Catholic priest Father Mike Schmitz walked into THE ODYSSEY and SPIDER-MAN: BRAND NEW DAY looking for one thing: a great story.
“It was a hero’s journey with no hero,” Schmitz said of writer-director Christopher Nolan’s THE ODYSSEY in an Aug. 19 Ascension Presents video. He later sharpened the point: Odysseus travels far, but the movie never shows enough change inside him.
Schmitz gave THE ODYSSEY a fair shot despite the online chatter surrounding Nolan’s casting choices. He appreciated the practical effects and the chance to see scenes from Homer’s epic brought to life, but the Siege of Troy left him plugging his ears, while the story’s episodic structure kept its hero at arm’s length.
Odysseus fights, makes hard choices and eventually describes himself as no one, a possible sign of humility. Yet Schmitz said the character’s changes felt disconnected from any clear moral center, leaving the movie as a sequence of things that happened rather than a journey that transformed the man at its center.
Movieguide®’s review of THE ODYSSEY found more to commend in its spectacle, poetry, hospitality theme and moving family reunions. The review also advised extreme caution because of strong violence, occult content and gratuitous foul language, while noting that the movie’s complicated structure may frustrate admirers of Homer.
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The movie still stirred something valuable beyond the theater. Movieguide® previously reported that Nolan’s adaptation sent younger audiences racing toward Homer’s original, with Spotify listens and book sales climbing around the release. A disappointing adaptation can still introduce people to a richer story.
SPIDER-MAN: BRAND NEW DAY gave Schmitz the interior movement he missed in THE ODYSSEY. Peter Parker begins isolated after the world forgets him, so he hides inside the Spider-Man identity and keeps winning battles while losing his connection to other people.
“You have a responsibility not just to save people, but to love them. Not just to love them, but to let them love you,” Schmitz said.
That reading lines up with actor Tom Holland’s own description of the sequel. In Movieguide®’s coverage of the premiere, Holland said the movie’s loneliness would resonate with young people and that Peter risks overlooking the best thing in his life while feeling alone in a new place.
Movieguide®’s review of SPIDER-MAN: BRAND NEW DAY praised the movie as a heartfelt action adventure with strong Christian and moral values, even finding a Christ figure in Peter’s willingness to risk his life for another person. Movieguide® still advised extreme caution because of nearly 40 obscenities and profanities.
Schmitz carried that idea one step further. Peter cannot mature by doing everything alone, he argued, and neither can Christians, who receive both a duty to serve and the gift of being loved by God.
“We don’t fight alone. We don’t struggle alone, and we don’t carry that cross alone,” he said.
For Schmitz, that difference separates a busy adventure from a hero’s journey. Odysseus moves across the world without enough change inside; Peter Parker becomes a man when he accepts responsibility, community and love.
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