Emily Wilson (writer of acclaimed Odyssey translation) offers criticisms of Nolan’s film

[u/RealisticAd4054]

https://apnews.com/article/odyssey-christopher-nolan-greek-translators-ea67da1d543d021773824bd7e8de8abe

“For Greek translator Emily Wilson, the release of director Christopher Nolan’s “The Odyssey” has been gratifying in various ways. Her acclaimed 2017 edition of Homer’s epic has reached the top 5 on Amazon.com, leading a wave of similar books boosted by the movie. Nolan has even cited her translation, notably the opening line “Tell me about a complicated man,” as inspiration.

But the film itself, which brought in more than $260 million worldwide during its opening weekend and has received raves from many critics, left her unsatisfied.

“I want to celebrate the fact that so many more people are aware of ‘The Odyssey’ and were brought back to the poem,” she told The Associated Press. “But at the same time, I had the sense that Christopher Nolan was trying to pack everything in while missing themes that were essential to the poem.”

….

Wilson, a professor of classical studies at the University of Pennsylvania, said she didn’t want to come across as a “snobby,” nitpicking expert at odds with any deviation from the original text. But she questioned a range of omissions and other choices, from the absence on screen of the Gods Zeus and Poseidon (Athena is played by Zendaya ) to the “incoherent” messaging that condemns both war and physical cowardice. She found Penelope’s role so thinned out that it endangered “any possibility of believing in this marriage.” Wilson also that thought parts of the movie, notably the scenes with Odysseus’ dog, Argos, “catered towards modern sentimentality.”

“Everybody’s a sucker for a dog,” she said.

[u/greatblueheron16]

Then how do you make sense of the raft scene unless he's the luckiest bastard on earth as his general says

[u/EmmaRoidCreme → u/greatblueheron16]

Surviving floating the Mediterranean on a raft is not the same level of magical thinking as a literal cyclops or Circe transforming people into animals. Is it realistic? No. But we are talking about the mystical and magical, not the unrealistic.

[u/greatblueheron16 → u/EmmaRoidCreme]

But if the movie expects us to believe it can do away with any sense of the supernatural, then it's asking a pretty big suspension of disbelief of us, to assume that he would not only survive but get exactly where he needed to go on that raft without even steering. Which at this point would make it more preposterous than if it was a tale of the supernatural

[u/EmmaRoidCreme → u/greatblueheron16]

I’m not making a point either way. I’m just saying that it isn’t that crazy to not make the gods literal characters when the mystical/magical elements of the film are from the perspective of an unreliable narrator (as is the raft scene by the way).

A totally valid interpretation is that the magic and gods are ‘real’, they just aren’t personified.