Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey film may be a tipping stone with tremendous silver lining. Let me explain.

The internet came around in the ’90s. Now information is at everyone’s fingertips, including history and historically-accurate dress, which means more than ever before the public eye knows how inaccurate most historical films really look, especially their combat scenes with all their sword flailing and spinning around like ballerinas, and so public expectation for accuracy, or at least respect for history, will only grow larger as information spreads, just like it did for classical studies in medieval times upon the invention of the printing press.

If you think blatant misrepresentation of the past is just a small nerdy complaint because “it’s only a fantasy story” then you’re wrong. Civilizations operate best under shared narratives with respect for their foundations, and so altering public perception via art can profoundly shape the cultural identity of nations just like Homer’s Odyssey actually did when the poem was shared around ancient hearths!

If Nolan’s movie sells poorly or even gets many terrible reviews then it will hopefully be a canary call for movies with historical settings moving forward, because satisfying your audience is how Hollywood makes the big bucks and, as seen with recent viral posts on X, people are very dissatisfied (although admittedly the movie isn’t officially released yet upon writing this):

First trailer is out.. we have more footage from the Ancient Greek spine-helmet robocop..

Boy, this is going to suck HARD. https://t.co/cvg5wgtrKh pic.twitter.com/TYtJfgrnFV

— TheBlackWolf (@thewolvenhour) December 22, 2025

Just embrace the Greek-themed sci-fi world instead of insulting everyone who has an education in classical studies, please Nolan. I respect your career tremendously, but enough is enough and we need more filmmakers on the side of truth. It’s time to make films great again.

Modern films do shape public perception and have been spreading way too many misconceptions, fantasy or not. If it’s historically inspired it will warp the way we view our past and suck away proper understanding of the foundations of Western civilization, because the Odyssey is a cornerstone of Western civilization (hence why this is so insulting [try getting away with this doing The Bible movie {we’ve all seen how bad The Last Supper ceremony in the 2024 Paris Summer Olympics went}]).

Enough is enough!!!! It feels like mockery at this point.

I do appreciate that the film may gain people’s interest in exploring the real past like medieval fantasy did for me as a youth, but a film that pays respect to historical settings would do this much better because it would bring people closer to the truth, not closer to rewatching The Dark Knight, lol. For instance, we’ve all met people who say the arms and armor in the Game of Thrones TV show are “realistic”, and that’s clearly manipulation of perception even if unintentional (the books are way better!).

I would have no reason to complain if Nolan had just made a Warhammer-style film set in an alternative universe inspired by ancient Greece, but basing this off the Odyssey is what irks me because with a $250 million dollar budget this could have been such an aesthetically elegant film! Instead, we have what appears to be plastic, 3D-printed slop enhanced by AI slop to make a compounding slop-fest.

I’ll say it again though that the silver lining is that this film might be a tipping stone. If public outcry can make movies less woke (thank God), then we can make historically inspired films great again like they were back in the early and mid 20th century.

My rant is over, sorry for the cringe. Not sorry.

Before you go check out this version of Nolan’s trailer edited by DemonFlyingFox on YouTube and tell me in the comments which version looks better.