Christopher Nolan has long been known for his profound, grandiose, and often period-piece filmmaking, and stories don’t get much more ancient or grandiloquent than “The Odyssey.” Nolan’s upcoming film will be an adaptation of Homer’s much-adapted epic tale (the most recent of such adaptations was a 2024 film starring Ralph Fiennes) of the homecoming adventures of a great warrior whose name literally gave us the word “odyssey.” Will this latest adaptation, in which Matt Damon will portray Odysseus, be up to snuff for a director whose name is nearly as legendary?
A Cagey Trailer for a Well-Known Story
Though the trailer for “The Odyssey,” which dropped on December 22, is designated the “Official Trailer” for the film, it feels more like another teaser (the film’s actual teaser was shown exclusively in theaters this past summer and subsequently leaked online), showcasing exactly the kind of visual and narrative beats that anyone familiar with this millennia-old story would expect. “The Odyssey,” for the uninitiated, is the sequel to “The Iliad,” Homer’s epic account of the Trojan War; it tells the story of Odysseus’s very difficult quest to return to his native Ithaca after a decade away at war. “After years of war,” Damon’s Odysseus intones, “no one could stand between my men and home.”
We get plenty of shots of Odysseus and his men clad in their armor and helmets and toting swords; in one instance, they’re standing in the mouth of a cave from which a certain man-like monster is emerging. (You know who this monster is if you’ve read “The Odyssey,” but the shot keeps him obscurely shadowed). We see Odysseus brandishing his sword elsewhere as a soldier literally rises out of the ground. We see him on a ship that all of his men are struggling to row through increasingly merciless weather.
The trailer ends with Odysseus’s wife, Penelope (Anne Hathaway), holding his face lovingly as she says: “Promise me you will come back.” “What if I can’t?” he replies. Presumably, this exchange happened before he even set out for the Trojan War in the first place, but whatever: it cuts to the heart of the story, which is his desire to return home to his wife and his son Telemachus (Tom Holland), the former of whom is being courted against her wishes by 108 (count them) suitors.
A Gorgeous Appearance, For Sure
On the basis of this trailer, the most immediate selling point for “The Odyssey” is its look. Every shot contains sumptuous visuals, whether it’s showcasing a Trojan battlefield in the quiet aftermath of conflict or the aforementioned showdowns with a monster and a storm. Most cinephiles probably take it for granted that any Nolan film will look incredible, but considering that this is his most expensive project yet at $250 million (per the IMDb estimate), it’s great to have assurance that the budget was put to good use. It’s difficult to say anything about the acting (the visuals and epic score predominate), but I don’t suppose anybody needs assurance about the dramatic chops of Damon, Hathaway, or Holland either.
Conclusion – A Well-Made Trailer That Teases Endless Potential
The all-time legendary status of Nolan combined with that of “The Odyssey”‘s source material is probably the reason why this shorter-than-two-minute trailer reveals little more than the broad, well-known strokes of the story. There’s so much more in store: the assorted (sometimes very colorful) curses imposed by various gods, the alluring but deadly Sirens, the narrow course between Scylla and Charybdis, the stay-at-home odyssey of Penelope’s and Telemachus’s challenge to fend off her suitors. With a filmmaker as talented and ambitious as Nolan at the helm, there’s a good chance that all these plot points will be showcased – and showcased very satisfyingly.
“The Odyssey” will be released on July 17.
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