There have been several rounds of social media mini-reviews over the past week, but today, the embargo has just dropped for officially scored reviews of The Odyssey. It may not be a great surprise that they are largely positive, given the impressions posted before this. But this good? It’s a Rotten Tomatoes record for Nolan, and so far, for the year in terms of major releases.
With nearly 60 reviews in, The Odyssey has a 99% Rotten Tomatoes score, a stunning figure, especially for a movie this high-profile. As it stands, that is ahead of the likes of Project Hail Mary (94%), Obsession (94%) and The Sheep Detectives (95%). It’s even above last year’s Sinners (97%).
In Nolan’s catalog, nothing tops it, not even Best Picture winner Oppenheimer. Here’s his list:
- The Odyssey – 99% critic score
- The Dark Knight – 94% critic score
- Memento – 94% critic score
- Oppenheimer – 93% critic score
- Dunkirk – 93% critic score
- Insomnia – 92% critic score
- Following – 87% critic score
- The Dark Knight Rises – 87% critic score
- Batman Begins – 85% critic score
- The Prestige – 76% critic score
- Interstellar – 73% critic score
- Tenet – 70% critic score
As you can see, nothing is even close. I was going to say that it may go down as more reviews come in, and that remains true, but as I was writing this, two dozen more reviews came in, and it actually went up from a 98% to a 99%. From what I can tell, there is only a single negative review from critic Edward Douglas, but that’s confusing, as his 6/10 rating should be a “fresh” positive score by Rotten Tomatoes standards. So it very well may be 100%.
The Odyssey’s weekend box office is currently estimated to be around $200 million globally, but that was before these reviews came up. Not that Rotten Tomatoes dictates the fortunes of all films, but A) critics liking it to this degree is certainly going to spread like wildfire around the internet and B) it implies the movie is probably extremely good, which would create longer legs for the release if audiences agree.
Even reading through the positive online takes before this, a score like this is almost unheard of for a blockbuster of this scale. If there was talk about potential wins come award season before this, it seems pretty clear that is likely to be the case now.
General audiences will get their first look at The Odyssey on Thursday, July 16, and we will see if they agree with these stunned critics. We’ll circle back then, along with how the film performs over the course of the weekend.
Update: It’s now back to a 98% after a few more reviews in.
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