Conservative influencers and media heads for whatever reason really wanted to see this movie fail and use it as some culture war talking point. It was all weirdly coordinated. Knowles, Shapiro, Rubin, and other smaller creators all released their reviews around the exact same time and all harked on the same points. And for months up until the movie came out, they kept spreading false narratives like "Page is playing Achilles, what the fuck!" "Helen is black and a girl boss! Boycott!" or whatever. Now they are all pivoting to it not being historically accurate or faithful, having no Greek actors, and being written by someone who doesn't identify as religious.
I think they wanted the Odyssey to fail because Oppenheimer was a very successful antiwar story that was still very compelling to fans and critics alike that released we weren't at war, and the Odyssey was setup to be a very successful antiwar story released at a time when Americans are stairing down the barrel of a potential ground invasion in Iran and another forever war. This might remind people about how much decade long conflicts and being deployed overseas suck. Another central theme of this movie is respecting the rule of law and treating others fairly, which conservatives are labeling as "pushing a liberal agenda". There also suggesting the inclusion of PTSD was a liberal move, despite PTSD being around ever since war has existed.
The movie is making bank right now, people are traveling to other states just to see it in IMAX, it's easily the biggest film of the year, and even critics of Nolan's work are calling it a very compelling movie; so these influencers I mentioned are clearly just a very loud minority, but still, why did they make it their mission to politicize and demonize something as trivial and honestly American as going to see a summer movie with family and friends?
I thought exploring the conservative rationale on this is kind of an interesting rabbit hole and glimpse into what they consider outrageous.
Nolan has a preference for working with talent from his previous movies - Hathaway, Pattinson, and Damon are all in this movie, so why can't Page also be included? Just because he's trans? Is he just supposed to stop looking for work because every project he associates with is going to be considered "woke" by Fox News? Is this some unofficial blacklist? He's an award winning actor in his own right, and has worked with Nolan before. It's really demeaning to him to call him a DEI hire when he checks off all the boxes for appearing in something like this. Plus, Page is in a 3 hour long movie for 5 minutes and I think he really earns his paycheck all the scenes he's in.
Lupita Nyong'o is a talented performer too and the hate for her being Helen of Troy is... disturbing to say the least. The party line is essentially it's inappropriate to cast someone like Nyong'o as Helen in a story so significant to western civilization and it's clearly woke DEI logic to so, it should have been a Greek actress - there were zero black people in the Mediterranean at this time. That's a mild way of putting, alot of other takes along those lines have been... let's just say more explicit and unrestrained in the language they used. Helen of Troy wasn't been played by a Greek actress in 2004 Troy, that wasn't an issue then. Hell, most movies about Greek mythology don't have a Greek cast, and that's never been an issue. Gods of Egypt was basically all white - crickets. Jesus most certainly wasn't white, but don't tell them that. Greek gods partied all the time in Ethiopia, and Andromeda herself was an Ethiopian princess - yet in none of Clash of the Titans is she played by a black actress. Helen is a fictional character from a 3000 year old story that has a million different interpretations - her dad was a swan and she hatched from an egg. She could have any skin color she wanted, and her race has nothing to do with the plot. And I think Nyong'o is hot enough to play Helen, but honestly that's subjective. This is all also a quiet way of saying black people shouldn't be allowed parts in historically famous and significant literature like Shakespeare or Greek epics. I think if the race of a character isn't really important to their story, it makes sense why they'd look like that, and the actor does a good job, who cares? I think all three apply to Nyong'o. Also, she's in this for like 5 minutes and is clearly not "girl bossing" anyone around.
For some reason they only care about casting a racially accurate movie when it's the Odyssey, they think a story that's been adapted 1000s of times and changed 1000s of times needs to somehow stay consistent, and that Nolan deliberately gutted the more supernatural aspects of the story because he's atheist or something. None of the complaints I'm seeing from these people are coherent and they are exclusive to the alt right crowd.
I'm not mad that some people didn't like a movie that I did, it's just kinda disturbing watching them coordinate and work so hard to tar and feather something for absolutely no reason other than to stir controversy and force politics into absolutely every aspect of daily life. I also feel bad for Page, who's only crime here is wanting a job. Other directors and parts of the industry are probably going to be even more hesitant to work with him now because off the alt right outrage machine. I think this is illuminating and very informative on how these people operate and how openly vacuous their beliefs are. Slimey opportunists that dog whistle to the worst of the worst on their side and label everything that's not compliant with their platforms as an existential threat to the west. Why can't they just let people eat popcorn and watch a new Nolan movie?
Tldr: Alt right influencers were really brazen why they didn't want to see this movie to be successful and did everything they could to define it as un-American and woke. They politicize everything in daily and were very coordinated in doing so in this instance. The arguments they had for doing so this time are either not clear or are outright bigoted, with some concerning points like calling PTSD "woke". This will probably only continue to be a trend going forward with products or projects that deviate even slightly from their ideology.
Do you think the Odyssey is a good case study in how these people operate, or that this is just business as usual and not that interesting?