After the extraordinary success of Oppenheimer – almost $1 billion at the box office, a huge Oscars haul – Christopher Nolan's next epic has been the subject of fevered anticipation. An adaptation of Homer's 3,000-year-old poem, The Odyssey is a foundational text that has inspired countless stories since. But far from a dusty old tale, Nolan's take on the material is modern mythological filmmaking of the highest order.
Much like his specific lens on superhero cinema, the war movie, the space movie, the heist movie, and myriad other genres, Nolan proves electifyingly adept with fantasy. Closer in spirit to the tactile horrors of Guillermo del Toro's monstrous oeuvre than the comforting whimsy of Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings trilogy, The Odyssey's uncanny, earthy and frequently frightening renderings of the great monsters of myth (achieved via a seamless blend of practical and visual effects) are striking and unforgettable.
