Grok releases seven-minute AI short film "The Odyssey"; foreign media says it lacks artistry
On October 23, Grok released the first seven minutes of an AI-generated short film "The Odyssey," calling it "the first episode of our Odyssey series," produced in collaboration with Wonder Studios and director Dev Walker. The TechCrunch author believes that some shots in the visuals can simulate reality fairly reasonably, but overall it lacks artistry, inspiration, and human touch; the narration's backstory is long-winded, the dialogue is stiff, and they lost patience before even reaching the halfway point.
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Grok Releases Seven-Minute AI 'Odyssey' Short Film, Foreign Media Say It Lacks Artistic Merit
Phoenix Tech Download the App for Exclusive Early Access October 26, 2026 06:25:21 From Beijing Updated October 26, 2026 06:34:05
Phoenix Tech News, October 26 (Beijing Time) — According to TechCrunch, three months after Elon Musk announced that Grok would release a full-length, "historically accurate" film version of The Odyssey, Grok released the first seven minutes of this AI-generated content on October 23, calling it "the first episode of our Odyssey series."
Musk had previously criticized Christopher Nolan's version of The Odyssey because Nolan cast non-white and transgender actors. TechCrunch said Nolan is a foil to Musk on multiple levels: Musk promotes space data centers while continuing to release AI-generated content, while Nolan calls himself a "technological skeptic" and says that before AI, he had never seen a technology "so thoroughly rejected by the public."
Although Nolan's Odyssey used extensive visual effects, it was primarily a live-action filmmaking achievement, shot across six countries with a cast and crew of thousands. Released in July, the film achieved extremely impressive box office results, with IMAX screenings sold out for months, and is seen as a leading contender for the next Academy Awards.
The Grok version of The Odyssey was produced by Grok in collaboration with Wonder Studios and director Dev Walker. The Grok Imagine account posted on X that viewers could ask in the comments whether they wanted a full production breakdown.
After watching it, the TechCrunch author wrote that the video was not as "ugly" as expected, and was even more impressive than other recent videos released by Musk; at some moments, without knowing the context, one might think one was watching real actors sailing on a real sea. But the author could not judge its historical accuracy, and said the skin tones of the characters in the film seemed to all fall into the type Musk approves of, while the British accent used by the narrator evokes fantasy video games or ordinary Hollywood epics of the past 25 years.
The author believes what this material truly lacks is artistry, inspiration and human touch. The backstory conveyed through narration seems endless, followed by one bearded character's face after another, each shouting stiff lines that, the author even said, make Nolan's dialogue sound like Shakespeare.
Some individual shots may simulate reality reasonably well, the author said, but overall it feels completely lacking in breathing room, with no sense of progression, and the audience has no reason to care about any character or event on screen. While watching Nolan's nearly three-hour Odyssey, the author was able to maintain attention throughout; but before the Grok version was even halfway through, he had already begun listlessly checking how much time was left.
He wrote that it is hard to imagine being interested in another seven minutes, let alone the length of an entire film. (Editor/Yu Lei)
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