I had already posted a review of The Odyssey on 28th July 2026 when I was "underwhelmed" with its presentation. I wondered what I might have missed not seeing it in an IMAX theatre, so off I went to Cineworld in Hemel Hemstead on one of the hottest days in living memory. First of all, it did seem a lot better on this massive screen (everyone there was seated in the back two rows). However, there were only a couple of instances when I thought the film went into an almost 3D picture, although there is always that clarity of detail if that is what you like. I'm much more interested in the dialogue, although some of that was quite clunky, even if there are some one-liners that stood out.
And this time round I was hugely impressed by the presentation of the story; I just thought it was almost narrated by Odysseus (played by Matt Damon) when he is marooned on that island with Charlize Theron's super cool Calypso. (She is devastatingly in control, tough and polished). During the movie, those typically complicated cuts were now actually enjoyable, as they made so much more sense. Especially those first dozen minutes when I actually knew the backstory and motivations of all those characters we see for the very first time.
I have to say that the American accents were far less obvious this second time round. I don't know why. They just seemed to blend into basic English after a while. And the sudden switching of time and place all seemed to make much more enjoyable sense, and the film went quicker and was better because of that. I also realised why Samantha Morton should at least be nominated for an Oscar for her role as Circe. And that Robert Pattinson, normally a hero in Nolan's pictures, was so ghastly as Antinous.
So Christopher Nolan has done it again. He just wants you to see his films more than once, at the cinema or on TV, as I did for Memento, Insomnia, Batman Begins, Prestige, The Dark Knight, Inception, The Dark Knight Rises, Interstellar, Dunkirk, Tenet and Oppenheimer.
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