I watched The Odyssey so you don’t have to – and Nolan’s Helen of Troy makes a mockery of the classic tale

The man certainly has a knack for creating art that consumes an entire evening of the diary. But when the rewards are over a quarter of a billion dollars at the box office within the opening weekend, you can see why he does it.

The Odyssey is Nolan’s latest attempt to cement himself as one of Hollywood’s all-time great directors, and despite setting sail against a backdrop of casting controversy, this does little to hurt his chances.

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Oscar winner Matt Damon is superb opposite fellow Oscar winner Anne Hathaway. The pair take on the roles of Odysseus and Penelope, the former a brilliantly intelligent yet arrogant soldier desperate to return to his wife after two decades in the wilderness following the bloody Trojan War.

When on-screen together, their chemistry is off the charts. And when without the other, Damon and Hathaway keep the audience enamoured by their love story through gut-wrenching and heart-breaking performances.

The pair aren’t alone in propelling The Odyssey to box office glory. British actor Robert Pattinson’s turn as the villainous Antinous is truly anger-inducing, while Tom Holland is the perfect fit as young wannabe king Telemachus who can’t quite fill his father’s sandals.

The supporting cast barely put a foot wrong either. John Leguizamo, Himesh Patel, Andrew Howard, Charlize Theron, Zendaya, and the brilliant Samantha Morton are all exceptional.

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Morton’s turn as witch Circe, in particular, provides a shape-shifting scene that, despite only being a relatively short portion of Nolan’s epic, is already enough to garner awards buzz ahead of next year’s rounds.

Praise can’t be universal, sadly. Jon Bernthal’s turn as Menelaus requires a lot of unpacking – but I’ll get to that later.

In the meantime, let’s address the noise that surrounded the cast before Odysseus’s ships even left shore. Notably, Elliot Page and Lupita Nyong’o.

Trans actor Page was in headlines months before the movie’s premiere after being tied to the role of Achilles. Instead, given that Achilles was absent in Nolan’s adaptation, the Umbrella Academy star was given the role of Greek soldier Sinon.

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Despite vocal criticism from the likes of Elon Musk and some quarters of the small-c conservative population, Page delivered.

Sinon is integral in getting the Trojan Horse through the gates of Troy, and Page’s character serving as a sacrifice to do so plays out well.

And when Sinon returns in Hades, Page delivers a haunting premonition to Damon’s Odysseus. While there may have been a loud clamour on social media, Page rendered those in my cinema silent with a compelling delivery.

That brings me to Nyong’o. The Kenyan-American actress took on the role of Helen of Troy, the latest actress to do so since Diane Kruger’s stint in the 2004 blockbuster, Troy.

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Mr Musk reared his head to spearhead the opposition to Nyong’o’s casting once more.

Meanwhile, the likes of conservative commentator Matt Walsh used X to insult Nyong’o, writing: “Not one person on the planet actually thinks that Lupita Nyong’o is ‘the most beautiful woman in the world.'”

Musk agreed. He’s since vowed to create a “historically accurate” version of The Odyssey via his own AI company, Grok.

My biggest problem with the casting of Nyong’o wasn’t at all because she is a Black actress playing Helen of Troy.

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In fact, despite all the noise coming from X HQ, she didn’t feel out of place at all to me in Nolan’s retelling.

My biggest problem is that Nolan rather cackhandedly made her play twin sisters.

She not only stars as Helen of Troy, the “face that launched a thousand ships”, but Nyong’o also takes on Clytemnestra.

In Homer’s text, Clytemnestra is Helen’s half-sister, but in Nolan’s retelling, the pair are depicted as identical twins.

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But, if Helen – the most beautiful woman in all of the land – has an identical twin sister, then, by definition, she surely cannot be the most beautiful woman in all of the land.

Sure, they could be the two most beautiful women in all of the land, but then that completely makes a mockery of what made Helen the lusted-after, godlike, divine figure she has been for millennia.

Creative licence? Or an oversight that tears a plot hole in The Odyssey that Charybdis would be proud of?

Despite my praise for the cast, the blockbuster is not without its flaws elsewhere, too.

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The dialogue in the opening few moments is clumsily shoehorned in as if Nolan fears his audience is more likely to associate Homer with donuts and Duff Beer.

Whenever Zeus’s Law is mentioned in the movie’s opening gambit, it feels as though Holland, in particular, reels off a Wikipedia definition simple enough for the audience to grasp.

Then there’s the dialect. Now, I have no problem with Nolan opting for English despite the film’s Greek surroundings.

Just look at HBO’s incredible telling of the story of Chernobyl. Jared Harris, Jessie Buckley, and co racked up 10 Emmys for the mini-series, and throughout, the cast speaks in English.

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And let’s be frank, the film wouldn’t have smashed global box office records with an entire script in Ancient Greek. Although I do maintain that more could’ve been done to incorporate a few tidbits throughout.

That doesn’t mean, however, that a husky Jon Bernthal bringing Menelaus to life with an accent more appropriate to a gang member in The Wire didn’t take me out of the action somewhat.

Sure, have the cast speak English. But maybe tell Bernthal that he’s not waging war on the po-po in downtown Baltimore.

One final gripe of mine, which I concede may be the most contentious, is a considerable lack of gore or violence.

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I acknowledge this Game of Thrones era may have desensitised me somewhat to the spewing of blood and guts in folklore fantasy, but The Odyssey lacked any real impactful combat or graphic sequences that would make the audience wince.

The Trojan War was not some sort of binary ‘good versus evil’ face-off with Odysseus as the mastermind, as Nolan would have you believe.

Women were captured, distributed, and enslaved as concubines by Greek soldiers in horrific ways. Mothers ripped from their homes and children to live a life as the property of Odysseus’ men. Spoils of war, right?

The brutality of the Greeks is prevalent in Homer’s poem, and yet to keep the audience on side, Nolan avoids the graphic reality that would befall many enemies who cross their path.

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But Westeros this is not, and with the film being given a certificate of 15, I can see why the violence was toned down somewhat for those with more fragile stomachs.

It did mean we were deprived of some rather satisfying moments of revenge, however.

For instance, I love Mia Goth. I think she’s one of Britain’s most underrated talents and, although now facing stiff competition from Obsession’s Inde Navarrette, one of Hollywood’s best scream queens.

But I would’ve loved to have seen Hathaway’s Penelope string up her backstabbing servant in a sweet final moment of payback as she did in the poem.

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All this being said, the plot as a standalone film is solid. Having one of the most classic tales of all time as the basis will do that for you.

And the cinematography is breathtaking. There’s a reason why the BFI Imax in London’s Waterloo is fully booked until 2027.

You don’t need me to tell you that Nolan’s latest epic is a success; the box office numbers will do that for you. And despite all the outside noise, I was pleasantly surprised by how much it delivered.

I went in expecting a Grecian DEI lecture that would send Musk’s blood pressure through the roof, but instead, The Odyssey delivers an impressive spectacle in almost all areas.

As I mentioned, there are a few factors that Nolan should’ve addressed or at least tempered – looking at you again, Mr Bernthal – but all in all, I don’t think Damon and co will be waiting as long as Odysseus to find their way back home to the awards circuit.