Sir Christopher Nolan thinks there is a "fundamental flaw" with amateur film criticism.

The 56-year-old director - who recently helmed The Odyssey, his film adaptation of the epic poem the Odyssey by Homer - has pushed back against familiar criticism from amateur movie-watchers.

Speaking to podcaster Zhong Shu, Christopher explained: "The criticism that's often levelled at movies in general is, 'Oh, the character has to be made sympathetic, so the character is manipulated in different ways or changed in different ways'.

"And that's a fundamental flaw of film criticism in a way, or storytelling criticism. Because to be able to identify the mechanism does not invalidate the mechanism.

"I'm thinking more of amateur criticism, because they feel they've identified the mechanism, they feel that it invalidates it. That can be true of certain elements, and film grammar, film language evolves with that. So when a trope becomes too familiar to an audience, then it has to be changed.

"But we do, as filmmakers, avail ourselves of that common language. We build on that understanding. Our audience has seen many films and they understand that language."

Meanwhile, Matt Damon recently hailed Nolan, admitting to being amazed by his vision for The Odyssey.

The 55-year-old actor played Odysseus, the legendary Greek king of Ithaca, in The Odyssey, and he has admitted to being wowed by Nolan's ambition for the project.

Matt - who stars in the film alongside Tom Holland, Anne Hathaway, Robert Pattinson, Lupita Nyong'o, Samantha Morton, Zendaya, and Charlize Theron - told Collider: "I don't know how he did it. I don't know.

"I mean, the amount of vision that it took to build this world and how intentional it was. He talked about it from the moment we had our first conversation about it, and how it's myth, it's this ancient world, but he wanted to ground it.

"So all of those conversations about the wardrobe and the layering and the layers of dirt and everything, it was about this comprehensive effort on the part of all the departments to just really world-build.

"Then, to be able to do it on IMAX, which was the goal, but we didn't know if we'd do it. He didn't announce that as we set off. I mean, we knew that was the intention, but we didn't know if we'd be able to do it, and that is the final piece that just puts you there."