In cinemas July 17

Following up on an Oscar-winning epic is always difficult, even for the most established of filmmakers. There is a touch of the “difficult second album” about it. For his first movie since the massively acclaimed Oppenheimer, auteur Christopher Nolan is tackling Greek mythology, which is epic in itself. Specifically, Homer’s 3,000-year-old texts are collectively known as The Odyssey.

Obviously, there is a bit of pressure on. Aside from trying to, at the very least, match previous successes, there is the little matter of the $250 million budget – Nolan’s biggest to date.

This could explain the casting choices, which seem very much like a smorgasbord of popular actors and pop culture icons, designed to appeal specifically to individual fan bases as much as to movie buffs.

Matt Damon plays the titular character – an unusual choice as these sorts of roles usually go to more “classical” actors. The cast also features Marvel and Disney stars alongside Umbrella Academy’s Eliot Page and Walking Dead icon Corey Hawkins. Rapper Travis Scott even appears as a bard, something Nolan has said is a nod to the Odyssey’s retelling through “oral poetry” over the centuries.

The subject matter, on the other hand, is far from contemporary. Most of us learn a certain amount of these stories in childhood. Lest you have forgotten, this follows Odysseus, the king of Ithaca, on his long and perilous journey home to reunite with his wife Penelope and son following the Trojan War. It details his encounters with mythical beings such as the Cyclops Polyphemus, Sirens, the witch Circe and the nymph Calypso.

These classic “man vs beast” encounters and “sword and sandal” epics are the very foundations of the Hollywood blockbuster and have been around since the start of cinema. Those early iterations did not benefit from modern cinematic technology, and looking back, it shows. Nolan has harked back to those earlier works and eschewed CGI, relying instead on massive practical sets, elaborate animatronics, and real ocean locations.

On the whole, this works and adds to the scale of the film, but while the effort is commendable, it does mean that when it doesn’t work, it is very jolting, such as the decidedly sketchy-looking Cyclops. The creature is a 60-foot mechanical puppet he had built inside a real cave in Greece, overseen by actor and puppeteer Bill Irwin. I appreciate that the Cyclops is a mythical creature, but this feels very out of place given the slickness of this production.

Cyclops aside, this is an absolute spectacle with some huge set pieces. Visually, it is stunning. It was shot entirely on IMAX’s 70 mm film cameras, and the cinematography is magnificent. The production design is flawless. The costumes may not exactly be historically accurate, but they are fantastic. The locations are impressive and match the scale of the movie.

All of the actors bring their A-game (although some people’s A-game is better than others). The choice to have them all speaking in American accents and contemporary dialogue seems a Machiavellian ploy to appeal to US audiences and the TikTok generation. Mind you, Nolan claims it is simply to distance it from the “stiff” acting historically found in similar classical epics. Either way, I’m sure more than a few eyebrows will be raised.

It goes without saying that this is excellent filmmaking. It is definitely one of the best films of recent years in terms of the technicality of filmmaking and storytelling. Nolan is a master of his craft and clearly poured his heart and soul into this. It is a very engaging and entertaining experience, which will surely instil curiosity about those Greek classics in audiences. Many of the themes of the movie are as relevant now as they were 3000 years ago, and there is a huge amount to love here. It is definitely a contender for all the best picture awards and no doubt a few acting gongs. It is not flawless and could be a modicum shorter than 173 minutes, but it earns its place as a modern classic and has set the bar very high for similar epics to come.