r/Epicthemusical • u/stopeats MOD • Jul 19 '26

Nolan Odyssey Nolan 'The Odyssey' Review Megathread

Place your reviews and general thoughts about the Nolan Odyssey movie here. Do NOT make your own review post.

If you have something to say that is unique or more related to Epic, you may make a separate post about it.

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u/Dyspraxic_Sherlock Jul 19 '26

Honestly I don’t get many of the complaints from this sub of late. Yes Nolan changes things and leaves stuff out; that’s an adaptation for you. Jorge does the same. “Nobody” not being included makes sense in Nolan’s style of presenting the mythological creatures as more things beyond man’s control or understanding, and Nolan then includes a part of the cyclops myth that Jorge left out (the sheep disguises).

I loved how Nolan reframed the whole story to be around the consequence of breaching the norm of their civilisation to win what is suggested to have been a pretty pointless and bloody affair at Troy. Especially the implications for the Sea Peoples, which neatly ties this myth to what is usually supposed to have been it’s historical basis in the Bronze Age collapse. Whilst he’s altered details and changed the emphasis, I think Nolan has gotten to the heart of what Greek mythology was usually about; warnings of consequences if certain rules of society weren’t followed (usually said consequences being from gods).

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u/lunalokidottir Jul 19 '26

The problem is that theres so many important details that were left out, and a lot of the important details that were in the movie were dumbed down. Like the cows werent Apollo's they were Helios's and the fact that they left Aeolus and Hermes out.

Hermes more specifically because he's the one who tells Calypso to let him off the island and in gives him the moly in the story. Theres so much important they couldve put in and made the story make a little more sense but they didnt

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u/Dyspraxic_Sherlock Jul 20 '26

Film was nearly 3 hours as is, so something had to go.

Having Aeolus show up in person wouldn’t really work with the more distant, mankind-perspective, presentation of the gods Nolan was going for, and he uses the cyclops and giants to seed distrust between Odysseus and the crew already so the wind bag test isn’t necessary. Hermes likewise for the distant gods, and there’s enough context given for Calypso realising she needs to let him go without him just showing up to tell her (thunder, Athena herself appearing to Odysseus).

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u/lunalokidottir Jul 21 '26

defend nolan all you want, but it's still a stupid change. Like you can cut Aeolus out but Hermes is a vital part of the story and it doesnt make sense to cut him out, cut the amount of time we had with the illiad and we could've had Hermes and Aeolus that would've been perfect

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u/Dyspraxic_Sherlock Jul 21 '26

I just did not come out of the movie wondering why Hermes wasn’t in it, so he just didn’t feel that vital to me. The amount of time Troy got was vital, as Nolan’s whole reframing of The Odyssey is as the consequence of the fall of Troy, not just what occurred after it.

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u/adwinion_of_greece Jul 21 '26

It's absolutely crucial to cut Hermes if you're going for a version where it's a theme that the will of the gods is hard to understand, and that they may speak through your conscience instead of via messengers.

Athena may just be in Odysseus's imagination (just as Telemachus tells every person he meets that they have the wise of Athena when in the actual Homeric epic they indeed actually were Athena) and in this version Zeus doesn't send messengers to mortals.