X users don’t hold back on Grok’s version of The Odyssey

Before the release of Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey earlier this year, Elon Musk was one of the biggest critics of the film, specifically focusing on the casting choices made, and the likes of Lupita Nyong’o being a part of the project.

Musk was so outraged, that he claimed on X (formerly Twitter) that he would use the social media platform’s generative AI tool, Grok, to create a “historically accurate” version of The Odyssey.

Now, said version has been released… in part.

Instead of a fully fledged AI-generated movie depicting the epic novel from Homer, we have a seven-minute long episode that has been shared on Grok Imagine’s official account. It is unclear how many episodes are planned, but given that Nolan’s version is just under three hours, we could be in for quite a few episodes, depending on the extent of the story that Grok Imagine and Wonder Studios X, which is partnering on the project, want to tell.

A late and quick review of The Odyssey

Having watched the seven minute video, it expectedly, pales in comparison to what Nolan shot on IMAX. There are several close up shots of key characters, and even more atmospheric shots at sea, but very little substance in terms of what The Odyssey is actually about.

As such, from a storytelling perspective, the seven-minute video does not do a good job. The script and dialogue is also lacking, particularly in terms of the nuance required for telling a story like this, with the range being limited to two aspects – inward reflection and shouting.

Naturally, users on X have not held back in voicing how subpar this AI-generated video is, looking like much of the AI slop we see flooding the internet, and social media, these days.

“Holy f**k, this is absolute s**t… as expected,” the top comment on the video said, with it also having 17 reposts at the time of writing.

“It’s pretty bad. Sorry gotta be honest,” another comment under the main post shared. “Imagine saying ‘Chris Nolan is pi**ing on Homer’s grave. Disgraceful.’ Just to create and release this lmao,” one of the other top comments noted.

Clearly, the early reaction to the video is not what Grok and Musk was hoping for, but that may not be the point, as the seven minutes of AI-generated content is more about showcasing the capabilities of Grok Imagine. While the end product is absolutely nowhere near what Nolan and his team mustered, the content created will likely serve as a decent enough facsimile for brands and companies wanting to leverage the capabilities of Grok Imagine.

While we’re not expecting the forthcoming episodes (if there are any) of Grok’s The Odyssey to be any better, there is no doubt that queries around Grok Imagine will increase on the back of this.

If you truly feel compelled to watch the first episode of Grok’s The Odyssey, head here.

Let's talk tech!

Get the tech news you want to read. Take our reader survey and tell us how we can help you better.

Take the survey now