To rival 'The Odyssey', which took years to make with an investment of $250 million, Asha Kusha has created and released 'Odysseus: The Fall' in a similar story using AI in just three months.
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Two different genres of films based on the Greek epic ‘The Odyssey’ are currently in the news in the world of cinema. On the one hand, Hollywood director Christopher Nolan’s much-anticipated $250 million film ‘The Odyssey’ is currently being screened in theaters, while on the other hand, ‘Odysseus: The Fall’ (known as the ‘AI Odyssey’ film), which is entirely made using artificial intelligence technology, has created a debate.
The two-hour-long ‘Odysseus: The Fall’, produced by Iranian-British producer and director Ash Kusha and his AI studio ‘Fountain Zero’, has brought a new wave to the future of filmmaking.
What is ‘AI Odyssey’?
‘AI Odyssey’ is an AI-generated film based on the ancient Greek epic ‘The Odyssey’ by the poet Homer. The scenes, locations, and characters seen on screen are not captured by a cinematographer or acted by an actor, but are created by a computer using the AI video generator ‘Keling AI’.
Like Nolan’s ‘The Odyssey’, this AI film also uses AI technology to present the mental stress and struggle King Odysseus experienced while returning home after the Trojan War in a fictional and visual style.
There are many differences and some similarities between Christopher Nolan’s traditional cinema and Ash Kusha’s AI film ‘Odysseus: The Fall’. The main difference is in the production technology of both these films. Nolan shot the film using real locations and IMAX 70mm cameras, including Greek caves and huge water tanks, along with various props. In ‘AI Odyssey’, no cameras, physical sets, or real shooting sets were used.
Similarly, Nolan's film features the live-action performances of Hollywood superstars like Matt Damon, Anne Hathaway and Lupita Nyong'o, while 'AI Odyssey' features digitally licensed faces with computer-generated voices and visuals.
It took hundreds of technicians and artists years to produce Nolan's film, while 'AI Odyssey' was prepared by a limited workforce in just 3 months.
Filmmakers and artists around the world are also strongly opposing 'AI Odyssey', calling it a direct attack on human art. The main source of the story of both films is the poet Homer's thousands of years old mythological epic 'The Odyssey'. Both films have presented the psychological trauma of the war, the struggle to return home and the challenges of human life through their own visual means. But there is a huge difference in the production cost of these two films.
Christopher Nolan's 'The Odyssey' is a film with a budget of $ 250 million, or 33 billion rupees, which is said to have cost 16 billion in marketing. While it is estimated that Asha Kusha's 'AI Odyssey' cost only $ 2,000 to $ 10,000 to make. Kusha prepared the film in about 3 months.
'The Odyssey', which was released worldwide on July 17, has already earned $ 264 million from its opening weekend, while 'AI Odyssey' can be watched for $ 10 through the official website of Asha Kusha's own AI Studio, FountainZero.com. Its official earnings have not been made public. However, this film has shown the technical reach that a huge fantasy story can be brought to the screen even on a very small budget.
The AI-created film may not be able to compete directly with Nolan at the Hollywood box office, but film analysts say it has opened new doors for independent filmmakers.
‘Variety’ media and some technology blogs have acknowledged that it is a huge leap in technology for a single director (Ash Kusha) to create a 135-minute film in 3 months without a large budget and hundreds of technicians. The media, film critics and audiences have been mixed about the AI-created film ‘Odysseus: The Fall’. The famous film and gaming website ‘IGN’, reviewing the trailer and its visuals, commented that ‘Christopher Nolan has no reason to be afraid or hesitant about this film’. ‘IGN’ strongly criticized the film’s unstable facial expressions, lack of dialogue and lip sync, and the dubbing voice that sounds like it is speaking from a small box, stating that the weaknesses of AI technology are clear.
Similarly, the technology magazine ‘Futurism’ has called it ‘AI Slope’ (junk AI) and argued that it looks like a collection of ‘screensavers’ generated by AI.
‘CBC News’ has commented that the scenes in this film contain serious technical errors and ridiculous scenes by AI, and has tried to kill the human feeling of the film.
Filmmakers and artists around the world are also strongly protesting this film, calling it a direct attack on human art. Filmmakers from various countries, including the Canadian film, television and radio artists’ union ‘ACTRA’, have called it an ‘alarm bell for human stories’.
Many critics have said that the film does not have any scenes longer than 3 seconds in a row, which makes the eyes tired and the story does not continue. In addition, although the artistic aspect of the film ‘Odysseus: The Fall’ has been sharply criticized, some technical analysts have also praised some aspects of it.
‘Variety’ media and some technology blogs have acknowledged that it is a huge leap in technology that a single director (Ash Kusha) was able to prepare a 135-minute film in 3 months without a large budget and hundreds of technicians.
Since the faces of the characters used in this film were not stolen from others, but were made with the written consent of real people, its legal process is considered better than other AI projects.
‘Odysseus: The Fall’ is considered by the media to be an interesting use of AI technology, but a complete failure as a good and emotional film. Most viewers on YouTube and social media have also mocked it, calling it a 'cheap and fake copy of Nolan's Odyssey'.
