Where do I start? I was lucky enough to watch the film “the way Nolan intended” at the BFI IMAX in 70mm. Of course I was blown away by the visuals and the scale of the film, but I couldn’t help but feel like something was missing by the time the film finished.

 

Nolan really knows how to make an epic, the set design and the scale of production really immersed me, I could feel myself on the edge of my seat. But to me the film lacked the emotion and connection to the characters to really take it to the next level. I loved each section coming up against different monsters but that’s all it felt like, scene after scene, in a robotic kind of way. The film should be fighting to stay alive, like Odysseus, but to me it feels like it floats from one location to the next.

 

The Odyssey doesn’t feel like a story a filmmaker can produce in 3 years, or let alone tell the story in under 3 hours. To me this film could’ve been 4 hours longer, or even have been a trilogy like Dune or Lord of the Rings. The original text is 24 book long!

 

However, for what we got, I definitely had a good time. I thought the performances handed in by the actors were incredible. Elliot Page, Matt Damon, and Samantha Morton, to name a few, were standout for me. All these things coming together to create something very impressive, not to mention Ludwig’s incredible score, using only instruments found in Ancient Greece to fit the atmosphere.

 

I’m very interested to see where Nolan goes next, after making what’s been described as “the movie of all movies” where does a filmmaker go after making the most ambitious movie of all time?

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4.5/5