Is Nolan's Odyssey Really His Best Film Since Oppenheimer?

Christopher Nolan's three hour Odyssey hits theaters July 17, and early critic reactions are calling it some of his best work since Oppenheimer.

15 July 2026 15 hr ago 2 min read
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Media Wing (LetsxOtt)
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15 July 2026 · 15 hr ago
2 min read
Is Nolan's Odyssey Really His Best Film Since Oppenheimer?
Source: LetsXott
   Christopher Nolan spent close to three hours retelling Homer's Odyssey, and critics who caught early screenings this month say it's some of his best work since Oppenheimer, hitting theaters July 17 through Universal.

   Matt Damon plays Odysseus, clawing his way home after ten brutal years of war and monsters. Anne Hathaway is Penelope, holding the kingdom together while a swarm of suitors, led by Robert Pattinson's slick and menacing Antinous, circle her son Telemachus, played by Tom Holland. Lupita Nyong'o turns up as Helen of Troy, Samantha Morton plays the sorceress Circe, and John Leguizamo, as the blind servant Eumaeus, got singled out by more than one reviewer as the film's quietest gut punch. Zendaya, Charlize Theron and Jon Bernthal round out a cast that Nolan somehow keeps from feeling overstuffed. The movie hits the greatest myths along the way too, the Cyclops, the Sirens, the choice between the monster Scylla and the whirlpool Charybdis, most of it shot practically wherever Nolan could manage it.He filmed the entire thing on IMAX cameras, a first for him, working again with cinematographer Hoyte van Hoytema, and composer Ludwig Göransson built a score people are already talking about. Clocking in at 173 minutes,the film reportedly cost around 250 million dollars to make.

   Not everyone's fully sold, though. Indiewire's David Ehrlich called it too clunky to rank among Nolan's very best, but said the final stretch earns the long build.Three hours of Greek myth sounds like homework until you remember this is the same director who turned a black hole into a date night movie. Early tracking has The Odyssey opening somewhere between eighty and a hundred million dollars domestically, well behind Oppenheimer's eventual haul of 975 million worldwide.

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