Emily Wilson, the classicist whose acclaimed 2017 translation of Homer's Odyssey was cited by Christopher Nolan while promoting his film adaptation, has sharply criticised the finished work, arguing it lacks the psychological, emotional and ethical depth of the original poem. Her intervention is notable given Nolan had publicly praised her translation, including its opening line "Tell me about a complicated man", making her rebuke a pointed rejection of the film's literary credentials from the very scholar he credited as an influence.

Writing in the London Review of Books, Wilson said the film combines Nolan's "usual grandiosity and superficiality", calling its characters underdeveloped, its narrative structure "gimmicky" and the writing "abysmal", adding she would be "ashamed" to have written any part of the script. She repeated the criticism in an interview with the Sunday Times, saying it "didn't land emotionally" and that she wasn't given reason to care about the hero's fate. Despite this, Wilson, a professor of classical studies at the University of Pennsylvania, welcomed the film's cultural impact, noting it is driving audiences back to cinemas, boosting sales of Odyssey translations, and possibly helping to protect university literature and classics departments from cuts.