With the release of The Odyssey, Christopher Nolan is facing some rather obnoxious backlash. Some people are complaining about the historical inaccuracies of the ships and the costumes, but it’s utterly ridiculous to complain about historical inaccuracies in a story that features a cyclops and magical singing women. There's also been some opposition to the use of modern, informal English in the film, but unless Nolan made the film entirely in a now-dead form of Greek, why would any era of English be better than another?

But the aspect of The Odyssey which is attracting the most controversy is the cast. Nolan chose a diverse group of actors to portray the Greek characters and perhaps unsurprisingly given our racially-charged politics, the casting of Black actors has come under scrutiny, particularly Lupita Nyong'o as Helen of Troy. Nolan’s casting of trans actor Elliot Page as the soldier Sinon has also received criticism. Across the internet, people are saying Nolan’s choice of a diverse cast is “woke,” turning the adventure movie into a manufactured political controversy.

Having seen The Odyssey, I can tell you it’s not political. Nolan just chose the best people for his interpretation of these characters, perhaps to tell a more universal retelling of the ancient fantasy story. It’s an artistic choice, just like the IMAX cameras used to shoot the film.

No matter what people read into The Odyssey, Nolan’s most political movie remains his 2012 conclusion to his Batman trilogy, The Dark Knight Rises and the muddled politics of that movie are a huge part of the reason why it’s his worst film.

The Dark Knight Rises picks up eight years into Batman’s exile after the end of The Dark Knight. Batman (Christian Bale) has taken credit for the killing of hero district attorney Harvey Dent, as well as the lives Dent took as Two-Face, and disappeared back into his life as reclusive billionaire Bruce Wayne.........

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