Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey has been having a dream run at the global box office, with reports saying that the film has grossed more than $650 million worldwide. The film has also been really well received by critics, with several of them saying that it should receive an Oscar nomination in best picture, acting, writing, and technical categories.
However, the film is not without its detractors. Several audiences members, especially those who are familiar with its source material, Homer's eponymous poem, have been critical of Nolan's cinematic adaptation. Joining the critics is Emily Wilson, one of the acclaimed translators of the poem by Homer.
According to Wilson, Nolan's adaptation does not have several elements that cause the poem to be 'great,' and the film has a 'gimmicky' narrative structure. "The writing is abysmal," Wilson wrote before adding that there is no "convincing motivation" to justify the deeds or words of any character in the film.
"There are no sex scenes, and all the food looks horrible... I would be ashamed to have written any part of this script," the translator wrote about Nolan's film. Wilson also criticised Nolan's affinity for the grandiose and called part of his approach to adapt the poem 'superficial'.
This is not the first time a Christopher Nolan film has come under scrutiny. Despite having legions of fans, the filmmaker's Oscar Best Picture winner Oppenheimer has several critics, most notably Avatar and Terminator director James Cameron. The Avatar filmmaker stated that the Academy Award-winning film is a "moral cop out" and that it "dodged" its core subject, i.e., the moral dilemma of its protagonist, J Robert Oppenheimer, played by Cillian Murphy.
