The Odyssey is living proof of how little real power online trolls, racists, and engagement baiters actually have once the lights go down in a theater.
These people have been emboldened in recent years, especially by the Trump era, to attack anything that has even a hint of diversity. They treat every casting choice that doesn’t match their narrow preferences like a personal attack on Western civilization. They spent months trying to sabotage Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey before it even opened. They flooded timelines with the usual bad-faith complaints about “woke casting,” about Zendaya, about Lupita Nyong’o, about the mere existence of non-white faces in a story that has been told for nearly three thousand years. They did everything they could to poison the well.
None of it mattered.
The work spoke for itself. Real people who are not terminally online, who do not spend their days manufacturing outrage and fostering hate, showed up. They bought tickets. They filled IMAX screens. They responded to a good product the way audiences always have when something is actually worth watching. The online noise turned out to be exactly what it usually is: loud, temporary, and ultimately irrelevant to people living actual lives.
This is something sports leagues like the WNBA should study carefully. Christopher Nolan didn’t waste a second engaging the haters. He didn’t issue carefully worded statements. He didn’t apologize. He didn’t debate them. He basically laughed and treated them as insignificant because he knew he had a strong product. That confidence is rare these days. Too many organizations and leagues allow a relatively small group of professional complainers to dictate the conversation. Nolan showed the smarter path: ignore them, deliver the goods, and let the audience decide.
Studios need to learn the same lesson. When movies fail, it is almost never because of what people are saying online. It is usually because the movie itself is not good, or not interesting enough for people to leave the house. Online discourse is a convenient scapegoat. The truth is simpler. People will show up for Christopher Nolan movies. They will show up for Matt Damon. They will show up for Tom Holland, Anne Hathaway, Robert Pattinson, and Zendaya when those names are attached to something that looks ambitious and well-made. That is exactly what happened here. The star power and the director’s track record created genuine interest, and the finished film delivered enough quality to convert that interest into ticket sales.
The Odyssey is well acted and beautifully shot. You can see the massive effort that went into making everything feel as realistic and tangible as possible, even in a story filled with gods, monsters, and the supernatural. Nolan and his team refused to lean on pure CGI spectacle. The practical elements, the locations, the physical performances all give the mythic story a grounded weight that a lot of modern blockbusters lack. It feels like a real journey rather than a series of expensive set pieces.
I will be honest: I did not walk out thinking this was the best movie ever made. I did not even think it was the best film Nolan or Damon have been involved with. But it was consistently enjoyable. The performances carry a lot of the load. Anne Hathaway is excellent. Robert Pattinson is excellent. Matt Damon is excellent. Those three in particular give the movie its emotional center and keep the larger-than-life material from floating away into pure fantasy. You can feel the work they put in.
My only real complaints are minor. The audio gets muddled at times, making some of the dialogue harder to catch than it should be in a film this carefully crafted. And the story itself can get confusing if you are not paying extremely close attention. There is a lot of information, a lot of characters, and a lot of mythological reference packed into the runtime. A second viewing with subtitles is probably necessary to fully catch everything. Those are the only issues that stood out.
Everything else works. The film is a reminder that quality still matters more than online discourse. The people who tried to kill this movie before it opened failed completely. Audiences who actually go to the theater and pay attention to the screen decided for themselves.
Consider this a win for people with real lives, not the miserable ones who seem determined to divide the country for attention and engagement.
8.5 out of 10 BSO stars.
