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Christopher Nolan’s adaptation of The Odyssey,<\/em><\/a> <\/em>a story adapted so many times<\/a> and in so many different ways that it’s hard to imagine finding a fresh way in, has far more in common with his Best Picture-winning Oppenheimer <\/em>than you’d think. Maybe we should’ve taken that movie opening with a quote about Prometheus stealing fire from the gods a bit more seriously!<\/p>\n The Odyssey <\/em>delivers everything you’d want from an epic of this size and scale, and then some. But it also functions as a spiritual sequel to Oppenheimer<\/em>, continuing Nolan’s psychological examination of men reflecting on their roles in destructive moments that changed the\u00a0world.<\/p>\n Oppenheimer <\/em>was about the invention of the nuclear bomb and the torment of the scientist behind its creation at the destruction it wrought. Nolan’s The Odyssey <\/em>is an anti-war epic about Odysseus (Matt Damon, in a career-best performance) reckoning with the trauma and horrors of war, and specifically how breaking Zeus’s Law \u2014 which boils down to the golden rule of “treat others the way you’d want to be treated,” with the added caveat of “because the gods are hiding among humans and you don’t want to mistreat one” \u2014 has led to the breakdown of a civil society.<\/p>\n After 10 years of war, King Odysseus sets sail for Ithaca, eager to reunite with his beloved Penelope (an excellent Anne Hathaway), who faces a cavalcade of suitors waiting to take over his throne and usurp his son (Tom Holland). But his journey home is far more treacherous than the battlefield, as he must face deadly monsters and vengeful gods to survive.<\/p>\n