Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey, based on Homer's poem, has been receiving rave reviews from critics and audiences who caught the much-anticipated film at its London premiere. It now looks like Nolan has achieved another sky-high position with his latest fantasy action film which is based on Greek king Odysseus' (Matt Damon) long and ardous 10-year-long journey after the Trojan war to reunite with his wife Penelope (Anne Hathaway) and son Telemachus (Tom Holland).
Early reactions are describing the film as a "spectacular epic" and a "crowning cinematic achievement from one of the great filmmakers of our time."
Calling Nolan one of the "great filmmakers of our time", Fandango and Rotten Tomatoes critic Erik Davis wrote how he was surprised about the way Nolan embraced horror. "Some of the film's biggest moments are genuinely unsettling, adding a whole new dimension to his filmmaking while never losing sight of the humanity at the story's core," he said.
Collider’s Peri Nemiroff called it a "grand and gripping rendition of Homer’s epic." "It’s sincerely hard to imagine any other filmmaker on the planet being able to bring that source material to screen with this much scale, scope and heart," he said.
Audiences have been hailing Nolan for the production design and his set pieces with Matt Neglia from the Next Big Picture describing it as "breathtaking". "A colossal achievement of scale, even by Nolan’s standards, its commitment to capturing as much as possible in-camera using new IMAX cameras is a staggering technical feat worthy of this sprawling yet intimate story of one man’s journey to return home," he said, appreciating Robert Pattinson, Himesh Patel, Samantha Morton, and John Leguizamo's performances.
Jake from Polygon called it "Nolan's most straightforward movie ever" with a caveat that it is also his "most impressive". "Both the epic scale and attention to detail are absolutely stunning. The closest comparison I can think of is Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings trilogy," he said.
"In a world where pride, ego, & entitlement continue to fuel wars & endless bloodshed, Nolan uses Odysseus’ ancient tale as a channel to question what it would take for us to truly forgive our past sins," wrote Andrew J Salazar from Discussing Film.
L.A. Times film editor Joshua Rothkopf called The Odyssey "staggering. Earthy, ghostly, weighty, touched by humor and grandeur alike. It’s pure cinema."
The Odyssey has set massive expectations as it is the first feature film to be entirely shot with IMAX cameras with Nolan admitting that he shot over 2 million feet of film in 91 days.
Apart from the above-mentioned actors, the star-studded cast also features Zendaya, Jon Bernthal, Elliot Page, Charlize Theron, and Lupita Nyong'o, among others. Nolan and his wife Emma Thomas are producing the film through their production company, Syncopy.
The Odyssey is slated for release in theatres on July 17.