When the floor of the BFI IMAX quakes and the sound thunders up through the seats and into people's bodies, it's no false omen. It's a pant-shaking signal that for the next three, humdinging hours you're in for a colossal piece of cinema. Arguments will rage for aeons among Nolanites, but forget Oppenheimer (too biopic-y, not bomb-y enough), Inception or The Dark Knight — this is Christopher Nolan's most towering achievement yet.
A Mythic Opening and a Stellar Cast
As we open with that mythic Trojan Horse lying beached in mile upon widescreen mile of sand (an echo of the classic Statue of Liberty scene in Planet of the Apes), this time it's a ravishing visual omen that Nolan didn't squander a cent of his reported $250 million budget making the first feature film shot entirely on IMAX cameras. Like Homer's 2,750-year-old poem (which Nolan more or less sticks to), the narrative begins in the middle, here 20 years after Odysseus (Matt Damon), King of Ithica, set sail to fight in the Trojan War.
His long-pining wife Penelope (Anne Hathaway) remains in the royal palace, as do dozens of her vulturine suitors, led by Robert Pattinson's sleazily (if a little too archly) villainous Antonious. These wannabe kings are at the palace taking full advantage of Zeus's Law, which decrees hosts should offer food and shelter to passing strangers, much to the loathing of Odysseus's son Telemachus (an excellent Tom Holland, putting a hefty cloak of gravitas on his manchild bones). Taking the brutal brunt of Antonious and co's bullying is John Leguizamo (absolutely brilliant, and an early Oscar nod) as Eumaeus, Odysseus's loyal blind servant.
Spectacle and Awe Unleashed
There's a fair bit of flashbacking exposition, including to Odysseus wolfing down lotus flowers on a beach with the nymph Calypso (Charlize Theron) — while a dream version of the goddess Athena (Zendaya, rather under-powered as she was in that other great modern epic, Dune) whispers words of wisdom into his ear. At this point you may well be questioning those good omens. Fear not, because from now on in spectacle and awe doesn't get better than this, with Nolan delivering a full-frontal torrent of staggering set pieces as Odysseus and his men attempt to navigate hellish seas, gods and monsters back to Ithica from Troy.
A brush with a gargantuan, properly jaw-droppingly Cyclops is an eye-popping (in every sense) opener and also the moment when Odysseus realises he's broken Zeus's Law and thoroughly pissed off the gods — a recurring theme and, besides the implicit anti-war message, perhaps the movie's biggest reference to 21st-century inhospitality and hostilities. However, hold onto the seat of those pants, because this is nothing compared with a couple of the sequences that follow.
Intense Cinematic Moments and Memorable Performances
Another narrative rewind whips back to the storming of Troy. As Odysseus and his men slither out of the wooden horse and rain down hellfire upon the city at night, a whooping, rhythmic noise like gigantic concrete helicopter blades whirrs and thumps to almost unbearable levels. It's perhaps the most intensely all-enveloping cinematic moment of recent years — composer Ludwig Göransson (Black Panther, Oppenheimer, Sinners) looks like a shoe-in for his fourth Oscar. A fleetingly fantastic Samantha Morton almost steals the whole show as goddess-witch Circe in a full body-horror, Cronenbergian scene of gloopy, animalistic sorcery. It's dripping and slippery, it's weird, it's utterly wonderful.
With his increasingly haggard and bearded countenance, Damon is on career-topping form, oozing with all the torment, longing and self-doubt of Odysseus's battle with fate. Surely another incoming Oscar... Himesh Patel is solid and gets a decent run as Eurylochus, the deputy at odds with Odysseus, while in a cast stacked with bigger names, some barely get a look-in. Lupita Nyong'o's controversial (with the racists) Helen of Troy appears only briefly and Mia Goth (who totally smashed the Maxine trilogy) looks quite lost, as if searching for her bit part as Penelope's servant.
Academy Awards Potential
Did we mention Academy awards? This might not win the seven that Oppenheimer picked up, but don't bet on it. It's a far more astonishing experience. Curmudgeons may grouch about a little clunk here and there between the set pieces, but sod them — with The Odyssey Christopher Nolan has made an epic worthy of the gods.
The Odyssey is in cinemas from July 17.
