01/08/2026

LYFE SATURDAY | AUG 1, 2026

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MOVIE REVIEW

Throughout the film, Odysseus (Damon, left) faces the silent judgment of Athena (Zendaya).

Nolan’s epic take on The Odyssey Odysseus (centre) leads his crew on the dangerous voyage home from Troy. – ALL PICS FROM IMDB

Ű BY AMEEN HAZIZI

C HRISTOPHER Nolan’s The Odyssey has a stellar cast delivering stellar performances. It looks incredible, sounds enormous and feels like an ancient world dragged onto the screen. Beneath the battles, monsters and seas is one of Nolan’s most introspective films. Odysseus is haunted by what he did to win the Trojan War, turning his journey home into a reckoning with the violence he unleashed. It recalls Oppenheimer (2023), with both films following brilliant men who change history through their ideas before confronting the destruction they enabled. Matt Damon plays Odysseus as a hardened commander. He devised the

Trojan Horse, ended a decade-long war and gave the Greeks victory, but there is little glory waiting afterwards. The film first presents Troy’s destruction as an action sequence before returning to reveal civilians being murdered and women dragged from their homes. It exposes Odysseus as an unreliable narrator. His stories contain Cyclopes, giants and gods, but the real monsters are sometimes the men telling them. Hero with bloodied hands Damon gives one of his strongest performances. His physical transformation makes Odysseus believable as a warrior, while his face carries the pride, exhaustion and guilt underneath. Nolan uses the concept of xenia , or hospitality, as the film’s moral foundation. Strangers must be welcomed because any visitor could be a god in disguise. Odysseus and his men expect food and shelter wherever they go, yet rarely consider their responsibilities as guests. The Cyclops, Circe and the Laestrygonian giants challenge their belief that Greeks are civilised. The iron-clad giants resemble versions of the soldiers who destroyed Troy, tearing through Odysseus’s men as easily as the Greeks slaughtered the Trojans. Nolan approaches the mythology through horror. Poseidon is the sea, Hades is the underworld and Zeus is represented through the law of hospitality. The gods may never appear in straightforward physical forms, but their wrath feels real. Hoyte van Hoytema’s cinematography is excellent. Real coastlines, ships, fortifications and practical sets give the film the physical scale Nolan brought to Dunkirk (2017). The blood, sweat, seawater and dirt make everything feel real, with the work behind the production visible in every frame. The Imax cameras create a limitation. Their magazines can record for three minutes before requiring a reload, and no shot exceeds that boundary. Across a three-hour film, the restriction becomes apparent. Nolan and editor Jennifer Lame keep

o Homer’s classic returns with visually arresting blood, guilt across seas

everything sometimes denying its strongest images and most painful encounters enough time to breathe. Nolan’s insistence on Imax feels almost anti-art when so few cinemas can show The Odyssey in its intended 70mm format. Malaysia has Imax with Laser screens, including the country’s largest Imax auditorium at TGV Sunway Velocity, but no 70mm venue. Nolan shares some responsibility, although the Imax company deserves greater blame for promoting a definitive format that most audiences cannot access. Kings, queens and pretenders Benny Safdie’s Agamemnon gives off strong Darth Vader vibes. His armour, obscured face and gloomy appearance give him absolute aura, making it funny when the man underneath proves rather useless. It is also difficult to buy Safdie as the older brother of Jon Bernthal’s visibily older Menelaus. Agamemnon lets others take the risks, accepts Odysseus’s victory and later dies in vain at home. His spotless armour surrounds a weak man who benefits from the courage and cruelty of those beneath him. Anne Hathaway’s Penelope hides rage at the society keeping her trapped while deeply missing her husband. Surrounded by suitors who treat her as a prize, she never becomes a wife who merely waits for Odysseus. Himesh Patel is excellent as Eurylochus, Odysseus’s doubtful second-in-command. The script gives him little explanation, yet Patel communicates loyalty, exhaustion and frustration through his expressions. His loss of faith in Odysseus becomes painful. Robert Pattinson’s Antinous is a villain audiences love to hate. He is arrogant, entitled and ready to threaten anyone weaker. His bulky armour, despite his lack of battle experience, exposes an insecure pretender who mistakes intimidation for strength. John Leguizamo brings humour and affection to Eumaeus, Odysseus’s faithful servant. He remembers his moving,

0 Director: Christopher Nolan

0 Cast: Matt Damon, Tom Holland, Anne Hathaway, Robert Pattinson, Lupita Nyong’o, Zendaya, Charlize Theron,

Jon Bernthal, Benny Safdie, Himesh Patel, John Leguizamo, Elliot Page E-VALUE

10

ACTING

9

PLOT

Penelope (Hathaway, left) and Telemachus (Holland) struggle to protect their home without Odysseus.

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little bronze. The iron-clad giants may represent the harsher age approaching after Troy, but the symbolism cannot completely excuse how little the film resembles the period it names. The lack of Greek or Mediterranean actors among the principal cast also creates distance from the story’s origins. Nolan enjoys returning to familiar performers, but this was an opportunity to place actors from the region at its centre. Comparisons with other interpretations are unavoidable. Troy (2004) romanticised its warriors, while The Return (2024) removed most of the mythology to focus on the damage Odysseus brings home. Even The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie (2004) found comedy and adventure within the journey. These films show why Homer’s story has endured for almost 3,000 years: Every generation finds a different way to interpret its heroes, monsters and journey home. The Odyssey is one of Nolan’s most ambitious projects and it pays off. One has to wonder what is next for one of modern cinema’s greatest directors.

master as a hard but fair man, making a small role one of the film’s most human performances. Elliot Page and Zendaya haunt the narrative despite their screen time. Page’s vulnerable Sinon represents the soldiers Odysseus treats as expendable, while Zendaya’s Athena takes the form of a Trojan woman beheaded before him. Their faces turn his memories into accusations. Tom Holland captures Telemachus’s uncertainty as a son who barely knows his father, although the performance feels too boyish. Holland sometimes resembles an anxious teenager rather than a young man approaching kingship. He remains good, but the role needed greater authority. History through modern eyes The production design is impressive, though historically questionable. Much of the armour looks Roman, while leather and iron appear more often than bronze. Characters repeatedly mention the Bronze Age before fighting with weapons and wearing armour that contain

Pattinson plays Antinous as an arrogant and entitled pretender.

Agamemnon (Safdie) leads the Greek campaign responsible for everything that follows.