Fully AI-generated 'Odyssey' film turns out to be 2.5 hours of frustration
AI studio Fountain 0's film 'Odysseus: The Fall' is marketed as the first Hollywood-level AI-generated movie, but a review finds it plagued by glitches and dull storytelling.
Following Christopher Nolan's commercially successful adaptation of The Odyssey, which renewed public interest in the classic epic, a very different take has now appeared: a movie made entirely with artificial intelligence, titled Odysseus: The Fall. It comes from AI studio Fountain 0, whose cofounder Ash Koosha wrote and directed the film, lent his likeness to the title character, and composed the music.
The film is billed as "the first completely AI generated film produced at the level of a Hollywood blockbuster." A review of the full 2.5-hour production, however, describes it as falling far short of that claim, citing persistent technical and storytelling problems.
Consistency problems throughout
The film's world reportedly shifts constantly: a cyclops changes height between shots, waves move against the direction of the wind, characters' mouths fail to match spoken dialogue, and oars bend unnaturally as sailors row. In one scene, a ship in a fleet inexplicably moves sideways relative to the others. Voice-overs are at times hard to understand, and the names of both Odysseus and Zeus are mispronounced. Other oddities include a sword that turns into a dagger mid-scene and what appears to be an alien carcass roasting on a spit.
A disjointed, dull result
Because current AI video tools can only generate clips a few seconds long, the film reportedly comes across as a string of loosely connected moments rather than a coherent narrative. Viewers unfamiliar with the original story would likely struggle to follow the plot — for instance, Penelope's suitors aren't introduced until near the end.
The review also finds no aspect of the film improved by AI: the "acting" includes unexplained long pauses and abrupt bursts of laughter, and the action lacks any sense of physical weight or realistic movement. The monsters are described as looking like outdated stop-motion creatures, clashing visually with the smoother, hyperreal human characters. The film is available to rent for $9.99 and can currently only be watched through a web browser.
