The Odyssey - A Review
Written On: 14 Aug 2026 - movie
Blog No.: 20
The movie is out right bad that’s it.
gif credits: to the respected owners of the film “The Odyssey”
Hear me Out
The movie is just bad in all angles that it can be. As a true Chris Nolan fan, I genuinely got disappointed in seeing this movie.
As soon as I got to know that this movie was based off the Homeric poem, the first thing I did was start reading about it all and found out that there are 2 books for this:
- The Iliad
- The Odyssey
So I went ahead and spent 1 year reading both these books, taking down notes, drawing a character map and more in Obsidian (in canvas) cause why not. All that and once I watched the film it was just disappointing to know that the movie is just utterly bad.
From every single angle, both:
- from a film perspective
- from a story perspective
What’s wrong with the film?
The active is bad, the acting is just really poor. Many places it just felt like I was watching a play and it did not feel like a movie at all.
There was no emotion portrayed by any of the characters. Of course before someone thinks “oh didn’t they do they’re role well?” in particular, don’t. I have an answer. This isn’t about one person. It’s the way the movie is taken in such a way that MOST of the characters cannot showcase any emotions.
It’s a film, everyone MUST act together. Not just one person. But this felt like, I can’t even express it. That’s how poor this the acting was.
I’ll point out who did well:
- Matt Damon
- Anne Hathway
- Robert Pattinson
- Himesh Patel
- The guy who played Eumaeus
Apart from that meh, the side people just meh. This is not to defame the movie in any angle, I was too hyped for this and it was underplayed heavily.
There is no such grandeur in the movie at all. Again it feels like a play. All of his previous works look and FEEL GRAND and EPIC. This movie did not deliver that at all.
The settings were bland, the props used were meh.
Agamemnon’s suit has to be highly praised though, his scenes were bombastically good and there is no denying in that whatsoever.
The dialogues 
bruv, naah it was sooo bad man. There is no emotion in the dialogues, which goes back to the “acting” mentioned. Everything was just so bland.
I was fine with the American accent too, but it was just way to modern in many ways. Saying “Fuck off” is fine in a movie, but it just felt weird when you see men dressed up as people from 5000 years ago saying something that modern.
The wordings for the dialogues could’ve been at least archaic while maintaining the American accent. Saying father instead of dead would’ve been better?
It felt really really bland yet so extravagant? If that makes sense, but uhh the epicness ain’t there.
Himesh Patel did well, Matt Damon decent, but the others nah. It just didn’t set at all you know, the others acting even if it was good it wasn’t like shown or it wasn’t like really big and appealing cause of other factors.
The music was okay, we have only 3 songs from the OST (Ithaca, Telemachus, Sirens) which is repeatable. I’m the type of guy who listens to soundtracks cause I feel the connection and The Odyssey did not deliver that.
And I think it’s cause this movie was OVER hyped cause the OST did do what it’s supposed to do which is to fit in the film, unlike Ludwig’s previous works such as TENET and Oppenheimer I don’t think I’ll be listening to this OST a lot.
OST is not much big of a deal to cause not all the movies have such a grand and epic score that you would want to constantly listen. For Hans Zimmer, I listen to only a very few scores repeatedly:
- Interstellar
- Dark Knight trilogy
- Inception
Only these alone I listen constantly when needed, his other works most famous ones apart from this is the F1 and Dune series, their good. F1 was mid, I didn’t like it, it was too mainstream.
Dune on the other hand is way too good, I do have few songs from that I would listen to it constantly but I hope you get the point. Emotional connection wasn’t there as I had with the previously mentioned movies so yeah.
Coming back, the scale of the movie is so small which is also really big yet so small.
Let’s move to the next section which is what GENUINELY pissed me off even more.
The story is just wrong man!!
I read Emily Wilson’s translation of the Odyssey and I can say for a fact that there are several points that were wrongly portrayed in the film which made me hate this movie more and more. Here they are:
- Odysseus tells the travel from Troy to Calypso’s island to the Phaecians, the island people of Apollo. Yet in the movie this is all said to Calpsyo
- Athena convinces Zeus to release Odysseus from the island, he sends Hermes to instruct Calypso. That isn’t even shown, we’re shown as is if Calypso is releasing him on her own accord.
- The entire Phaecians is skipped.
- He comes home with treasures from the Phaecians which isn’t shown.
- He tells eumaeus some fake name and fake history who fought in the Trojan war which makes them bond initially, but in the movie he is calling himself as Sinon.
- After bonding with Eumaeus he meets Telemachus in the Eeumaes shed, in the movie he’s shown to be at the entrance of the palace itself.
- At the Cyclop’s area, Polyphemus tells that he is son of Poseidon, yet in the movie his crew tell him.
- Antinous dies first, in the movie he’s the last.
- Eurycleia recognises that he is Odysseus when a bath is given and this is away from Penelope, yet in the movie it’s shown as if she recognises him WHILE Penelope and him talk.
- Laertes (his father) portion was skipped.
- Odysseus reuniting with his wife near his bed and telling how it was constructed which the secret that only him and his wife was also skipped.
See, most of the people won’t know the story at all in terms of intricacies. But when you’re showing the film and the country’s history to the entire world, you should follow the roots.
Of course the movie is already 2 hours 54 minutes, but when a person like Nolan makes a movie like 3 hours 30 minutes like Brutalist, no one will question him cause he’s Nolan you know?
It was just so wrong to skip so many parts and portray so many things wrong in a country’s epic behind it.
Apart from that Chris Nolan had mentioned that those who don’t know the story and epic will now know entirely once they come and watch the film, and yet there are so many pointers that have gone wrong throughout.
I don’t see how this is a good film whatsoever. In terms of technicality it’s decent per se but still. I don’t know man.
Conclusion
An utter disappointment. I don’t even know why this movie is praised well. 1/5 genuinely. A genuine:
moment.
Thanks for reading this rant-blog-review!