Elon Musk’s first seven-minute episode of his Grok AI ‘Odyssey’ has been met with widespread critical disdain, with reviewers describing the production as “meaningless” and an “AI horror show.” The episode, released online, was created using Musk’s AI tool, Grok, following his earlier criticisms of Christopher Nolan’s adaptation of the Greek epic.
The Genesis of an AI Epic
The project stems from an online dispute where Elon Musk condemned what he perceived as “wokery” in Christopher Nolan’s acclaimed film, ‘The Odyssey’. Without having seen the film, Musk criticised Nolan’s casting of Elliot Page as Sinon and Lupita Nyong’o as Helen of Troy. As Nolan’s film garnered significant praise and box-office success, Musk reportedly expressed that he could create a “better and more authentic” version using Grok AI, leading to the recent release of the first online episode, according to The Guardian.
A Look at the Episode’s Content
The initial seven-minute instalment serves as a prologue, depicting events not included in Nolan’s film. It opens with Odysseus feigning madness to avoid participating in the Trojan War. His ruse is tested by Palamedes and Agamemnon, who place his infant son, Telemachus, in the path of a plough. Odysseus intervenes to save his child, revealing his sanity, and consequently agrees to join the war effort. He then embarks on the armada, leaving his wife Penelope and young son behind. The episode fast-forwards ten years, showing the expeditionary force arriving at Troy as the siege prepares for the infamous fake-horse attack.
Overwhelmingly Negative Critical Reception
Critics have been particularly scathing regarding the AI’s artistic output. The Telegraph described the effort as a “seven-minute AI horror show so creepy and uncanny you can feel your eyeballs twitch,” adding that it appears “listless, lifeless and as fake as a £10 football jersey bought off the internet.” The Guardian similarly noted that the AI footage was “ponderous and inert,” demonstrating a “familiar uncanny-valley stock-footage quality with classical-age Call of Duty graphics.”
The lack of emotional depth and narrative coherence was a major point of criticism. According to The Guardian, every dramatic moment, from Odysseus’s feigned madness to his departure from his family, felt “as motiveless and meaningless as the movement of shapes on a laptop screensaver.” The characters themselves, described by The Telegraph as “glassy-eyed” virtual figures resembling “baddies from the God of War video games,” deliver “verbal porridge” dialogue with flat, expressionless voices. One example of the dialogue cited was, “Any man who raises a sword against one of us… will answer to all of us!”
Further criticisms targeted the technical execution. Reviewers highlighted the “deadly audio and digital-robot voice work,” characterised by an “even, over-emphatic, declamatory tone.” The Telegraph also noted “constant fast edits” and a “deafening score that sounds like a ZX81 trying to do Hans Zimmer.” Minor inconsistencies were also observed, such as Penelope appearing “completely different in each scene.” While the battle sequences were credited with “some of the epic quality of Zack Snyder’s Spartan romp 300,” this was an isolated positive in a sea of negative commentary.
Musk’s Motivation and AI’s Artistic Merit
Critics suggested Musk’s motivation was less about artistic storytelling and more about winning a lost argument. The Guardian commented that he had “no passion to tell us this story, only to win an argument that he long since lost.” The consensus amongst reviewers is that the AI project underscores the current limitation of artificial intelligence in creative fields, reinforcing the view that AI has “no artistic merit, only financial merit.” Despite Musk’s promise to release a full “historically accurate” Odyssey by the end of 2026, the initial reception suggests a long road ahead for AI in generating compelling cinematic content.
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