The Odyssey: Nolan goes full Greek epic, entirely in 70mm | First Take

It was a film I was determined not to miss with my deepening role on the Lancashire Film Network family of film festivals (where I now oversee the entire Media & Communications operation) - purely because of who is involved. Love him or hate him, whenever Christopher Nolan puts a film out, the whole industry listens. Tenet saved the cinema industry back in 2020, while severing relationships with Warner. Oppenheimer brought him to Universal, as well as earning him that long awaited Best Director and Best Film nod at the Oscars - so naturally they gave him an open chequebook and free reign to make this absolute goliath adaptation of Homer's ancient poem of the same name.

After the Trojan War, Odysseus faces a dangerous voyage back to Ithaca, meeting creatures like the Cyclops Polyphemus, Sirens, and Calypso along the way.

This is by no means an easy watch: at 2 hours 52 minutes it isn't the hard limit for what IMAX 70mm projectors can take (that limit was hit with Oppenheimer), but in that runtime Nolan packs a lot in. Visually, it is incredible, as you'd expect - using those new cameras has allowed Hoyte van Hoytema the ability to really have some fun across the practical moments we all come to expect from any film Syncopy makes, but on a more granular level the script and pacing may not gel as well with audiences thinking they're seeing another straight biopic/drama like Oppenheimer or Dunkirk. This is pure historical fantasy, with elements of horror thrown in to create a non-linear plot that definitely needs the thinking caps on. Behind the new Keighley camera setups is long-time Nolan DOP Hoyte van Hoytema, ensuring that whether you're seeing it on the DCP or via the 70mm prints themselves, you can expect pure immersion even on the smaller 'premium large format screens'. Wrapping it all up is Ludwig Goransson's score, and in fairness, listening back to it in isolation it does grow into the film when you see the visuals. It's experimental, but big budget experimental.

With the performances I don't know where to begin, aside from saying that it is a who's who of previous Nolan collaborators and brand new faces - Matt Damon and Tom Holland are fantastic in their respective plotlines, supported by Anne Hathaway, Robert Pattinson, Luptia Nyong'o, Samantha Morton, John Leguizamo, Zendaya, Charlize Theron, Jon Bernthal, Himesh Patel, Bill Irwin (once again acting as a practical performer as he did for TARS in Interstellar), Elliott Page (working with Nolan for the first time since 2010's Inception), and Benny Safdie. That is a stacked cast. You don't do things by half when it comes to a story this epic, and by taking this text, long considered to be one of the trickiest things to adapt, and turning it into a release of this scale takes some doing, Or a few Oscar wins for a previous work.

THE VERDICT

It's everything you'd expect from a Nolan film - practical over CG, cameras tested to their limits, a cast excelling at what they do, and a film that commands your attention. Yes, it's a beast of a runtime, and while it's not his strongest work, Christopher Nolan is definitely earning his keep for thought provoking, proper big screen cinema in an era of rehashed stories.

RATING: 4.5/5

Reviewed from the 4K DCP version of the film - on screen 4 (Hypersense) at Arc Cinema Preston.