The Odyssey provides popcorn pleasures

https://www.npr.org/podcasts/598110962/movie-minutes-with-robin-holabird

Walking cold into director Christopher Nolan’s version of The Odyssey feels a bit like jumping into the story’s famous whirlpool with some head spinning before landing on a path to follow. For one thing, The Odyssey technically qualifies as a sequel to original author Homer’s epic poem, The Iliad. That means a whole lot of backstory about the Trojan war and its sneaky wooden horse already happened. For another, Nolan’s screenplay quickly moves 10 years after the horse trick, then backtracks and switches around a 20-or-so year period.  And then, while people like me remember such  names as Odysseus and Penelope, I do some head scratching with Telemachus or Antinous—even though I read the poem.  But like Odysseus, my experience occurred decades ago, and I join him in feeling a few memory lapses-- though I lack a lust filled nymph to blame. Fortunately, Nolan helps me by casting recognizable faces to blend with those names that truly are Greek to me: Antinous looks like Twilight vampire Edward, otherwise known as Robert Pattinson in an effective twist as villain. Tom Holland, a.k.a Spiderman, plays Odysseus’s son Telemachus. The list goes on: Batman’s girlfriend Catwoman--or Anne Hathaway—shines as Penelope; Mad Max alumni Furiosa, or Charlize Theron, looks the part of a gorgeous nymph. But key to it all, Jason Bourne transforms into Matt Damon, impressively ripped but aging as the story’s namesake. Once latching on to all that, Nolan’s screenplay turns into an exciting adventure about the situation many travelers face—the hardest part of a journey often involves getting home. Of course many of us travel fans miss out on challenges like a witch or cyclops with a taste for humans, and our version of choosing between a rock in a hard place proves less threatening than picking a hungry granite beast over a swirling whirlpool.  As a special effects master, director Nolan puts a real rather than fanciful visual stamp on events, highlighting action but adding wistful depth with valid insights about the horror of war.  The Odyssey fills the bill as popcorn pleasure with a point to make.