Hideo Kojima is the visionary creator of Metal Gear Solid and Death Stranding, and his word carries a lot of weight with fans.
It's no surprise then that in recent years his movie reviews on social media have frequently gone viral. A detailed verdict typically means he loved a new release, while a simple acknowledgement that he's watched something is usually perceived as a sign he didn't like it.
Now, Kojima has weighed in on Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey, and he had nothing but praise for the movie. Hailing it as "truly an unprecedented, unexperienced 'Odyssey,'" the video game legend declared the fantasy epic "magnificent."
The Odyssey recently beat Oppenheimer's $975.8 million haul to become the third highest-grossing R-rated movie ever. It's set to surpass $1 billion imminently, and should receive a boost internationally when it's released in China and Japan in the coming weeks.
When all is said and done, The Odyssey will likely end its run with $1.4 billion to $1.5 billion, an incredible result that will once again give Nolan his choice of projects when he decides what his next blockbuster will be.
Check out Kojima's review of The Odyssey below.
At the "David Geffen Theater," I watched director Nolan's "Odyssey (entirely shot on IMAX® film cameras)" in a 70mm film IMAX® screening. No, rather than saying I "watched" the screen, it felt like I was there the whole time! , a sensation of "witnessing it!" This impact was reminiscent of when I was in elementary school and first saw a "Cinerama" screening at the "Osaka OS Theater." Back then, the immersive realism was utterly different from what I was used to on a cathode ray tube. It brought back those feelings from that time.
The lack of Japanese subtitles might have been a good thing, too. I'd grown up watching the story's structure since childhood—from the Kirk Douglas version (1954) to several black-and-white adaptations—so I understood it, but this was a whole different bodily experience. For me, it was truly an unprecedented, unexperienced ""Odyssey." Even with its massive screen layout at "aspect ratio 1.43:1," it drew endlessly close to the actors' expressions, capturing their emotions deeply with shallow "depth of field," then switching to fine details with "pull focus," relentlessly pursuing their anguish and fate in Nolan and Hoyte's image-making.
The tour de force performances by a luxurious cast that could withstand that resolution. In this film too, Nolan's signature of meticulously crossing timelines with intersecting time was alive and well. All of it could be said to have elevated the "classical epic" that everyone knows into a human drama on a lifelike scale. It was magnificent. When it releases in Japan in September, it'll be digital IMAX®, but I'll probably make a "homecoming" to see it a few more times.
"Matt Damon and Christopher Nolan join forces for a movie that blows every other modern blockbuster out of the water," we wrote in our review. "Breathtakingly epic, powerful, and pure spectacle, The Odyssey is simply magnificent."
The cast of The Odyssey includes Matt Damon, Tom Holland, Zendaya, Robert Pattinson, Lupita Nyong'o, Anne Hathaway, Charlize Theron, Benny Safdie, Elliot Page, Jon Bernthal, Mia Goth, John Leguizamo, Himesh Patel, Lupita Nyong'o, Will Yun Lee, Benny Safdie, Bill Irwin, Samantha Morton, Jesse Garcia, Corey Hawkins, Josh Stewart, Jimmy Gonzales, Maurice Compte, and Logan Marshall-Green.
Shot across the world using brand-new IMAX film technology, the film brings Homer’s foundational saga to IMAX film screens for the first time, and it's now playing in theaters.