UPDATE: The best reviews of Nolan’s career now come with the harshest one. Emily Wilson, the translator Nolan cited as inspiration, has torched the film in a viral review, writing she would be ashamed to have written any part of the script. The Tomatometer has since settled at 96% across 276 reviews, still the best of Nolan’s career.
The review embargo for Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey lifted Wednesday at noon ET, and the verdict is in: the film has debuted at 98% on Rotten Tomatoes, the highest Tomatometer score of Nolan’s entire career, and the number has even flirted with 99% as more reviews get counted.
More than 100 reviews have been tallied so far, with an average rating around 8.8 out of 10. That puts The Odyssey ahead of every film Nolan has ever made. The Dark Knight and Memento previously topped his filmography at 94% apiece, followed by the Best Picture-winning Oppenheimer at 93%, Dunkirk at 92%, Inception at 87%, Interstellar at 73%, and Tenet at the bottom with 70%. Nothing in the catalog comes close.
What Critics Are Saying About The Odyssey
Critics are praising the sheer scale of the production — the first feature ever shot entirely on IMAX 70mm cameras — along with Matt Damon’s weathered turn as Odysseus, Ludwig Göransson’s score, and Nolan’s decision to lean on practical filmmaking over CGI. The Guardian’s Peter Bradshaw handed it a perfect five stars, crediting the film’s “thrilling ambition, boldness, seriousness, generosity and flair.” Fresh Fiction’s Courtney Howard called it “a genuine masterclass in filmmaking,” and multiple critics are already positioning it as the frontrunner to dominate awards season the way Oppenheimer did.
Damon leads a stacked cast that includes Tom Holland, Anne Hathaway, Zendaya, Robert Pattinson, Charlize Theron, Lupita Nyong’o, Jon Bernthal, Mia Goth, Samantha Morton — whose performance Nolan compared to Heath Ledger’s Joker — and Elliot Page. The score caps Universal’s final press blitz, which saw the cast take over The Tonight Show all this week.
Now It’s The Fans’ Turn
The record-setting critics’ score arrives after months of fan backlash that Cosmic Book News has been tracking, including the most disliked trailer of Nolan’s career — now past 700,000 dislikes — and the backlash over Lupita Nyong’o’s casting as Helen of Troy. Not every advance reaction matched the premiere-night raves either, with Film Threat’s reviewers landing on “bored,” “disaster” and “mixed.”
The Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score is still pending and won’t populate until verified ratings start rolling in with Thursday’s preview screenings — and Forbes is already warning to brace for review-bombing on the user side.
That sets up the real test this weekend. Summer box office tracking has The Odyssey at an $80 million to $120 million domestic opening, with global estimates around $200 million, against a $250 million budget. Nolan needs this one to travel far beyond the critics.
The Odyssey plays previews Thursday before opening nationwide Friday, July 17. For the full cast list, story breakdown, and every update ahead of release, see our complete Odyssey guide.
