I thought Wilson’s criticisms were cranky and ridiculous, though of course she has a right to be that. Stephen Fry did a good “reimagining” of The Odyssey (and other myths), and this was closer to Nolan’s version.
For a feminist perspective, Margaret Atwood did a far better job in The Penelopiad many years ago.
Wilson criticized the diverse cast as essentially being jolly foils helping Odysseus. Instead of, you know, being the most beautiful woman in the world, killing Agamemnon, threatening to mutiny on Circe’s Island, angering the Sun Gods, playing a disapproving Athena, mocking Odysseus for his lack of candour and respect, etc. Wilson’s criticism was completely off base, as were many of her other ramblings. Not too many manic pixie dream girls.
I agree. I think the characters in the film (not only Telemachus) frequently longed to see the gods in concrete, individual, unambiguously supernatural form more than they got a chance to. But that wasn’t intended to suggest that the gods weren’t real. That’s just how we modern materialists default to interpreting it. “You wanted to negotiate your fate with the Sea God but all you got was a big old ocean storm? That just illustrates how the inanimate ocean is all there is, and the individual sentient godhead is merely something you made up!” Nope, that’s not how the people in the Odyssey understand it, and that’s not what Nolan is trying to say.
I agree that the characters believe in gods and understand phenomena as divine acts, but it felt pretty explicit to me that Nolan is at best leaving it ambiguous. He has no trouble showing Circe’s magic, the land of the dead, giants and monsters etc. but when it comes to the actual Olympians its all signs and portents open to interpretation.
He says in the interview above that he deliberately swerved away from the Odyssey’s more explicit depictions of Olympians in favour of the subjective sense of people looking for traces of the divine in the real world
Why doesn’t Calypso answer the direct question of whether she’s a goddess?
Why does Odysseus explicitly say not that Poseidon punished them but that his men interpreted every storm as punishment?
Why does the dialogue between Odysseus and Athena make a point of saying that the gods communicate obliquely and indirectly?
If Nolan had wanted the gods to be as real as the Cyclops he’d have written them into the script and filmed them like that. For example, he could have had Hermes appear and warn Odysseus to use the herb moly as a countercharm to Circe’s magic. Instead Odysseus works it all out from observation and simply refuses the food. That was a choice Nolan made and kept making throughout because his theme about the breaking of social and political norms leading to the destruction of all we hold dear doesn’t work if this destruction is divine intervention, it has to be “we are the people of the sea”, we did this to ourselves.
It was pretty good but of course you have to compare it to similar stuff and I think there’s so much out there that did it better that I think the emotional response Nolan was going for falls a bit short.
It felt like a mashup of Gladiator and Clash of the Titans. The beloved army general’s journey home to unleash retribution mixed with mythical quest elements. I think Gladiator had the edge emotions wise with Phoenix being a more vile antagonist than Pattinson. And while Nolan got the benefit of 45 years of f/x advancements, Clash of the Titans managed to garner a larger “wow” factor for it’s time.
Other comparisons have to be made with other modern medieval fantasy outings so of course Game of Thrones has to be mentioned. Yes, GOT had 70 hours to tells its story but my god, it had some of the most epic scenes and set pieces in recent memory.
Then of course the comparisons to Lord of the Rings. LOTR was so ground breaking, epic, and managed to have emotional heart that it stands as a monumental achievement. I don’t think Nolan raised the bar or managed to reach the bar with The Odyssey.
Still, I did like The Odyssey a lot. Epic, beautiful hero’s journey with some interesting rest stops along the way. Just felt it didn’t break any new ground.
I, also, saw it this weekend. And i mostly agree with your review. I enjoyed it, but it didn’t knock me out of my seat or anything.
The special effects were great, (with some weird choices) but not groundbreaking. The story was moving, but I’ve seen better. It definitely benefited from the IMAX theater, both the giant screen and the sound, although i think they overdid the “buttkickers”. Unlike some reviews I’ve read, we did not find it unpleasantly loud. I actually brought earplugs, just in case, but we didn’t use them. (I’ve twice been to concerts where i ended up chewing up the program to make earplugs out of the paper.)