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‘It reminded me of James Bond’: Guardian readers on The Odyssey

The Odyssey is the summer’s biggest film: an adaptation of an almost 3,000 year old poem that everyone is talking about. So what was our readers’ verdict? As expected from Christopher Nolan, The Odyssey is an immense technical achievement: vast in scale, beautifully shot and carried by an absorbing soundscape, particularly impressive on the Imax screen. I did enjoy it, but it did not resonate with me emotionally as some of Nolan’s other films have. For a film reaching for something deep and mythic, I’m not sure it felt quite as profound as it wanted to be. I also wasn’t wholly convinced by the casting. There were so many big names that at times I found myself seeing the actors more than the characters. Matt Damon, especially in the island scenes, reminded me of his early Bourne performances when the character had lost his memory. Charlize Theron felt underused, Jon Bernthal seemed to bri

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The Odyssey is the summer’s biggest film: an adaptation of an almost 3,000 year old poem that everyone is talking about. So what was our readers’ verdict? As expected from Christopher Nolan, The Odyssey is an immense technical achievement: vast in scale, beautifully shot and carried by an absorbing soundscape, particularly impressive on the Imax screen. I did enjoy it, but it did not resonate with me emotionally as some of Nolan’s other films have. For a film reaching for something deep and mythic, I’m not sure it felt quite as profound as it wanted to be. I also wasn’t wholly convinced by the casting. There were so many big names that at times I found myself seeing the actors more than the characters. Matt Damon, especially in the island scenes, reminded me of his early Bourne performances when the character had lost his memory. Charlize Theron felt underused, Jon Bernthal seemed to bri

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According to The Guardian’s linked report, ‘It reminded me of James Bond’: Guardian readers on The Odyssey, The Odyssey is the summer’s biggest film: an adaptation of an almost 3,000 year old poem that everyone is talking about. So what was our readers’ verdict? As expected from Christopher Nolan, The Odyssey is an immense technical achievement: vast in scale, beautifully shot and carried by an absorbing soundscape, particularly impressive on the Imax screen. I did enjoy it, but it did not resonate with me emotionally as some of Nolan’s other films have. For a film reaching for something deep and mythic, I’m not sure it felt quite as profound as it wanted to be. I also wasn’t wholly convinced by the casting. There were so many big names that at times I found myself seeing the actors more than the characters. Matt Damon, especially in the island scenes, reminded me of his early Bourne performances when the character had lost his memory. Charlize Theron felt underused, Jon Bernthal seemed to bri

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The development sits in VINI’s Culture coverage for readers following arts, entertainment, fashion, film, music, celebrity, and the business of culture. The original report is linked so readers can check the source account, follow later updates, and compare new coverage against the first published record. The linked report is dated 2026-07-27T12:26:55+00:00.

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Primary source: ‘It reminded me of James Bond’: Guardian readers on The Odyssey via The Guardian. VINI cites and links the source; it does not reproduce the publisher’s full article text without rights clearance.

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