The Reel Rejects - The Odyssey Was Not What I Expected... OUT OF THEATER REACTION!

Episode Date: July 17, 2026

The Odyssey Movie Review! Greg Alba shares his out of theater reaction to Christopher Nolan's new mythological epic. Greg breaks down the film's breathtaking practical filmmaking, nonlinear storytelling, Matt Damon's lead performance, and why this ambitious adaptation of Homer's classic left such a lasting impression. Grab your D-BOX tickets here: https://www.cinemark.com/movies/the-o... This massive nonlinear action-adventure follows Odysseus on his perilous journey home after the Trojan War, confronting gods, monsters, war, trauma, and the relentless passage of time while his wife Penelope and son Telemachus struggle to preserve their family and kingdom in Ithaca. In this spoiler-free movie review, Greg discusses Matt Damon's phenomenal lead performance, Christopher Nolan's breathtaking practical filmmaking and real-world locations, the film's surprisingly accessible story, its dense opening act, pulsating score, improved sound mixing, and why the mythology occasionally plays like religious horror on an epic scale. He also shares his thoughts on Tom Holland as Telemachus, Anne Hathaway as Penelope, Robert Pattinson's chilling performance as Antinous, Zendaya's presence as Athena, whether the star-studded ensemble ever becomes distracting, and how the film evolves from an intellectually engaging slow burn into an emotional, unforgettable cinematic experience. If you're a fan of Christopher Nolan movies, Greek mythology, The Odyssey by Homer, IMAX epics, practical filmmaking, historical fantasy, nonlinear storytelling, and powerful stories about family, identity, memory, and the meaning of home, this review is for you. Follow Greg Alba:  Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thegregalba/ Twitter:  https://x.com/thegregalba Follow Greg Alba:  Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thegregalba/ Twitter:  https://x.com/thegregalba Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Ladies and gentlemen, I just got out of watching Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey, and this is a gigantic mythological epic where the real enemy isn't necessarily the gods, the monsters, or the ocean. It's time because Nolan deals with time. I'm here at Centermark because if you're like me, you waited too long to buy tickets for The Odyssey. So, when D-Box invited me to a screening, I jumped at the opportunity. And honestly, this is a pretty darn fitting movie to experience that way. This is a thick-ass movie. And I'll be honest, This won't surprise most of you who are familiar with me.

I never read The Odyssey. I never read The Illiad, not even an abridged version, not even a comic book. The most familiarity I ever had while watching this was occasionally going, oh, so that's where like one of those characters from Percy Jackson comes from, because I'm a man of the people. I actually considered re-watching Troy as some kind of briefing on the prior events because I haven't seen that movie for decades, but even that I avoided. I'm bringing all that up just to say, like, for anybody wondering if you need to do homework

before seeing this movie, no. You don't even need to watch that. I found this movie extremely accessible. There's a lot of names, relationships, locations, and pieces of history being thrown at you in the beginning. But in a post-game of Thrones world, this is nothing. This little brain was able to keep up. Nolan, he's one of my all-time favorite directors. So like many people, I was endlessly excited for this. And this movie delivered on so many things that you would expect it to deliver on. didn't quite hit the mark in some areas that I hoped it would, yet it still managed to surprise me in more ways than one. But before going into all that, want to bring it back to D-Box, because they're, of course, sponsoring this. D-box motion seats are synced with the movie, so when something moves, crashes, or hits on-screen, you actually feel it in the theater,

and you can control the intensity right from your seat, whether you want it more subtle or you want to go all in. it is another level of immersion without distracting from the movie itself. So if you're planning on booking tickets, use the link in the description now to find a participating in Cinemark and book your movie with D-Box seats. Today. Anyway, in traditional Nolan style, the movie deals heavily with time. It's told in non-linear fashion, but the use of time in this movie, it's so intentional. It feels almost like an antagonist to the characters while also representing so much of the

meditative and reflecting experience of aging, identity, memory, myth versus reality, and how the passage of time changes both a person who leaves home on the people who remain there waiting. So time turns Odysseus from a husband and father into a story, and his son grows up knowing the legend of his dad more than the actual man. His wife has to spend years holding together their household and kingdom without knowing if he's even alive or dead. And Odysseus is spending all this time desperately trying to return to a version of home that may not even exist anymore. In the first act of this movie, which for some reason I expected of this. I had that experience I've had with some other Nolan movies where like the first 20 or 30

minutes made me question whether or not I was actually going to like it because there's just throwing a lot at you. And I'm putting a lot of emphasis on the first watch here because you've got that style of quick cuts, memory, fantasy inserts, jumping around through different points of time, the pacing, all these relationships and having to super focus on the information instead of being able to emotionally connect. And that was very much something I had to overcome in the first 20 or 30 minutes. And to be clear, it wasn't like I was confused. I understood what was happening. It was more that the movie was moving through information, memories, timelines, and relationships so quickly that I was processing it intellectually before I was emotionally connecting

with it. However, the movie is beautiful from the first frame to the very last, but that first 20 to 30 minutes throws so much at you because it's sending up a lot. But the main presence day story takes place years after the Trojan War. Odysseus, he's gone from Ithaca for 20 years, and back in Ithaca, his wife, Penelope, and his son, Telemachus, are trying to hold everything together while all these suitors have essentially taken over their home,

consume their resources, and pressure Penelope to choose another husband, which would also mean choosing another king. And Telemachus, I think I'm saying his name, right? He's growing up hearing about how incredible and legendary his father is, but he doesn't really know the man. So a big part of his journey is trying to find out what happened to Odysseus and also trying to become his own man instead of living underneath this mythological image of his father. And then the movie moves backwards and forwards through time. We see

parts of the Siege of Troy. We see the Trojan horse deception. We follow Odysseus and his crew during their 10-year attempt to return home, completely exhausted and spiritually worn down survivors, we're experiencing the man, the myth that grows around him and the family living with consequences of his absence. And like many Nolan films, I do think a lot of these elements will become stronger, likely will become stronger on a rewatch, especially that first act. Once I'm no longer, you know, using the opening to determine who everybody is, where we are in the timeline, how those relationships connect, I'll probably be able to focus more on all the

emotional information that's being planted there. And honestly, I think even some of the performances might play better for me on a second time. Where this movie consistently succeeds throughout, though, is the immersion factor, you know, that's the filmmaking stuff. This is a movie designed around scale, movement. The feeling that you have been physically dropped into this ancient world. And then that's a cool part of what I thought D-Box added was another layer to that. Because like whether you're out on the ocean, you feel the movement of the ships underneath you, when the battles and mythological elements, you feel those impacts. This movie really does embrace the gods. It embraces the mythology.

It's like an action-adventure horror fantasy dealing with aging, responsibility, history, pain, and perfect shared past, existentialism, the inevitability of death, existentialism, justice versus vengeance, you know, love and what home, and what home, actually means, and this movie is at its most engrossing whenever it focuses on Matt Damon's Odysseus in his perilous journey. That's where it's at its absolute best, because there are plenty of scenes without him. A lot of scenes with Tom Holland and Hathaway, Robert Patton, and John Lake Guzamo, they stay very focused on the real world, political, and familial aspects of what's happening in Ithaca. And a lot of the material is constantly intriguing, but Odysseus lost and trying to get home is the real thing to sink your teeth into.

And it was a fascinating experience because during the first half of the movie, I felt like I was gathering the information. I wasn't as emotionally invested in the characters as I hope to be. But by the end of the movie, I was so like on the edge of my fucking seat. And I was like, oh shit,

I really am way more invested in this than I realized. A lot of the payoff of those earlier character moments, they show up in the latter half. And suddenly, scenes and relations, relationships that I felt intellectually engaged with, but not necessarily emotionally, they started to really hit me. This movie has so many brilliant haunting sequences that are expertly crafted. When they go full mythological, like, damn, like, I don't want to give too much away.

Like, there's a Cyclops sequence that's obviously been teased quite a bit. And so much of the time I'm sitting there thinking, like, how the fuck did they actually do this practically? There's a sequence with Searcy that is probably my favorite in the whole movie. And yeah, the whole finale was just incredible. It was such an incredible finale. And what Nolan found was a really strong balance was that he fully embraces the mythology and the fantasy without allowing the movie to feel weightless or artificial. He isn't embarrassed by the giants, the gods are the supernatural elements.

He lets them be mythological. But because of the practicality and the physical locations and the way, way everything is photographed. It still feels believable and grounded even while you're watching these like obviously fantastical moments. It feels like these characters genuinely live in a world where gods and monsters are a natural part of reality. I love how they're just letting me walk this theater. It doesn't feel like a bunch of normal historical characters suddenly wandered into a fantasy movie. I love a good religious horror movie. And generally, those are movies that are dealing with Christian mythology, you know, demons, possession, the devil,

crisis of faith. I just watched St. Maude recently. Anyway, the movie embraces the psychological horror, though, of war and fighting in the name of the gods while embracing the literal supernatural horror of living in a world controlled by God. So it feels like almost like religious horror epic, and the ocean is not simply the ocean. A storm might not simply be a storm. And a sudden change in the wood would be like a god interfering with your journey. Every act of pride, comes with some like horrifying consequence. Again, it felt like a religious horror on an epic scale while still being able to have those cathartic action scenes. And this movie has a lot going for it, but I do want to set expectations a little bit differently because a lot of the big Nolan films

generally have some like crazy, immediately gripping hook or prologue. And this movie doesn't really do that. There's a lot of, well, I'm so dark here, it's so dark, so dark and so dark and great. There's a lot of violence and there is action throughout the movie, but I wouldn't describe it as like, constantly action-packed war film in the way I might, you know, with the way how other people might assume, you know, there's a lot of struggle throughout. There's survival, there's weariness, there's politics, there's family, there's dread, and there are like several massive and very memorable sequences, but I think it would be misleading to say the movie is just non-stop action, but when the action is there, it packs a fucking punch. And one of my main

criticisms with the movie, and hear me out here, is actually like, sheer number of well-known actors. In some ways, I think I understand the intention, because there are so many famous people in this movie that it almost feels like an old-school Hollywood epic where every new character is played by some major celebrity. And that creates a certain type of, like, iconography and scale. But it's kind of a double-edged sword because there's a good chunk of the cast where it didn't fully cross over into, I'm watching this character.

A lot of the time, I was extremely aware that I was. I was watching that famous person or actor. So let me start with the performers who I absolutely adored. Matt Damon as Odysseus. He's the goddamn Lee character who was put through this 20-year journey, and we get to see him in so many different aspects of his life. As the leader of Ithaca, has a husband and father, a leader on the battlefield, the survivor,

and a man being like just straight up humbled by the world, and he embodies it. Like, Matt Damon's a goddamn superstar, and I really believed him as this guy. Odysseus has to feel iconic and mythological, while also being incredibly human and flawed. And I love that the movie doesn't make all his decisions automatically heroic. The same qualities that make him brilliant, his intelligence, his pride, his determination, his need to control every situation, are also qualities that contribute to his suffering. There's so much happening with the depiction of his character as man versus.

Smith. I loved every aspect of the harshness of his journey. And this movie feels so much deeply about like PTSD struggle and weariness and every part of that comes through in Matt Damon's performance. Robert Pattinson is and, uh, shit, what is it? And Tinnis? He's like the leading suitor and clearly the villain of the Ithaca storyline. He's a manipulative, conniving son of a bitch. And I loved his commitment to the role. He brings so much entitlement and menace to the character, where you can feel how comfortable this guy has become, occupying someone else's home and acting like everything already belongs to him.

Anne Hathaway surprised me. She plays Penelope, like really surprises. She had, I don't know why I say that, like every Anne Hathaway movie. Every time she's in a movie, I'm always surprised by how much I love her work. I need to stop being surprised because she's always great.

And she brings so much depth to Penelope. She has to maintain this composure and strength without allowing all that anguish and the anger and loss within her, to consume her. She spent years holding together her household and kingdom while being constantly pressured, underestimated, and treated as though the work she has done preserving everything somehow doesn't count. There's so much happening underneath the surface. Samantha, something or another as Searcy, she's great. I'm just going to say that because I don't want to reveal much more.

John Likwazamo, I don't know how to pronounce his character's name. He's Odysseus' faithful servant who remained in Ithaca during his absence, and he became something of like a surrogate father to Tom Holland's Telemachus. Now, when he first showed up in the makeup, I didn't find it particularly believable. I was hyper aware that it was John Link Wasamo, kind of added to my first act concern.

But as the movie progressed, I really connected with what he was doing. He brings, hey, look, it's freaking Tom Holland. He brings a lot of warmth, pain, and loyalty to the character, and by the end, I felt much more emotionally connected with him than I did when he was first introduced. Himish Patel, he plays Odysseus' Second in Command and one of the main people within the crew who is willing to challenge his decisions as the journey becomes more brutal, and I love the heart and soul he brought to his scenes with Matt Damon. You feel what the journey is costing the crew, and Patel gives that side of the story a real emotional weight.

Lapitaniago is in this movie for like maybe five minutes. There really isn't a whole lot of focus on her, but it's one of those roles where when she's there, it has to matter. and the pain she brought gripped me during whatever amount of seconds she was actually on screen. It's just funny that there was all this controversy surrounding her casting, and then she's in the movie for what feels like a couple of minutes. But then I've got another category of actors where I'm like, yes, they are committed. They are making choices, but I am so aware of who I am watching that it occasionally pulls me out. I'm sorry, Tom Holland.

He is very charismatic, and by all measures, the dude is extremely committed. I of course love the guy as Spider-Man. He's worked with Robert Pattinson in The Devil all the time where I very much believed him and of course his work in the impossible. All this to say, I know I can buy into him as more than Peter Parker. I know he's more versatile than Peter Parker. Yet in this one, while he has scenes where he can get himself to, you know, cry and he's clearly doing the work, there was just something missing in the depth of the performance that I personally didn't fully click with. It's one of those weird things where I'm like he's doing all the choices. He's in it, but I am aware that I'm watching Tom Holland act right now.

Entertaining, still enjoyed him. Still had a couple of moments where I was like, yeah, way to go, Telemaccos, but I was never completely immersed in the performance. And John Bernthal, this is where I'm surprised, he's one of my favorites, and this is going to be the most subjective thing you can say, and it has a lot to do with this movie. I'm so aware that Punisher and Spider-Man are coming together in a week, and whenever he and Tom Holland shared the screen, part of my brain was just way too aware of that. That has nothing to do with the movie. That was really just my fault of knowing too much

about Spider-Man and Punisher. So I bought into him more during the scenes where he wasn't opposite of Tom Holland. Always enjoyable, though. I love Bernthol and basically everything. Zendaya plays Athena, and there are plot elements involving the character that I found very strong.

And Zendaya is also one of those actors I defend as, like, a brilliant actress because I often feel she is, like, unfairly shat-on as someone who is merely famous and not genuinely recognize for her range despite the awards and performances she has delivered. But in this movie, yeah, it was definitely another case where I was hyper aware that I was watching Zendaya. I didn't fully see or feel Athena. I felt like I was just watching her role from specifically Dune Part 1, which kind of bummed me out.

Charlize Theron is in this movie. Her role matters to the narrative, but the movie doesn't give Charlize nearly enough material to make the character memorable. So it was another one where I was like, okay, there's Charlize Darren delivering some lines. Like, I never completely bought into watching a character. Elliot Page, I didn't mind. They were fine. I don't want to give this like one scene. There's one scene where they're really, how do I describe it?

They're like really covered in dirt. And that was easily my favorite scene with them. Outside of that, I remained pretty aware of the performer, though I'll be honest, kind of like my Tom Holland, you know, Punisher thing, I genuinely couldn't tell how much the online chatter surrounding their casting contributed to that. If you don't want to talk about, you know, it may be on a rewatch. I won't be as distracted. I just got to be honest as someone who's like in this space and unaware of a lot of the conversation going around.

So outside of Tom Holland, though, most of the movie's runtime is dedicated to the performers who I genuinely bought into as these characters. So while I highlighted several people where I wasn't fully buying into them, that is not where most of this movie spends this time. And I do think it's possible that some of those performances could become stronger for me on a rewatch once I'm no longer being introduced to this endless parade of famous fucking people. Overall, this movie is beautiful to look at. It's haunting. It has some of the best sound mixing in a Nolan movie in a while. I was able to hear every freaking thing, every line of dialogue.

We did it, guys. Nolan learned sound mixing. And the music was so pulsating and absorbing. It is phenomenal music. My God. It juggles a ridiculous number of themes and tones while still functioning as a spectacle, and overall, it succeeds. Like, I already harped on the first, like, 20 to 30 minutes. I feel like a lot of people might actually be an ingredient with me on.

Maybe not, maybe they won't. Who cares? But as the movie progresses, the emotional connections between the different timelines become clearer. The editing becomes remarkable, especially in the way it cuts between the different stages of Odysseus' journey. If you're walking to this, expecting three hours of nonstop, monsters, battles, and actions, that's not what this movie is. It's dense, it's political, it's reflective, it spends a lot of time on family, trauma, leadership, aging, and the consequences of the choices of Dysseus has made. But if you want a mythological epic where the journey feels like a physical, psychological, and spiritual ordeal, there's so much here to sink your teeth into. This is ultimately a movie about a man who can survive war, monsters and gods, but is having the hardest time defeating fucking time.

He spends the entire story attempting to return to a home that has continued changing without him. And the question, like, eventually becomes, can Odysseus physically reach Ithaca? And more than that, after everything he has done and everything that has been unto him, can he actually become a husband and father again? It's not flawless. It took time for me to emotionally connect.

Some of the casting pulled me out. But by the end, I was completely locked in, man. Like, the last half of this movie is, like, fucking brilliant. And this is a movie I'm just never going to forget. I'm going to give The Odyssey. an 8.75 out of 10. Once more, I want to give a thank you to D-Box. You can go use the link of the description box

or pin comments, so that way you can go watch The Odyssey. Hit it up, man. Hit that link. Hit that link because they help get me a screening when I really wanted one. So thank you.