Zendaya was absolutely ethereal as Athena. She had this calm, otherworldly presence that made her feel like a goddess every time she appeared on screen.

Rob Pattinson completely surprised me too. As a millennial, it’s honestly hard not to see him as Cedric Diggory or Edward Cullen, but he played the villain so well that I forgot about those characters pretty quickly.

Travis Scott being the very first face we see on screen caught me completely off guard because I had no idea he was even in this movie. And Tom Holland delivered such an emotional, passionate performance that I found myself completely invested in his journey.

But more than any individual performance, it was the story itself that completely blew me away.

I have so much to say about The Odyssey after seeing it with my husband last night because this movie ended up being so much deeper than I ever expected.

Let’s start with Calypso.

I actually think Calypso is one of the most fascinating characters in the entire story because, to me, she represents escapism.

And tbh… that’s something a lot of people crave right now.

So many people are carrying emotional pain. Whether it’s anxiety, depression, financial stress, broken relationships, loneliness, uncertainty about the future, or worries about AI changing the workforce, it feels like a lot of people are simply exhausted.

So if the average person today suddenly washed up on an island with someone like Calypso—a beautiful nymph offering unconditional love, comfort, safety, peace, and an escape from reality—I think a lot of people would fall into that temptation.

That’s why I never found myself judging Odysseus. I understood him.

He’d spent years at war. He’d watched countless people die. He carried unimaginable guilt and trauma. So when someone offered him a chance to stop thinking about all of it, I completely understood why it became so difficult for him to leave.

Charlize Theron was such an inspired casting choice for Calypso because, yes, she’s incredibly beautiful, but she also has this naturally soothing, calming energy. She doesn’t just look like someone who could lure a broken man into staying forever—she feels like she could.

One of my biggest takeaways from this movie is that The Odyssey isn’t really about monsters.

It’s about trauma. Yes, Odysseus spends years fighting Cyclopes, sirens, sea monsters, and gods.

But the biggest monster he faces is the one living inside his own mind.

His guilt. His grief. His shame. The Trojan War lasted ten years. Then it took him another ten years to finally make it home.

On paper, that sounds like an adventure. Emotionally, it feels like a man who isn’t ready to face himself.

Throughout the war, Odysseus watched innocent civilians die. He watched friends and allies fall one after another. Even though he survived, survival came with an enormous psychological cost.

To me, that’s what makes Calypso’s temptation so compelling. She wasn’t trying to kill him. She genuinely loved him.

She offered him immortality, comfort, safety, and a life where he never had to confront the memories that haunted him.

And as someone carrying that much emotional weight, it’s easy to understand why he stayed for seven years.

I also loved the way Athena was portrayed throughout the movie.

She almost felt like a dream… or a vision… appearing only to Odysseus whenever he needed guidance.

Athena is the goddess of wisdom, strategic warfare, and intelligence, so it makes perfect sense that she would feel drawn to Odysseus.

Unlike heroes who rely purely on brute strength, Odysseus survives because he thinks.

He’s resourceful. He’s strategic. He’s adaptable. And no matter how hopeless things become, he refuses to completely give up.

Those are exactly the qualities Athena values.

What I appreciated most is that she never simply solved all of his problems for him.

She guided him. She challenged him. She encouraged him. But she still made him fight his own battles.

Because without that struggle, there really wouldn’t be an epic story to tell.

Then there’s Penelope, played by Anne Hathaway.

Out of every character in the movie, I honestly think she had one of the most heartbreaking storylines.

Maybe part of that is personal. I miss my husband when he leaves for a quick errand down the street.

So I genuinely can’t imagine spending twenty years wondering if he was even alive.

Penelope wasn’t just waiting. She was surviving. Every single day, she dealt with relentless pressure from men trying to force her into remarriage while also carrying the political burden created by Odysseus’s absence.

On top of that, she had no real confirmation that her husband would ever return.

Deep down, I think she believed he was still alive because she knew how intelligent and resourceful he was.

But hope isn’t the same thing as certainty.

After reading more about Greek mythology, I completely understand why Penelope is considered one of mythology’s strongest women.

She protects her son. She preserves Odysseus’s kingdom. She outsmarts the suitors for years.

And somehow she manages to keep going despite living in a constant state of uncertainty.

The one thing I wish the movie had spent more time exploring was the sirens.

We only get a brief glimpse of them as they sing from the rocks, luring sailors toward their deaths, and I wanted so much more.

I’ve always found sirens fascinating. They’re beautiful, mysterious, and terrifying all at once.

One random thing that’s always stuck with me is the Starbucks logo being a siren. It’s almost funny when you think about it—the company using a mythical creature famous for luring people in.

Whether that’s intentional symbolism or not, I’ve always thought it was interesting.

I also think Disney’s The Little Mermaid has softened the public’s perception of these kinds of mythical creatures.

Modern audiences often associate them with romance and happy endings.

But in Greek mythology, sirens are far darker. Their beauty isn’t meant to comfort you. It’s meant to destroy you.

They’re the embodiment of temptation—drawing people toward exactly what they think they want, only for that desire to become their downfall.

I honestly would’ve loved another ten or fifteen minutes dedicated to them because I think they’re some of the most fascinating figures in all of Greek mythology.

Another moment that really stood out to me was Circe.

One of the most memorable scenes in the movie is when Odysseus’s men enter her home, gorge themselves on her food, and she transforms them into pigs. Odysseus, however, never falls into that trap. He resists her temptation, so he never gets turned into an animal.

But that actually wasn’t the part of the scene that stuck with me the most. It was what Circe said afterward.

When she finally agreed to turn the men back into humans, she basically told them to “get back into your disguises.”

That line completely changed the way I looked at the scene. From Circe’s perspective, these men weren’t becoming animals…

They were revealing what they already were. She viewed them as beasts pretending to be civilized men.

Her reasoning was that they lacked self-control. They barged into her home, immediately indulged themselves, and acted purely on instinct, so in her mind, turning them into pigs simply reflected their true nature.

After the movie, I did a little more reading about Circe in Greek mythology, and I learned that many later interpretations of her story connect her distrust of men to the violence and violations she experienced. Rather than transforming men simply because she enjoyed it, some traditions portray it as an act of revenge or self-protection after terrible experiences with men.

Now, do I still think she’s absolutely unhinged? Yes.

But I also think she’s one of the most psychologically interesting characters in Greek mythology.

Another debate I’ve seen all over social media is whether Poseidon was actually justified in hating Odysseus.

And tbh… I think there’s an argument for both sides. On one hand, Odysseus blinded Poseidon’s son, the Cyclops Polyphemus.

Yes, it was an act of survival. But after escaping, Odysseus couldn’t resist firing that final arrow and taunting Polyphemus. That moment of pride gave Polyphemus the opportunity to call on Poseidon for revenge.

From Poseidon’s perspective, someone had humiliated and permanently injured his son.

Of course, he was furious. But on the other hand, Poseidon’s revenge felt completely disproportionate.

Instead of simply punishing Odysseus, he spent years tormenting him, wrecking his ships, and ultimately causing the deaths of nearly everyone traveling with him.

Those sailors weren’t the ones who made the decision to taunt Polyphemus. Yet they suffered the consequences anyway.

That’s what makes the debate so interesting.

Was Poseidon justified in being angry? Absolutely. Was he justified in the extent of his revenge? Personally… I don’t think so.

One of my favorite things about The Odyssey is how many timeless themes it explores beneath the surface.

The biggest one for me is the tension between fate and free will.

Throughout the movie, Odysseus is constantly trying to control his own future, only to discover that there are forces far beyond his control.

One example is when he desperately wants to leave the island with the sacred cattle of Helios before his starving crew does something reckless.

But the winds refuse to cooperate. No matter how badly he wants to leave, nature—and perhaps fate itself—won’t let him.

Eventually, his crew slaughters the sacred cattle anyway, setting off another devastating chain of events.

Another major theme is temptation. We see it through Calypso’s offer of comfort and escape. We see it through Circe. We see it through the Sirens.

Every major obstacle in The Odyssey isn’t just a monster. It’s a temptation. The temptation to stop moving forward. The temptation to give up. The temptation to choose comfort over purpose.

And then there’s loyalty. Penelope never gives up on Odysseus. Telemachus refuses to stop believing his father will come home. Even after twenty years, they continue choosing hope over despair.

That unwavering loyalty ended up being one of the most emotional parts of the entire story for me.

I review new releases from time to time, and this is one I genuinely want to recommend to people. Yes, it’s long. But I never found myself checking the time.

Going into the theater, I honestly didn’t know what to expect. I knew it had an incredible cast. I knew it was based on one of the most famous stories ever written.

But I wasn’t especially familiar with The Odyssey itself. I expected a good movie. I didn’t expect to walk away wanting to dive headfirst into Greek mythology.

I also know this movie sparked a lot of online debate over some of the casting choices, particularly Elliot Page as Sinon and Lupita Nyong’o as Helen of Troy and Clytemnestra.

Personally, those casting decisions never distracted me from the story.

Their roles are important, but they’re relatively small compared to the overall scope of the film.

What mattered most was whether the performances worked. And I thought they did.

I also recognize that not everyone is going to feel the same way I do.

People bring different perspectives and expectations into movies, and this was clearly one of those casting decisions that divided audiences.

For me, though, it never took away from the experience.

If anything, this movie has made me more interested in Greek mythology than I’ve ever been before.

My husband has wanted to visit Greece for years. It’s always been one of his dream destinations. Meanwhile, I kept putting places like Japan, Australia, and Amsterdam ahead of it on my own travel bucket list.

After watching The Odyssey… I finally get it. This movie made me want to learn more about the myths, the history, and the places that inspired one of the greatest stories ever told.

As someone who wasn’t especially familiar with Greek mythology going into the theater, I never felt completely lost.

Instead, I found myself becoming more curious with every scene.

I know a lot of students read The Odyssey in high school, but it was never assigned at my school. Tbh… I kind of wish it had been.

Because after finally experiencing this story, I understand why it’s endured for nearly three thousand years.

It’s exciting. It’s emotional. It’s tragic. It’s deeply human. And above all else… it truly earns the title of an epic.