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The Odyssey by Christopher Nolan

Recommended as a fun, engaging, visually grand adaptation that many enjoy in IMAX. Critics say it strays far from Homer's poem and lacks depth.

Summarized from 95 comments.

Recommended as a fun, engaging, visually grand adaptation that many enjoy in IMAX. Critics say it strays far from Homer's poem and lacks depth.

recommend
50
criticize
37
months recommended
7 of 13

Why people love it

What people warn about

  • Strays far from Homer's original · 4

    Odyssey has very little to do with the original story or the worldviews and values described by Homer

    Jul 2026 · comment

    who has enjoyed it very much

    Jul 2026 · comment

    The movie is essentially a total rewrite that uses nothing more than the poem's title and character names.

    Jul 2026 · comment
  • Mocap and green screen look fake · 2

    It's not fine to film your entire movie with mocap bodysuits on green backgrounds

    Jul 2026 · comment

    Too sharp and kind of fake looking, almost like TV.

    Jul 2026 · comment
  • Cuts Cyclops and Circe encounters · 2

    The Cyclops encounter was indeed deeply disappointing, because I recall vividly through retellings

    Jul 2026 · comment

    They take out all his tricks!!! No overcoming the Cyclops through trickery, no deceiving Circe!

    Jul 2026 · comment

What hackers pick instead

Every quote

The 40 most detailed of 95 comments. Each links to the original.

  1. That it survived is a testament to the cultural value of the details, motives, lessons, and tensions embedded within The Odyssey.

    Recommends · Jul 2026 · in “Show HN: Get alerts for good seats at 70mm IMAX showings of The Odyssey”

  2. Odyssey has very little to do with the original story or the worldviews and values described by Homer

    Mixed · Jul 2026 · in “I'm 38 and I Can't Support Myself Anymore”

  3. The Cyclops encounter was indeed deeply disappointing, because I recall vividly through retellings

    Mixed · Jul 2026 · in “Nolan's Odyssey – A technical analysis by a nitpicky Classics student”

  4. It's not fine to film your entire movie with mocap bodysuits on green backgrounds

    Mixed · Jul 2026 · in “'The Odyssey' Proves It: Audiences Want Movies Made the Hard Way”

  5. The film is really pretty good and far above any avg blockbuster.

    Recommends · Jul 2026 · in “A Silly Adaptation of "The Odyssey"”

  6. Nolan made some strong choices and the result is a great film

    Recommends · Jul 2026 · in “Nolan's Odyssey – A technical analysis by a nitpicky Classics student”

  7. vindicates Homer and makes me want to read the original

    Recommends · Jul 2026 · in “An Uncomplicated Man”

  8. Too sharp and kind of fake looking, almost like TV.

    Mixed · Jul 2026 · in “IMAX vs. IMAX 70mm: The difference between these two cinema formats”

  9. it definitely is not Homer's Odyssey at all

    Mixed · Jul 2026 · in “An Uncomplicated Man”

  10. the movie inspired me to read The Odyssey

    Recommends · Jul 2026 · in “An Uncomplicated Man”

  11. who has enjoyed it very much

    Recommends · Jul 2026 · in “An Uncomplicated Man”

  12. The movie is essentially a total rewrite that uses nothing more than the poem's title and character names.

    Criticizes · Jul 2026 · in “Show HN: Get alerts for good seats at 70mm IMAX showings of The Odyssey”

  13. They take out all his tricks!!! No overcoming the Cyclops through trickery, no deceiving Circe!

    Criticizes · Jul 2026 · in “Nolan's Odyssey – A technical analysis by a nitpicky Classics student”

  14. Being Nolans "source" for the Odyssey which butchered the original story doesn't help either.

    Criticizes · Sep 2026 · in “Emily Wilson to retranslate the Odyssey from scratch”

  15. Odyssey is very sanitized but it works very well because the characters and events are by definition representations of ideas

    Mixed · Jul 2026 · in “An Uncomplicated Man”

  16. Wilson made her translation using strict iambic pentameter and matching line count to retain the pace of the original poem.

    Recommends · Jul 2026 · in “An Uncomplicated Man”

  17. It lacks psychological, emotional, political and ethical depth. Its narrative structure is gimmicky.

    Mixed · Sep 2026 · in “Coyote v. Acme (1990)”

  18. very literary and written in a style of English that can be difficult for the average modern reader

    Mixed · Jul 2026 · in “Which Odyssey translation wins a blind reading test?”

  19. would say it was quite good. But, yes, "grandiosity" is true - in IMAX, it was loud and intense.

    Mixed · Jul 2026 · in “An Uncomplicated Man”

  20. Emily Wilson's translation is way better, more modern and adequate to present-day readers

    Recommends · Aug 2026 · in “The Claudyssey: A line-for-line translation of Homer's Odyssey by Claude Fable 5”

  21. Nolan's movie is in many ways a good adaptation (it's fun and engaging to modern viewers)

    Mixed · Sep 2026 · in “Emily Wilson to retranslate the Odyssey from scratch”

  22. I'd say that Odyssey is quite good, even though the original work is 100 generations old.

    Recommends · Sep 2026 · in “EFF to Courts: Don't Rewrite Copyright over AI Hype”

  23. it is sad that most people will only watch the movie rather than read the original work

    Recommends · Jul 2026 · in “Show HN: Get alerts for good seats at 70mm IMAX showings of The Odyssey”

  24. The Fagles translation is much more lyrical without being overly pompous or florid

    Recommends · Jul 2026 · in “An Uncomplicated Man”

  25. The landscapes were often gorgeous, but otherwise I thought it was all a bit dull

    Mixed · Jul 2026 · in “An Uncomplicated Man”

  26. With Odyssey we have customers with 50k+ connections operating normally.

    Recommends · Jul 2026 · in “We scaled PgBouncer to 4x throughput”

  27. Fagles was what I read when I first read the Iliad/Odysseus years ago

    Recommends · Jul 2026 · in “Which Odyssey translation wins a blind reading test?”

  28. superb part of the Odyssey where Odysseus is reunited with his dog

    Recommends · Mar 2026 · in “Woman who never stopped updating her lost dog's chip reunites with him after 11y”

  29. the reviews from both the viewers and the critics are really good

    Recommends · Jul 2026 · in “'The Odyssey' Proves It: Audiences Want Movies Made the Hard Way”

  30. It's one of the greatest stories of all time directed by Nolan.

    Recommends · Jul 2026 · in “'The Odyssey' Proves It: Audiences Want Movies Made the Hard Way”

  31. A good one, I definitely recommend it, but far from memorable.

    Recommends · Jul 2026 · in “An Uncomplicated Man”

  32. likes it based on movie reasons, so that was encouraging

    Recommends · Jul 2026 · in “A Silly Adaptation of "The Odyssey"”

  33. an entertaining and uniquely American spin on the story

    Recommends · Jul 2026 · in “IMAX vs. IMAX 70mm: The difference between these two cinema formats”

  34. diffusion model world gens like Odyssey are the future

    Recommends · Nov 2025 · in “WorldGen – Text to Immersive 3D Worlds”

  35. There are tons of other, really good movies to watch.

    Recommends · Oct 2026 · in “America has lost 200k of jobs in media, film and the arts. How much is AI?”

  36. It felt both familiar and fresh at the same time

    Recommends · Jul 2026 · in “An Uncomplicated Man”

  37. it was the one most accessible to modern readers

    Recommends · Jul 2026 · in “Which Odyssey translation wins a blind reading test?”

  38. total trash compared to, say, The Odyssey

    Recommends · Aug 2026 · in “Seedance 2.5”

  39. the Cyclops, Circe, and the Lotus-Eaters

    Mixed · Jul 2026 · in “Who Is America's Homer?”

  40. IMO it's a mixed result in The Odyssey.

    Mixed · Jul 2026 · in “IMAX vs. IMAX 70mm: The difference between these two cinema formats”

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