“The Odyssey” is, in a word, epic

As regular readers may or may not remember, Greek Mythology is where my love of writing began. Here is the short version: I started reading the myths in Elementary school, bonded with a friend in Middle school over our shared love of Greek myths, he came to me with an idea to write a story about a group of gods who go on a quest, and I was the primary writer, and I have been writing ever since. I also distinctly remember watching NBC’s “The Odyssey” starring Armand Assante as the titular hero multiple times growing up. So when I say I am the target market for Christopher Nolan’s “The Odyssey.

This is one of the oldest stories ever told, so I am not sure I need to give you a synopsis, but here we go anyway. “The Odyssey” follows Odysseus (Matt Damon) on his epic journey after the Trojan War to return to Ithaca and his wife, Penelope (Anne Hathaway). She is doing her best to keep the suitors at bay and protect her son Telemachus (Tom Holland).

I have said it before, and I will keep saying it until it is no longer true: no one is making movies like Christoper Nolan. After the massive success of “Oppenheimer,” Nolan could have directed whatever he wanted, and he chose to write and direct one of the oldest stories known to man. Anyone else would have used massive amounts of CGI  to accomplish what Nolan pulls off here. When giants attack Odysseus and his men, they used 7-foot-tall stunt performers to play the giants and smaller stunt performers to play Odysseus and his crew. They built the boats and sailed them in actual bodies of water. For the scene with a whirlpool, they had people on jet skis circling to create a small one, then used CGI to enhance the effect. I will always come back to this point: part of the reason 1992’s “Jurassic Park” stands the test of time is that they combined animatronic puppets with CGI dinosaurs. Nolan uses practical effects as much as possible, so that 23 years from now it won't look as dated as movies that rely on CGI. All these small things help the world feel more real and make the performances better.

There are so many performances I could talk about. Damon gives a career-best performance, Holland shows how much he has grown as an actor, Hathaway is incredible in showing the strength of a woman in a culture where her worth is measured by her husband, and John Leguizamo is absolutely incredible as Odysseus’ faithful servant Eumaeus. He gives one of the strongest performances of this incredible cast full of incredible performances. This is such a stacked cast with some huge stars in supporting roles. Zendaya is the goddess Athena, who appears to Odysseus; Charlize Theron plays the nymph Clypso, who spends years with Odysseus on her island; and Samantha Morton is the witch Circe, who, in an incredible scene, turns the crew into pigs. I could sit here and pick apart every performance, because even those with only a handful of scenes/lines do a great job.

Nolan is one of the few directors working today who can get people into a theater based on his name alone. Tickets went on sale a year ago and, in certain areas of the country, showings sold out quickly. At this point, it has gone beyond “that’s the guy who directed those awesome Batman movies,” though that definitely helps. I think it is how he makes them. On its face, “Oppenheimer” doesn’t seem like it should have been the hit it was, but because of Nolan and the way he makes his movies, it was. On top of being a very good movie (easily going to be near the top of my top 10 this year), it is also well made. This movie lives up to the hype, and much of that is due to the performances and the mostly practical effects.

10/10

Rated R for violence and some language

2h 53m