If you trace the career path of Christopher Nolan as a director, you’ll see a steady growth from smaller character stories to larger cinematic events. From "Memento" through the "Dark Knight" Trilogy, to "Interstellar" and "Oppenheimer" you clearly see this upward path where the films he creates become larger and larger in scope. That trajectory towards more expansive films culminates in his latest offering, "The Odyssey."

"The Odyssey" was originally an epic poem, and Nolan’s translation of the work to film lives up to that description. If nothing else, the film is unquestionably, unequivocally epic.

Nolan’s close collaboration with Academy Award-winning cinematographer Hoyte Van Hoytema has given us some of Hollywood’s most beautifully shot films, and that chemistry between them spills over into "The Odyssey" as well. From sweeping seascapes, intense battle scenes, and intimate close-ups, no one comes close to these two when shooting for IMAX. And IMAX is the best way to see the film, even though at times the already-gigantic screen didn’t seem big enough to hold everything that was going on. I have a prophecy that involves nominations for both of them this Oscar cycle.

Matt Damon plays Odysseus, ruler of Ithica, soldier in the Trojan War, trying to lead his men back home after an extended, decade-long conflict. Their journey is never easy, with many obstacles along the way. Here the film stays very close to its ultimate source material, showing Odysseus and his men as they are forced to deal with one problem after another in their struggle to return home.

As mentioned above, Nolan has moved toward bigger and grander stories for his films, this doesn’t mean however that characters have been abandoned altogether. In fact much of the trials in the film, while amazing as cinematic set-pieces, all serve to help us the audience examine the character of Odysseus.

Most people who know the story tend to focus on the big events of the tale, like surviving Charybdis the whirlpool and Scylla the sea monster, or being trapped in a so-called paradise by Calypso (played in this film by Charlize Theron).  But here, Damon plays Odysseus not simply as a man who wants to go home, but as a man in conflict with himself on whether or not he still deserves to go home. After all the death he has seen, including those who lost their lives by his hand. Odysseus is a very different man than when he first left Ithica, and we see how these changes weigh on him as he makes his way back to his family and his kingdom.

The rest of the cast is a plethora of familiar faces, heavy-hitters that even on their own would command a formidable audience.

Odysseus’s wife, Penelope, is played by Anne Hathaway, and their son, Telemachus is played by Spider-Man himself, Tom Holland.

The suitors who plague Penelope’s days are led by Antonius, portrayed by "Twilight’s" Robert Pattinson, while Zendaya also makes an appearance as the goddess, Athena.

But the surprise performance goes to John Leguizamo as Eumaus, the swine herder, and loyal servant of the house of Odysseus. Almost unrecognizable as the blind old man, Leguizamo gives one of the film’s most impassioned performances.

We all know how this ends. The tale of Odysseus has been around for millenia, so there are no spoilers here. But the story takes on a new dimension in Nolan’s retelling. Not to speak ill of other adaptations before it, but this may be the first time that cinema can give this grand, Homeric saga its due.

If there is one film this year that you should watch in IMAX, this is the one, by far.