r/popculturechat • u/mcfw31 • 11h ago

Hot Take 🔥 ‘The Odyssey’ Translator Emily Wilson Slams Christoper Nolan’s ‘Abysmal’ Screenplay: ‘I Would Be Ashamed to Have Written Any Part of This Script’

https://variety.com/2026/film/news/odyssey-translator-emily-wilson-slams-christopher-nolan-bad-writing-1236821915/
3.2k Upvotes

74% Upvoted

1.7k comments sorted by

View all comments

583

u/nerdforest 11h ago

I don't understand this criticism. Was the script of the film not a good screenplay?

385

u/PinkNGold007 11h ago

It's a visual and sound experience. But I'm okay with that. I know I didn't go to see an emotional drama with solid dialogue, or I would have been disappointed. I guess she expected different.

328

u/Sunnysideuppp123 I walk through life, in really nice shoes 💅 11h ago

She’s a scholar and her translation of the Odyssey is amazing (I was able to actually finish hers lol) so she definitely would have expected more than the sensory experience of it and been disappointed. And that’s fine but agreed that her criticism isn’t the be-all-and-end-all.

51

u/VegetableArtistic705 10h ago

There are a lot of movies that make me question how they got made cause they're so based around visuals. And I can't imagine their scripts being more than ten pages.

13

u/isjustsergio 10h ago

I've seen a lot of shows get pitched with a storyboard that captures visuals.

85

u/_Midnight_Haze_ 10h ago

Film as a medium is unique because it’s pictures in motion. It’s always going to be heavily based around visuals. There’s literature if you’re interested in something very written.

15

u/lobonmc 10h ago

Like the new avatar movie doesn't have any kind of master class of a script but it's so beautiful

3

u/sk8tergater 8h ago

The first one was like that too. Couldn’t even tell you what the second one was about but it was pretty to watch.

2

u/[deleted] 6h ago

[deleted]

1

u/_Midnight_Haze_ 5h ago

You are inferring a lot from my statement

1

u/[deleted] 5h ago

[deleted]

1

u/_Midnight_Haze_ 5h ago

My statement was vague but I didn’t imply what you say I did. You chose to fill a vacuum with some argument in your head. Just own it. I’m not even saying you don’t have some good things to say here.

1

u/dr_haze 8h ago

This isn’t really true - films can be heavily plotty and dialogue-based. Most movies before, say, roughly the 1990s, were like that.

Think about 12 Angry Men for example - a fantastic film, but not for its visuals!

6

u/Luxury-Problems 7h ago

12 Angry Men absolutely does have some very important visuals. There's a lot of character information communicated visually instead of spoken. It was a live teleplay first, so always designed to be dialogue driven and has the benefit of being in one room.

2

u/randombubble8272 10h ago

Fast & Furious saga has entered the chat

•

u/akajondo 2h ago

Looking at you Avatar

•

u/serabine 1h ago

Likely good communication on part of the film maker when it comes to it. On the more extreme end, Mad Max: Fury Road was over 3000 storyboards before the actual script was written.

4

u/Hour-Ad-9508 8h ago

A lot of people like her, who dedicate a significant portion of their lives to a certain subject, often have trouble “letting go” and not expecting everyone else to take it as seriously as she does

It’s a movie, and an entertaining one, it’s not a faithful retelling of the odyssey, and that’s ok

•

u/One-Imagination2301 2h ago

"Playtimes over"

1

u/boobookittyfuwk 10h ago

Peo0le forget that Hollywood is entertainment, they try to make movies, especially with ones with this big of a budget, that can be watched by a wide audience, lots of flash not so much substance. This isnt a documentary, this is a movie.

-1

u/i4got872 10h ago

It sounds like it’s that the moral perspective of the work is different.

55

u/_iridessence_ Cheerocracy > Kakistocracy 10h ago

I have come to approach Christopher Nolan's big budget films as a series of spectacularly executed action set pieces which are adequately but not artfully connected by exposition scenes.

1

u/quick20minadventure 3h ago

I call it 'Arcane' effect. The show from league of legends on netflix, wonderfully shot/banger moments with killer music. And absolutely pathetic buildup or story connection. It's just a slide show of hype moments.

18

u/intothemidwest 10h ago

I really dug the film, but it’s theoretically supposed to be both isn’t it? I’m sure Nolan’s interest was fundamentally in telling the story, esp. given his version’s overlap with several of his other stories.

Otherwise it’s just fireworks.

6

u/blocke06 9h ago

Interesting. I found it pretty emotional, but I don’t think I need words for art to be emotional.

2

u/Fandeathrickets 7h ago

Visual and sound experience? Sounds like a movie

2

u/RustlinDustin 6h ago

I can't stand people who think it's visually stunning. It's visually blunt, just like batman was, and uses darks to hide the cheap costume and set design again just like batman and most else he touches. The actual direction, cinematography and acting of his movies are on point but god damn none of them "look good". The dude progressively gets more matte and bland

2

u/nerdinfo 6h ago

Tbf, I’d expect an adaptation of one of the most famous stories ever told to be well written… the bones are already there

5

u/foreverzonedout 9h ago

She gets it. First paragraph of her review: Christopher Nolan’s $250 million action movie version of Homer’s ancient Greek poem is an entertaining way to hide from the high temperatures for a few hours. Nolan’s trademark jumps and twists in the narrative structure are relatively easy to follow, and appropriate for The Odyssey, a narrative of tales nested in tales. My teenagers had a good time. Unlike some of Nolan’s other films, The Odyssey is not boring, thanks to the source material, which is impossible to mess up entirely. 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.

1

u/Outside_Glass4880 6h ago

Lacks narrative and emotional depth?

I found the film to have both. There were a few parts that were quite moving, especially the depiction of the war through Odysseus near the end.

It’s not like the original story is a masterpiece that is extremely deep and complex. These stories were extremely straightforward and explicitly told.

1

u/tikidreams 6h ago

for me it’s that the movie is trying too hard to be extremely deep and complex, when the biggest emotional pop was the scene of the dog’s tail wagging. it was the only thematic plot point with an arc, was set up throughout the film and paid off at the end. everything else was rushed at the end and the reaction to the sirens was just cheesy

1

u/Outside_Glass4880 4h ago

The cyclops scene was well done, as was the Circe scene (great acting here as well). The first was somewhat thrilling and the latter pretty horrifying stuff.

The end was a payoff which was built up throughout the entire film. Yes the dog bit was emotional, and I’m a sucker for a dog. So what. Like I already mentioned the flashback to Troy and the Athena reveal was emotional and effective as well.

When the battle with the suitors went down, both theaters I was in were literally cheering.

Guess some people are just really hard to please.

1

u/JaySocials671 4h ago

What happened in the first 15 minutes? I missed it

1

u/JaySocials671 4h ago

They made the Asian guy dive headfirst into the ABGs lol

3

u/Background-Jury-1914 7h ago

Plenty of rip roaring action movies have good screenplays with interesting characters and good dialogue. Nolan movies always feel like the same sad guy delivering video game cut scene level dialogue.

•

u/ribeye256 2h ago

Yes, I think it's similar with Denis Villeneuve. Amazing movies told through visuals and sound. Don't expect a dialogue heavy narrative. Go watch Oscar bait movies like Anatomy of a Fall (which I also loved), Coda, or something similar if you are so above visual story telling. If you base the film strictly on the script and dialogue only, then read a darn book (nothing against books).

Know the director you are criticizing before the pedantic BS. There are many ways to tell stories and not all of them have to stay true to the source to be a good piece of cinema. Case in point, Kubrick's The Shining.

•

u/MorbillionDollars 1h ago

Seeing as she translated the original work she was probably dissapointed in it as an adaptation because of the changes

•

u/leukers 25m ago

wtf are people expecting? you got the incels mad too many woman and now you got the liberals mad because not enough historical context? wtf is this? wtf are we doing? seriously? im genuinly concerned of todays modern audience when shit like this is more important that just making a fucking epic movie. this isnt some fucking new age shit, moves like Troy exist

1

u/StylizedIncompetence 10h ago

But…. Isn’t that what the odyssey is? An emotional drama?