Screen & Story rating: ★★★★☆ (4.5/5)
Christopher Nolan's $250 million adaptation of Homer's epic, starring Matt Damon as Odysseus, opened in UK and US cinemas on July 17. It has since earned some of the strongest reviews of Nolan's career and record-breaking London ticket sales.
TL;DR
- Rotten Tomatoes' critics' score sits at 95%, with a 97% audience score, from more than 400 reviews.
- The BBFC has classified the film 15, for violence, threat and horror, and sexual violence.
- UK and Ireland box office has reached £35.3 million after 10 days, still No. 1 in its second weekend.
- It's Nolan's first film shot entirely on IMAX 70 mm, and his highest-scoring release on Rotten Tomatoes to date.
A homecoming told around a banquet table
"The Odyssey" opens mid-story, with a hall of listeners hearing an account of the fall of Troy before the film shifts to Odysseus's decade-long journey home to Ithaca. Matt Zoller Seitz, a critic at RogerEbert.com, wrote that the film is fundamentally about how stories can deceive, comfort and bind people together.
The 173-minute film also stars Anne Hathaway as Penelope, Tom Holland as Telemachus, Robert Pattinson as Antinous, Zendaya as Athena and Charlize Theron, alongside an ensemble that includes John Leguizamo and Lupita Nyong'o. Filming took place across Morocco, Greece, Italy, Scotland, Iceland and Malta.
Critics call it Nolan's most acclaimed film yet
95% "Certified Fresh" Rotten Tomatoes critics' score, from more than 400 reviews; the audience score is 97%. Source: Forbes, July 21, 2026
Variety called the film a "vast, thrilling, aloof epic," praising its scale while noting some emotional distance in Nolan's approach. Erik Kain, a Forbes contributor, wrote that the film is "bold, visually stunning and artistically distinct," according to his review.
89 Metascore One point behind "Oppenheimer" and five behind Nolan's career-high, "Dunkirk." Source: DKNetwork/DraftKings Network, July 16, 2026
Steven D. Greydanus, whose review appears among Rotten Tomatoes' aggregated critics, wrote that despite its bleak tone, the film is "centrally about what human beings owe one another," and rated it 3.5 out of 4 stars.
UK fans pack the BFI IMAX
The film had its world premiere at the Odeon Luxe Leicester Square in London on July 6, ahead of its wide release. According to LBC, it then delivered Nolan's best-ever UK opening weekend, taking £12.9 million.
The BBFC has classified "The Odyssey" 15, citing violence, threat and horror, strong language, sex, drugs and sexual violence and threat. Advance IMAX 70 mm screenings at BFI IMAX in London reportedly sold out through September.
In its second UK and Ireland weekend, the film added £11.8 million ($15.7 million), lifting its 10-day local total to £35.3 million ($46.9 million) and holding the No. 1 spot, according to Variety.
Not every critic is swept up
Worldwide, the film has taken in roughly $368.1 million against its $250 million budget, according to industry tracker boxofficehype.com. That success hasn't silenced dissent entirely — Forbes writer Paul Tassi noted that critic Edward Douglas gave the film a 6 out of 10, one of very few scores counted as a rare blemish on an otherwise dominant Tomatometer run.
The film's modern-sounding dialogue in its opening scenes has reportedly stirred online debate about tone, with some viewers calling it jarring against the ancient setting, according to Forbes. Nolan's release day also coincided with an AI studio's own feature-length take on the Odyssey, a coincidence that added extra noise to an already crowded conversation.
The verdict
Screen & Story: 4.5/5 Docked half a star for the jarring modern dialogue in its opening act; everything else — scale, craft, cast — earns the acclaim.
Three weeks in, "The Odyssey" looks like the rare tentpole that has satisfied critics, audiences and the UK box office simultaneously — a rarity for a $250 million bet on a 2,700-year-old poem. Whether it holds this pace through the rest of summer, against releases including "Spider-Man: Brand New Day," remains the next test.
