Los Angeles: The first reactions to Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey, which was screened to the members of the film press, are here and the critics have hailed the director’s adaptation of Homer’s epic as a “staggering achievement”, “a feast” and a “spectacular epic”.
Nolan will be in India over the weekend for the film’s premiere here with lead star Matt Damon, who plays the eponymous hero, and Tom Holland stars as his son Telemachus. It is the first narrative feature film to be shot entirely on IMAX cameras.
Actor Anne Hathaway features as Odysseus’s wife Penelope, who awaits her husband’s journey back home after the end of the Trojan war but the journey proves treacherous and long for the famous Greek hero. The film’s ensemble cast also includes Zendaya, Lupita Nyong’o, Robert Pattinson, Charlize Theron, John Leguizamo, Elliot Page, Jon Bernthal and more.
“Flawless filmmaking, every inch as epic as you’d expect,” film journalist Simon Thompson raved.
“Leading a stellar cast, Matt Damon gives Odysseus everything in a career-best powerhouse performance. Robert Pattinson is outstanding as Antinous and John Leguizamo’s Eumaeus is sublime.”
Variety’s Jazz Tangcay called Nolan’s film an “astonishing achievement” and a “triumphant, spectacular epic,” while the publication’s awards pundit Clayton Davis noted: “Matt Damon leads with grit, while Tom Holland brings the sensitivity and heart… It’s another hit for Nolan, one his die-hards will digest for decades to come.”
Fandango’s Erik Davis praised Pattinson and said, “He’s so conniving, manipulative and endlessly entertaining to watch. Pattinson leans all the way into the character’s villainy, and it results in one of my favorite performances of his.”
Davis called the movie “an absolute triumph and a crowning cinematic achievement from one of the great filmmakers of our time.”
The Odyssey is slated to release in theatres July 17 from Universal Pictures.
PTI