I've been a persistent arm-chair critic of Nolan. I think he's made two, maybe three great movies, but no legendary ones. He also has his name on what I consider some of the most overrated movies made by man - Tenet, Inception, DKR - so I'm a little surprised at how much I enjoyed The Odyssey, and the defense I'm about to put up against some of the criticisms I'm seeing come his way.

That focus of disapproval has been towards the film's failure in capturing the accuracy and depth of the original poem and characters, especially Odysseus, with a notable attack coming from Emily Wilson, author of one of its most famous translations, proclaiming the "shame" she would have felt at writing such a thing.

What's being missed here is that Nolan is trying to make a blockbuster, and a deliberately modernized one. It's a genre in its own right, so should be critiqued primarily within the context of what that experience sets out to achieve. Does it push the boundaries of filmmaking, is it ambitious in scope, is it exhilarating and delivering spectacle, and is there a range of emotional hits, appealing and relating to the broadest set of people?

Source accuracy, character complexity, and thematic depth are important too, no doubt, and when blockbusters deliver on such things it propels those titles to the highest realms of cinema, but I also don't see it as a huge violation if those core aforementioned components are landed on, and the intellectual substance comes secondary to that.

After all, we never cared that The Titanic or Braveheart failed to accurately represent their respective historical events and complex political realities. We were all entertained with Gladiator, despite its textbook hero and lack of commentary on the Roman class system. And I note that Aragorn is a confident, destiny-driven heir in the books, but a haunted vagabond and reluctant king in the movies.

And then a quick mention on the casting choices, which some felt the need to turn into yet one more talking point in the tiresome culture wars.
Like the source accuracy comments, it overlooks the deliberate choice to modernize this retelling, so replacing Greeks with a typical US looking and speaking demographic is not surprising, nor idealogical in nature.

So here's where I think this movie does a great job by appropriate measure. Firstly, Nolan actually manages to successfully bring horror elements into the film, which is a rare feat for the genre. You get a touch in the Cyclops scene, but for me the highlight is Circe's grotesque molding of the crew into swine. It was directed and acted so well, and you feel disturbed by it. The scene prior, with the Laestrygonians - those silver-armored giants that emerge through the fog with relentless slaughter - also had a nightmarish component there too.

In part, it's the realism that he always brings to his productions that enables feelings of true tension to arise. The Trojan horse sequence, when applied through that lens, gave us the best interpretation of that events we've had, and was a personal highlight. Even the shades emerging through the dirt from Hades was shot with real buried actors, and it's a cool, moody, and unsettling character scene.

And of course, the excellent score brings everything home. The Zimmer orchestral approach has been done-to-death, so I was happy that we got something more atmospheric instead. OK, it definitely lacks some memorability, and the mixing and loudness was awful, but the unorthodox combination of obscure ancient instruments alongside modern textures is immersive, original, and at its best in those tense or energetic moments.

The scale of everything is also impressive, and the cinematography leans into this, with plenty of satisfying wide shots to enjoy. The many practical effects and sets were also delightful, and the big names on the lineup deliver the benchmark level of quality we'd expect, even if there's no standout or award winning performances. So the film does carry with it a presence of an epic production, and there's more than enough of the essence of the original content to instill some of that epicness into the narrative journey too, so I enjoyed watching that spectacle unfold.