The plot: Odysseus embarks on a dangerous voyage back to Ithaca following the Trojan War, encountering treacherous creatures like the Cyclops Polyphemus and Sirens.
I was solely anticipated this film.
This movie was epic.
Pros: The film succeeded bringing us into different world & spectacle. A lot of the pacing works for me. Having Odysseus & Telmachus were the ones that got the key focus. I felt every tension & drama moment in the film. Everyone did an excellent performance. The runtime being this long didn’t feel nothing was dragging or even plot-holes were missing & I was stand with the ending.
Don’t get caught up on the online discourse surrounding this movie.
Cons: At times I couldn’t work out what’s going on with the storyline when I was following it. Certain plotlines should have been removed. & the camera didn’t’ shot the fight scenes well in the final act.
Genre: Adventure, Action, Fantasy
Directed by Christopher Nolan
Produced by Emma Thomas, Christopher Nolan
Written by Christopher Nolan
Starring: Matt Doman, Tom Holland, Anne Hathaway, Robert Pattinson, Lupita Nyong’o, Samantha Morton, Zendaya & Charlize Theron.
Edited by Jennifer Lame
Cinematography: Hoyte van Hoytema
Music by Ludwig Göransson
Production companies: Syncopy
Distributed by: Universal Pictures
The Casts:
- Matt Damon as Odysseus, the legendary Greek king of Ithaca. Director Christopher Nolan described Odysseus as complicated, “an amazing strategist, [and] a very wily person”. He was interested in his cleverness and inventiveness, particularly citing Odysseus’s characterization in the 2017 translation of the Odyssey by British-American classicist Emily Wilson. To prepare for the role, Damon underwent an extensive training regimen and a strict diet to become “lean but strong”, which included no longer consuming gluten and reducing his weight to 167 pounds (76 kilograms). He also grew a full beard for a year, after Nolan declined to use artificial facial hair because he wanted to capture “the physicality of real hair”.
- Tom Holland as Telemachus, Odysseus and Penelope’s son and the prince of Ithaca, who is determined to find his father.
- Anne Hathaway as Penelope, wife of Odysseus, mother of Telemachus, and the queen of Ithaca, who fends off many suitors in her husband’s absence.
- Robert Pattinson as Antinous, a suitor of Penelope, whom Pattinson described as sleazy and likened to James Woods‘s character Lester Diamond from the 1995 film Casino.
- Lupita Nyong’o in a dual role as:
- Helen of Troy, wife of Menelaus, described as the most beautiful woman in the world, whose abduction triggers the Trojan War.
- Clytemnestra, Helen’s sister, wife of Agamemnon, who murders him upon his return from Troy.
- Samantha Morton as Circe, a witch and goddess on the island of Aeaea.
- John Leguizamo as Eumaeus, a blind swineherd, Odysseus’s faithful servant.
- Zendaya as Athena, the goddess of wisdom, warfare, and handicraft, who protects Odysseus on his journey. Zendaya also portrays the young Trojan priestess of Athena who is killed during the assault on Troy, and whose form Athena later takes.
- Charlize Theron as Calypso, a nymph on the island of Ogygia who tries to entice Odysseus to live as her husband with the promise of immortality.
- Jon Bernthal as Menelaus, the king of Sparta and Helen’s husband.
- Himesh Patel as Eurylochus, Odysseus’s second-in-command who challenges his thoughts and plans.
- Bill Irwin as the on-set performer of Polyphemus, a Cyclops and son of Poseidon.
- Elliot Page as Sinon, a Greek soldier and the son of a servant of Antinous, who was recruited as a child to be raised to serve as a soldier who would reach adulthood upon the Greeks’ arrival at Troy. Sinon is not in Homer’s original poem and his story was borrowed from Virgil‘s Aeneid and other myths.
- Benny Safdie as Agamemnon, the Greek king of Mycenae, Clytemnestra’s husband, Menelaus’s older brother, and the commander of the Achaeans during the Trojan War.
Other suitors of Penelope include Corey Hawkins as Polybus, Niko Nicotera as Peisander, Elyes Gabel as Elatus, Iddo Goldberg as Amphimedon, and Jamie Harris as Agelus. Mia Goth and Logan Marshall-Green portray twin siblings Melantho and Melanthius, who are respectively a disloyal maidservant of Odysseus and Penelope and Odysseus’s dishonest cowherd. Ryan Hurst portrays Mentor, Telemachus’ guide and teacher, while James Remar plays Tiresias, a blind prophet of the Greek underworld.
Other members of Odysseus’s crew include Will Yun Lee as Anchialus, Jimmy Gonzales as Cepheus, Andrew Howard as Polites, Jovan Adepo as Elpenor, Jesse Garcia as Menetus, Josh Stewart as Antiphates, Sean Avery as Laodamas, Anthony Molinari as Perimedes,] Stephen Murphy as Phemius, Ian Casselberry as Dolios, and Nick E. Tarabay as an unnamed helmsman.
Travis Scott makes a cameo appearance as Phemius, a bard, whom Nolan included because he wanted to allude to how the Odyssey had been retold through oral poetry, which he analogized to rapping, Scott’s profession. Rafi Gavron and Shiloh Fernandez briefly appear as Trojans who kill Sinon and encounter the Trojan horse. Others in minor roles include Kate Fuglei as Eurycleia, a loyal servant and nurse of Odysseus and Penelope; Maurice Compte as the steward of Menelaus; Michael Vlamis as a bandit/priest who attacks Telemachus in Pylos; and Brian Vernel as Irus, a beggar in Ithaca.
I highly recommend this film in cinemas.
Rating: 5 out of 5 Stars
Ryan Balkwill:
Resident film reviewer,
Level Best Art Cafe