As for the Grok version of “The Odyssey” (created in collaboration with Wonder Studios and director Dev Walker), well, you can watch for yourself.
What the footage really lacks is any sense of artistry, inspiration, or human interest. The backstory — delivered via the aforementioned voiceover — seems to go on forever, finally giving way to one bearded face after another, each shouting stilted lines that make Nolan’s questionable dialogue (“Our age of bronze is collapsing!”) sound like Shakespeare.
While a few individual shots might provide a reasonable simulacrum of reality, as a whole, the clip feels completely airless, offering viewers no sense of momentum, no reason to care about anyone or anything on-screen. And where I had no trouble paying attention for the nearly three hours of Nolan’s “Odyssey,” I was listlessly checking how much time I had left before the Grok version was even halfway through. If it was a video game cutscene, I would have hit the “skip” button.
It’s hard to imagine being interested in another seven minutes of this, much less a full movie’s worth.
Anthony Ha is TechCrunch’s weekend editor. Previously, he worked as a tech reporter at Adweek, a senior editor at VentureBeat, a local government reporter at the Hollister Free Lance, and vice president of content at a VC firm. He lives in New York City.