The Return

As a fan of The Odyssey, it pains me to say that The Return (2024) was a disappointing experience. While it technically follows the key story beats, its focus on certain character motivations and its portrayal of nearly everyone as unlikable makes it difficult to engage with. One of the most frustrating aspects is the film’s handling of iconic moments. The bow and axe scene feels anticlimactic, and Odysseus’s slaughter of the suitors—despite the movie going out of its way to emphasize their cruelty—somehow feels off. The film weaves in themes about the lingering ghosts of war and the destruction violence leaves in its wake, which are powerful ideas, but they feel oddly mismatched with what is, at its core, a revenge story. Imagine Kill Bill or Die Hard, but instead of reveling in the protagonist’s righteous vengeance, the film drains all the energy from the action, making its hero tired, broken, and more eager to flee than to fight. While that could be an interesting take, the execution here is frustrating—so much so that I often found myself yelling, Why?? at the screen more than I typically do. A smaller nitpick, but still worth mentioning: the casting choices were puzzling. While the film boasts a diverse cast, the core family is inexplicably made up of white actors, which stands out given the setting. As one of my friends put it, "when they all stand together in a group, they stand out like the beacons of Gondor have been lit" and you know, he's not wrong. In short, The Return should have stayed away. I can only hope Christopher Nolan’s Odyssey will serve as a worthy replacement—if only to erase this version from my memory.

The script is absolutely horrible. Acting is mediocre at best, quite possibly because of the poor script. I wasted my time watching this.

Great acting but slow & dull AF. This could have been better with this great group of actors in it. Let's blame the director maybe? I'm not sure who dropped the ball.

This idea offered so much promise. A great idea, retelling the story of Odysseus’s return in more gritty form, broken and shamed by war and experience to a ruined island and embattled family, with two of the greatest actors of our age at its heart. Fiennes and Binoche are spectacular but almost everything else - costumes, script, plot, acting, is utterly hammy. By focusing on how good those two are and telling myself I’d been transported back to 1960s Saturday afternoon TV old film mode - only without the good monsters - I was able to get through it with a modicum of enjoyment.

Disappointing....definitely nowhere near as exciting, dramatic or as action-filled as the trailer would lead you to believe. The Director should not be allowed to make another movie....this is poorly paced, incredibly poorly choreographed, poorly acted by some (Charlie Plummer in particular), and worst of all, the movie looks really low-budget...almost like a student film in places. I guess they blew the budget on Fiennes and Binoche and had a few hundred bucks left over for some burlap wraps for clothing, styrofoam stone blocks, and rented livestock.

Unless you are a die hard Greek mythology fan this movie is not going to appeal to much of a movie going audience in the year 2025. And I'm surprised someone in the movie making business agreed to make this. Ancient Greek plays have their own exaggerated tragic cadence and this doesn't seem to translate to a movie.

Loved it, the movie is slow and beautiful. It brings the tale of Odysseus to the reality of a human who was broken by the war and how his family and people are suffering. The cast is superb, Ralph Fiennes and Juliette Binoche are phenomenal, Claudio Santamaria, Marwan Kenzari and Charlie Plummer were really great too.

Boring and trailer is misleading

As a huge fan of the Odyssey in its literary form, I absolutely loved this adaptation. The acting was fabulous and the storyline followed the epic very well, only deviating to make it more cinematic. I was very much pleasantly surprised to find an adaptation of my favorite epic to be well acted and well screenplayed.

The best retelling of the final chapter of the Odyssey. Violent but surprisingly in good taste. The period and story was violent so it fits. Great acting. Juliette Binoche is still a great beauty. Ralph Fiennes is sinewy and taut.