“The release of The Odyssey remains an event to celebrate,” Wilson noted.
“This epic brings the public back to the cinema… translations of the Odyssey, including mine, are flying off the shelves… [and] perhaps the film will persuade some university administrators not to abolish their literature, language and history departments.
“Nolan… is doing his best to get the general public reading again, and I’m grateful.”
But she was largely disappointed by this three-hour epic.
“I had hoped that Nolan’s affinity for these Homeric themes might push him to new creative heights and allow him to conjure up more believable characters,” she wrote.
“But The Odyssey presents its usual combination of grandeur and superficiality…the film’s vision is too muddled, its characters too underdeveloped, to deliver on what it half-promises in terms of big ideas – even if it is very good at conveying big bangs and great giants.”
Wilson added that his teenagers had a “great time” seeing the blockbuster at the cinema.
“It’s a family-friendly audiovisual spectacle, like an elaborate Fourth of July fireworks display — and with about the same level of narrative and emotional depth,” she said.
“There are more female characters than in most of Nolan’s films, thanks to the source material. But none of them have much to say, unlike the characterizations in the poem.”
During his press tour for the film, Sir Christopher said Empire Magazineexternal that he used the first line of Wilson’s translation (“Tell me about a complicated man”) as a guide for his Ulysses, played by Matt Damon.
Contrary to Wilson’s view, the later adaptation received rave reviews from film critics.
It’s the director’s first film since 2023’s Oppenheimer, which won the Academy Award for Best Picture.
The Telegraph declared The Odyssey “film of the year”, while Metro added that the film would “change cinema forever”.
The Times described it as “a masterpiece in every way”, and the Standard hailed the film as a “colossal piece of cinema”.
The Odyssey, released earlier this month, stars Matt Damon, Zendaya, Tom Holland, Robert Pattinson, Anne Hathaway, Charlize Theron and Lupita Nyong’o.
It follows Odysseus (Damon), the Greek king of Ithaca, on his long and perilous journey home from the Trojan War to save his wife and son (Hathaway and Holland).
