storied career, Nolan has created some of the most indelible screen images in recent cinematic history, from Heath Ledger's Joker sticking his head out of a cop car window like a dog along for the ride in "The Dark Knight" to Haussmannian buildings in Paris folding in on each other in "Inception." "The Odyssey" blows all of his previous work — yes, even "Oppenheimer" — out of the water with its visuals, and on some level, I mean that literally. Admittedly, the editing could have been a bit tighter, and all of the sequences where Odysseus' boats and men are attacked by a vengeful Poseidon's storms could probably have been trimmed and tucked here and there, but the strength and confidence Nolan is showing at what's arguably the height of his career here is nothing short of astonishing.

If you can, find the biggest screen to watch "The Odyssey" on and settle in for an epic journey; I was fortunate enough to experience the epic in 70mm IMAX as God and Nolan intended, and I was richly rewarded. Even with this massive visual scale, though, Nolan's message is concise and builds on what he communicated in "Oppenheimer" — only man can bring about man's ruin, and when powerful men don't consider the consequences of their actions, entire civilizations could ultimately fall. "The Odyssey" is a visual feast and an undeniably outstanding achievement in filmmaking that cements Nolan as one of cinema's all-time greats, naysayers be damned.

"The Odyssey" premieres in theaters on July 17.