ISN at the Movies: The Odyssey and the Case for Movie Nostalgia at the Cineplex

Matt Damon in The Odyssey.

I have had a gestating idea on how to talk about one of the best big screen experiences I have had this year and inspiration struck me recently.

Christopher Nolan is one of my favorite filmmakers that is still currently working and he has been for a very long time. I admire every one of his films greatly. Yes, even The Dark Knight Rises, Insomnia, and Tenet. What can I say? He’s a divisive guy, but he always has a take when he makes something. That brings me to his latest blockbuster effort: The Odyssey.

It is, quite literally, his biggest movie to date in many ways. It’s the first film he shot entirely using IMAX camera technology. Almost everyone who has a tepid interest in Nolan cannot argue that it must be seen on the big screen to get the full experience. Now I did not sit down to write this to say “yes you absolutely should go see this on the 70 millimeter IMAX print projected on film or do not bother seeing it” as I understand for many this is a tall ask. There are only 45 screens equipped to do this in the entire world and 26 of them are in the contiguous United States. My wife decided months before release that she would wait until we had the chance to go see this on the biggest screen possible. This screen just so happened to be a theater about 2 hours from our house in the DFW metroplex that projected it on the 70 MM print.

So, naturally as an impatient guy I saw the movie twice. I saw it once locally and then once a month later on the 70 MM print. The first time I saw it, I was so impressed with what he accomplished in making this story into a big screen movie. It felt like an impossible task. It did not seem overly silly or “comic booky” for a lack of a better term. By design, it’s a fantastical story, but the sequences do not feel like the standard fare that has been at the theater for the last 2 decades. Add to that the performances are aces from top to bottom. Everyone is pouring their heart and soul into every scene they perform from a physical and vocal perspective. Matt Damon is the odds-on favorite to win Best Actor and the movie is the odds-on favorite to win Best Picture at The Oscars next year. While these bets may not be good value or come good when the awards circuit is concluded, it is extremely hard to argue against that being the case. “Go see it on any big screen you can while you have the chance” is how I felt when I watched it the first time.

The second viewing felt truly transcendent when it happened. Nolan is one of the best for 3 main reasons: he is a calculated filmmaker first and foremost, he understands how to move the medium of big screen filmmaking forward, and he has a complete command of the concepts that make movies age well. This cannot be truly evident for this specific case in totality until this movie is seen in its true aspect ratio. It is factual that seeing this movie projected in 70 MM is a completely different experience.

Before you say “it’s too late for that,” I have some good news for you. This will be far from the last time you will have a chance to see this on the biggest screen you can find. There is little doubt in my mind that this will have a re-release on 70 MM (and local IMAX screens in your town) come awards season. I will be in Discord, as will many others (shout out Robert Said) who will be posting links for ticket sales once this is put back on screens as I plan to revisit this in 70 if I can. I highly encourage you to check it out when it does happen (in true 70 MM, if at all possible). I could sit here and write thousands more words about why, but just trust me when I say you have never seen a movie like this projected the size of a 5-story building. A story this towering and grand needs the entire frame to tell it properly. Nolan created the technology to use the IMAX cameras in every scene, which would make this movie the first of its kind. Normal 70 MM IMAX movies only expand the frame twice the size on big action sequences that use those specific cameras. It’s a big deal that he fought to get the technology made to lug around cameras that weigh the size of a car to shoot dialogue sequences as well as the action. I know he did some of this in Oppenheimer, but this feels different. While Oppenheimer is a filet mignon of a movie as well, this feels like a bone-in tomahawk for you steak lovers.

I arrived at a very specific comparison for Nolan after watching this. The summation of his career is the intersection between Stanley Kubrick and James Cameron. I am also a massive fan of those two filmmakers and have been for a long time.

I have been attending re-releases of movies on the big screen for the better part of a decade. I have seen countless movies in the method in which they were intended to be seen. It just so happens that I saw a movie from each of these comparable creators in re-release in the last calendar year. I saw the Shining last year and just saw Terminator 2: Judgment Day earlier this evening. The Shining holds up incredibly well, even though the effects look relatively dated and Jack’s performance does leave a little bit to be desired. That being said, it’s an excellent big screen experience from someone with a true command of the art form. He’s a surgical filmmaker who is meticulous about every single shot in each movie and he leaves tons of breadcrumbs for the viewer to rediscover on multiple viewings. The Shining is one of his best examples of this. It is a classic for a reason and I don’t want to belabor the comparison here too much.

Kubrick was the original master of calculated framing and story boarding. If he shows you something, there is a reason. He was known as an extremely difficult individual to work with and work for. Nolan definitely has this calculation in most, if not all, of his films, with less of the negative connotations of being prickly on set. He is notorious for coming in on time and on budget.

But what I really wanted to talk about is seeing the re-release of Terminator 2: Judgment Day. This is what I consider to be a timeless stone cold masterpiece. Cameron understands on so many levels what looks good in the lens and how to tell a story that draws emotion out of the viewer that stays with you. People often associate him completely with the AVATAR series as that is what his sole focus has been for this century. His earlier work is far superior to that series and this is clear evidence of that in a re-viewing.

What struck me most is how these practical effects (something Nolan has proudly stated was the method he employed while filming the Odyssey) hold up shockingly well. They have aged about as good as any practical effects I have seen in a 90’s movie. There is something that cannot trick the eye when you actually blow real shit up. There is real shrapnel, real stuntmen and real cars getting ripped into pieces. It all looks like people were in (some) real danger while working on this project. Obviously Arnold and the rest of the cast are completely functional at their roles in the best way possible. Nolan often employs this method with performances: they serve a function and they serve it to their highest ability, but many times he understands that is not what you are there to see. The sum of the parts make up the whole. He is the star.

I did not know T2 was re-released in 3D until I picked up my ticket at the front counter and internally at that moment I said to myself “I could not care less.” I hate 3D movies, but if anyone in this world was going to do a decent job transferring it or hiring someone else to transfer it with an uncompromising quality, it would be him. It was an incredible experience witnessing this movie on a big screen. In 2026, and every year he’s released something, Cameron has been the pioneer to push the medium forward in new technological ways. He used to be the old reliable when it came to this. He was the only one, until Nolan showed up. His movies feel like an event, much like Cameron’s run did in the 80’s and 90’s, and he understands the power of practicality in effects while moving the medium forward. The beauty is the respect of the classical technique while using modern camera technology. Nolan is one of one in this marriage between cerebral and grandiose.

It is a towering achievement to make The Odyssey, the oldest story ever recorded, using old-style filmmaking techniques with real prop sets. He is cheating in certain ways to deceive your eyes, but something in the subconscious works when you’re watching that tells you this is different from what computer graphics can achieve. There is real blood, sweat and tears that went into making movies from these 3 directors, and that is on screen every time in spades.

What crowns the greats is that their best is just that fraction of a detail better than everyone else’s. He is the same when it comes to story telling and meticulousness, much like Kubrick. If he is showing you something, there’s a reason for it. I guess that’s why I always find something more rewarding in reviewing old classics from some of the greatest to ever do it time and again. The movies may feel like a wilting industry, but these “fathom events” are an open door to your youth and nostalgia that are a new way to garner interest from a new subset of customers. Why? Many of us are at the perfect age to revisit the 30th, 40th, even 50th anniversary re-releases of our favorites. These theaters are more routinely full than new releases. Another wild idea is for me (and you all) to revisit some old classics from the greats such as these two.

Not every one of them has to be the best thing you’ve ever seen, although your favorites will likely be on a screen near you. One of my (not so) guilty pleasure series is the Fast and the Furious movies. I was sad to have missed that first one being re-ushered into the world when I was away for vacation the other week. Much like other action direction that I revere, there are practical effects in the first part of that series that trick the eye better than the graphics cards can.

This is not only a way to introduce old classics to me, but find new ones I have yet to see. AMC has a Studio Ghibli series they run. I have not had the chance to see them all, but I have been going on occasion. Those are Hayao Miyazaki directed movies that use 2D animation (another forgotten technique that evokes different responses in me). I plan to see them all at some point, but it makes the most sense to see them in the way the creator intended if at all possible. The big screen with the lights going down and a bucket of popcorn can’t be beat. 

I don’t know if I have said this on the show, but I will be one of the last people going to the theater if they ever do get truncated to a cottage industry. It’s valuable to me as not only an escape, but a window into immersion that I can’t match in other ways. So, not only do I encourage you to visit something new with a nostalgic feel, like the Odyssey, but consider going to take your spouse and/or kids to some of your old favorites. There are surprises in life and this just may be one of them to you that you didn’t know you had the itch for. Thanks for reading and I will see you in the movies and tv chat.