American entrepreneur Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence (AI) company xAI has released the first episode of Odyssey, created using their image generation and editing service, Grok Imagine. However, the debut has been met with a torrent of scathing criticism.
On October 23, the Grok Imagine account on X (formerly Twitter) shared a 7-minute video with the caption: Check out Episode 1 of the Odyssey series created with Grok Imagine. Curious about the production process? Let us know in the comments.
The video, a collaboration between AI video production expert Dev Walker and AI company Wonder Studio using Grok Imagine, has amassed 7.75 million views. However, it has been inundated with harsh critiques. Many American netizens didn’t mince words, commenting: “As expected, it’s utter garbage,” “Honestly, it’s pretty abysmal,” and “This perfectly encapsulates Elon Musk’s taste – it’s complete trash.”
Media outlets are also reporting on the overwhelmingly negative reception. Critics are primarily targeting the inconsistent character appearances and the overall subpar quality of the video. Forbes quipped that it promised to be an AI masterpiece rivaling Christopher Nolan, but audiences got a glitchy 7-minute clip instead. The Hollywood Reporter echoed this sentiment, stating that Elon Musk’s AI film Odyssey is being lambasted as soulless trash.
The Hollywood Reporter highlighted a particularly scathing review from a UK Telegraph critic, who wrote: It’s so unnerving that the eyes seem to twitch at the sight of this shoddy and horrific video. The characters, with their vacant stares and emotionless voices, give this episode a zombie-like atmosphere. The critic added that if this is how you reinterpret the story of Troy, it deserves to be slashed, burned, and buried forever beneath the sands of time.
Many have criticized the wooden performances and historical inaccuracies of the characters. Rolling Stone noted that even viewers generally favorable toward AI technology found Musk’s Odyssey to be soulless and stiff. Wired pointed out that Musk’s Odyssey uses modern English instead of ancient Greek and lacks archaeological accuracy, making it historically inauthentic.
Back in July, Elon Musk had stirred up buzz by announcing on his X account that Grok Imagine would create a feature film faithfully adapting Homer’s Odyssey before year’s end.
The backdrop for Musk’s announcement was the casting controversy surrounding Christopher Nolan’s adaptation of Odyssey. The film faced backlash as Lupita Nyong’o, a Black actress, was set to play both Helen and Clytemnestra, while transgender actor Elliot Page was cast as Sinon. Musk, known for his disdain of Hollywood’s PC culture, was quick to join the criticism.
Although Musk confidently promised the release of the AI-generated Odyssey about three months later, it seems woefully inadequate to challenge Nolan’s cinematic achievement.
Meanwhile, Christopher Nolan’s Odyssey has become a global box office phenomenon, grossing 1.7959987 billion USD worldwide. This impressive figure ranks it as the 11th highest-grossing film of all time, based on cumulative earnings as of Tuesday.
