Description
The Odyssey is a three-hour epic by Christopher Nolan starring actors from the Marvel Cinematic Universe. I counted at least six of them. But seriously, given the massive cast of The Odyssey, try finding an actor who hasn’t been tainted by their involvement in the films of the evil corporate machine. Jokes aside, I genuinely love many of the actors in The Odyssey. But I’ll single out Zendaya and Pattinson. I love the rest much less. Although Matt Damon is undoubtedly a great actor too. But he’s no Zendaya. And certainly no Pattinson.
Only Nolan can make good cinema with budgets like this. Not just because he’s such a great director, although he is. But because he enjoys such a high level of trust (his films make massive box office returns) that studios hand him any budget with full creative control. In modern cinema, Christopher Nolan is probably the only director in the world who has such unshakable authority.
Most of the time, we are fed a product of statisticians and marketers, shot against green screens for $200-250 million. And partly, that’s understandable. Investors are risking their own money; they need guarantees of a return. That’s when the statisticians and marketers step in, studying human behavior and trends. They take notes, make lists of what must be in the movie. Eventually, these lists end up in the director’s hands along with the script, and they have to somehow shoehorn it all into the film they’re shooting. The result is a hodgepodge of everything.
It’s the eternal struggle between art and finance departments, where the latter usually wins. Marvel and DC are perfect examples.
But all this is just my speculation and assumptions. I haven’t conducted any special investigations.
Let’s get back to Nolan’s Odyssey.
I was literally watching in real-time as The Odyssey was drowning in dislikes, significantly outnumbering the likes. I started thinking the film was doomed to fail. But no, Nolan stayed true to himself, and in the first two weeks of release, The Odyssey grossed $600,000,000. So, a million dislikes on YouTube and all these casting scandals didn’t affect the box office at all.
But this is another exception to the rule. Because usually, it’s the other way around: all these scandals and audience outrage before a film’s release impact its box office and production. Yet here, even the most famous hater (with immense power and literally influencing people’s fates worldwide) with 250 million followers couldn’t tank the box office. I’m talking about Elon Musk. Here, Elon Musk behaved like a perfectly ordinary person, with his typical judgments and flaws.
And to be completely honest, succumbing to social pressure, I was also unhappy with the casting of Lupita Nyong’o (though now that I’ve looked into the situation, I don’t care) and Elliot Page (who previously starred in Nolan’s Inception as Ellen Page).
I can’t help but admit that for me, Elliot Page will forever remain etched in my memory as Ellen Page. It still takes some getting used to for me to perceive him as a man.
With Hunter Schafer, it’s the exact opposite. I think it’s just a matter of habit. I found out about Hunter Schafer when she was already a woman, and I loved her in the movie Cuckoo. Yes, I discovered her specifically in Cuckoo (she’s genuinely awesome, stylish, and hilarious in it). I had been putting off watching Euphoria with her and Zendaya in the lead roles for years, and only got to it recently. I only found out later that she is a transgender woman. This came up when, after a passport dispute, the Trump administration refused to issue her a female passport. Not personally, of course, but through his executive orders. Although under the Biden administration, Hunter was recognized as a woman.
Let’s get back to The Odyssey again.
As I understand it, Christopher Nolan chose Nyong’o and Page for his film not because of Oscar quota requirements or to follow an agenda that is already losing steam. He chose them because he is a creator, this is how he envisions it. After a deep study of Greek mythology and the works of Homer.
The Odyssey is at the very top of my priority watchlist. Meaning it’s way above the several thousand films in my queue. As soon as I watch it, I will definitely share my thoughts on this page.
(Disclaimer: This is a pre-viewing reflection based on trailers, casting news, and industry context. A full review will follow once I’ve seen the film.)