Three months after Elon Musk declared that Grok would release a full-length, “historically accurate” movie version of “The Odyssey,” the artificial intelligence platform has published a modest seven minutes of footage—what the company is now calling “Episode 1 of our Odyssey series.”
The release brings a new chapter to an ongoing cultural and technological rivalry between the tech billionaire and acclaimed filmmaker Christopher Nolan. Musk had previously lashed out at Nolan’s cinematic adaptation of “The Odyssey” because the director cast nonwhite and transgender actors in prominent roles. Nolan has emerged in many ways as a natural foil for Musk. While the SpaceX and Tesla CEO regularly hypes up data centers in space and floods social media with an unending stream of AI-generated content, Nolan has proudly described himself as “a techno-skeptic.” The director has stated that, prior to the rise of generative AI, he had never seen a technology “so completely rejected by the public.”
While Nolan’s version of “The Odyssey” certainly utilized plenty of visual effects, it is primarily celebrated as a monumental feat of practical filmmaking. The production featured a grueling shoot spanning six countries and relied on a cast and crew numbering in the thousands. Following its theatrical release in July, the film became an extraordinary box office success. It quickly sold out IMAX screenings for months ahead, dominating theater chains and establishing itself as a leading contender at the upcoming Academy Awards.
As for the Grok version of “The Odyssey”—created in collaboration with Wonder Studios and director Dev Walker—viewers are now able to judge the results for themselves.
Initial impressions suggest the footage is perhaps not as spectacularly ugly as some might have expected, appearing somewhat more impressive than other experimental videos Musk has shared across social media in recent months. In fleeting moments, an unaware viewer might momentarily mistake the rendered visuals for real actors sailing across a real sea. While verifying Grok’s claim to “historical accuracy” remains difficult, the characters certainly adhere strictly to a Musk-approved aesthetic and skin color palette. Meanwhile, the accompanying narration features a standard British accent that will sound instantly familiar to anyone who has played a fantasy video game or watched a generic Hollywood blockbuster from the past quarter-century.
What the footage ultimately lacks is any genuine sense of artistry, inspiration, or human interest. The backstory—delivered entirely via the aforementioned voiceover—seems to drag on indefinitely before finally giving way to a succession of bearded faces. Each digital character shouts stilted lines that ironically make Nolan’s cinematic dialogue sound like the works of Shakespeare.
While a few individual shots might manage to provide a reasonable simulacrum of reality, the entire project feels remarkably airless. It offers viewers zero sense of narrative momentum and provides no compelling reason to care about anyone or anything depicted on-screen. Where it is easy to maintain rapt attention for the nearly three-hour runtime of Nolan’s sweeping theatrical epic, a viewer is left listlessly checking the progress bar to see how much time is left before the Grok version is even halfway through its brief run.
After experiencing this initial offering, it becomes difficult to imagine an audience eagerly awaiting another seven minutes of the experiment, let alone enduring the runtime of a full feature-length movie.
