New Delhi, July 13 -- MUMBAI - Christopher Nolan arrived at an Odyssey premiere in Mumbai on July 11 with the film five days from its global opening and a weeks-old social media campaign against its casting already past its peak. When asked about critics who had objected to Lupita Nyong'o as Helen of Troy and the film's use of American-accented contemporary English, Nolan was brief. The criticism was "irrelevant," he said, because the people offering it had not seen the film.

The film opens July 17 in 70mm IMAX across North America and day-and-date internationally. Whether that marks the end of the backlash or the beginning of something else depends almost entirely on what critics and audiences find when they get inside.

The Odyssey is ...