Of course it's an Event - Christopher Nolan does the Odyssey. And as far as monumentality goes, it delivers. There's a density to it, bathed in shadowy blues and greys, with a thudding soundscape throughout; also I'm not sure of this but for a film that's so epic, I suspect it spends a lot of its time in moderate close-up and middle-range rather than sweeping views from a distance.
As spectacle, The Odyssey works - it's immaculately put together. I suspect it's lacking in truly indelible images - at least none that are with me right now, a day on - but several scenes have a charge to them that I think will linger, the visit to Hades foremost among them, and in a different way the repeated blocking in dining hall. And while the voyage itself is maybe a touch too episodic-feeling - despite the dipping through different timeframes and the framing device of Odysseus gradually recalling his own story on Calypso's island - each of the crew's encounters is exciting in its own right.
It takes the overt narrative theme of homecoming and links it to the breaching of Troy's home through the trick (the horse) that Odysseus reveals late, in what lands as an unlocking revelation, he fears undermined caused a rupture in the order of things (turning them into the feared 'people from the sea'), and the suggestion that the length of time it takes him to return home might reflect his own guilt about this, while also implicitly drawing attention - and they're filmed to suggest this reading too - to the way that the crew's successive landings are themselves invasions of others' homes. Ultimately its anchor is more psychological than thematic or mythic - for better or for worse.
The casting's good (as expected with Nolan directing) and performances range from good to good-enough - Anne Hathaway and Robert Pattinson in the first category, Matt Damon and Tom Holland in the second. There's a fair bit of charisma among the rest of the cast and the smaller players all make an impression (Jon Bernthal as Menelaus, Elliot Page as Sinon, Samantha Morton as Circe, John Leguizamo as Eumaeus, Himesh Patel as Eurylochus, Charlize Theron as Calypso, Zendaya as Athena), though some don't have that much material to work with.
All up, this Odyssey is very good even if lacking in the thrill of genuine greatness. And I wonder if it will grow with time.
