The Odyssey

Last night I finally had the chance to see The Odyssey, one of my most anticipated movies of 2026, and I was absolutely blown away by both the spectacle and the storytelling.  Odysseus (Matt Damon), the king of Ithaca, leaves his wife Penelope (Anne Hathaway) and son Telemachus (Tom Holland) to aid Agamemnon (Benny Safdie) on his quest to rescue Helen (Lupita Nyong'o), the wife of his brother Menelaus (Jon Bernthal), from Troy.  After successfully infiltrating the city by deception inside a large wooden horse, he sails home with his soldiers and Eurylochus (Himesh Patel), his increasingly distrustful second-in-command, by a slower route than Agamemnon because he is tormented by visions of Athena (Zendaya).  His journey is interrupted by battles with mythical creatures and angry gods until he takes solace with Calypso (Charlize Theron) who makes him forget his family and the loss of his crew for many years.  In Ithaca, Penelope is besieged by suitors wanting her to marry again, most notably Antinous (Robert Pattinson) and Polybus (Corey Hawkins), and is surrounded by duplicitous servants, including Melantho (Mia Goth) and her brother Melanthius (Logan Marshall-Green), while Telemachus is determined to find the truth about his father with the help of his loyal swineherd Eumaeus (John Leguizamo).  When Odysseus is finally able to return to Ithaca, he must confront the consequences of the choices he was forced to make in war.  What I loved most about this is that the immense scope and scale of Odysseus's physical journey, including some of the best action sequences I've seen, is balanced by the intimacy of his existential journey of discovery.  The set pieces are big, loud, immersive, and sometimes terrifying, especially the scenes in which Polyphemus (a cyclops) and Scylla (a multi-headed monster) attack, with incredible visuals  and sound design.  The third act, in particular, grabs you and doesn't let go with escalating tension that culminated in applause from my audience.  Damon gives the best performance of his career because his impressive physicality is coupled with some highly emotional scenes that brought tears to my eyes, particularly one with Calypso when he finally realizes who he is and what he has done and one with Penelope and Athena when he asks them for forgiveness.  I could also say the same for the entire cast but the standouts for me are Holland as Telemachus (after watching him as Spider-Man for so many years I was truly not familiar with his game), because his restrained transformation from an overwhelmed boy to a man worthy to take the throne of Ithaca is very powerful, Samantha Morton as Circe, because her delivery of a monologue about the violence of men gave me goosebumps, Pattinson as Antinous, because he is just so sleazy and I loved his final confrontation with Damon, and Leguizamo as Eumaeus, because he steals every scene he is in.  Finally, my attention never wavered during the almost three hour runtime and I almost got a ticket to see it again as soon as it ended (I will see it again very soon).  This is a masterpiece and I cannot recommend it enough but definitely see it in IMAX with Dolby Atmos sound (you'll thank me later).

Note:  The only movie that even has a chance of dethroning this as my favorite of 2026 is Dune: Part Three.  Nolan has thrown down the gauntlet to Villeneuve!