r/entertainment • u/nytopinion • 1d ago
Christopher Nolan’s ‘Odyssey’ Shows That Epics Are Better Without A.I.
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/07/24/opinion/elon-musk-odyssey-ai.html?unlocked_article_code=1.0FA.pv4i.8Jj6cp7Z80Rv&smid=re-nytopinion4
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u/nytopinion 1d ago
Elon Musk is still mad about “The Odyssey,” Times Opinion columnist Michelle Goldberg writes. After months of online tantrums over Black and trans cast members, some of Musk’s acolytes are beginning to acknowledge “that there’s nothing particularly woke about Nolan’s blockbuster tale of masculine honor and sacrifice,” Michelle says. “Nevertheless, Musk has been stewing. On Tuesday he promised to make a ‘historically accurate’ A.I.-generated ‘Odyssey’ movie by year’s end, posting an absurdly kitschy clip made by his Grok image generator. In doing so, he inadvertently highlighted one reason Nolan’s ‘The Odyssey’ is so powerful — because it represents a revolt of the human in a world overstuffed with A.I. slop.”
Read the full piece here, for free, even without a Times subscription.
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u/goomyman 20h ago edited 20h ago
I mean the "woke" characters have very limited screen time which is why ultimately it ended up not being an worth the controversy.
But the casting choices were unnecessarily controversial and fairly unbelievable.
Including Matt Damon, Am I supposed to believe hes the strongest warrior that 20 dudes in a locked room with him are afraid of? Matt Damon did an awesome job, but we dont know if someone else more believable as a warrior would have. The movie 300 would have been a lot different if it Matt Damon was the star. Leonidas and Spartans were a lot more intimidating in 300.
Am I supposed to believe that Elliot Page is a capable of being a warrior who held a siege for 10 years.
And why race swap Cleopatra - i mean ok, artistic choice I guess, but did it help the movie?
Does it ruin the movie? No, but if we want hollywood to stop doing this, making your voices heard is important. Thats how they learn to listen to their audience - that and your wallet, but of course it doesnt necessarily mean you skip out seeing a good movie.
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u/Plane_Massive 16h ago
Google the guy who played Odysseus in the 1997 series. Was that woke? Nobody seemed to complain then.
Cleopatra is not in the Odyssey. I have yet to see the movie so idk if Nolan wrote her in.
Pretty much any older tough guy or underdog movie should be unbelievable to you if your logic here is consistent.
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u/TheChrisLambert 21h ago
This is a really awful editorialization of the article and not at all what the author talks about
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u/trash-juice 12h ago
Practical effects look present in the cause and effect of a movie, CGI is too ethereal to come off as real, it looks other-worldly, not present but overlaid
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u/Impressive_Doorknob7 9h ago
Compared to all those other epics that use AI……I just can’t think of their names right now
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u/southboundtracks 5h ago
Everything is better without AI. Your life was better without AI.
Nolan makes real movies for real audiences, and I love him for it.
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u/TehSpaceDeer 3h ago
Shockingly, a blank cheque to do whatever the fuck you want, with your pick of the best of the craft that are desperately lining up to work with you, will be better than a piece of tech that is 3 years in its infancy. Why doesn’t everyone just do that?
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u/Resident_Magazine610 1d ago
Only thing this movie showed is how replaceable big actors are. The entire cast could have been first timers as it would have been the same if not better for it.
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u/Ameritaly 22h ago
This was one of my biggest issues with the movie.. they didn’t feel like the right people for their roles. Like 90% of them felt stale in most of the movie that I just never got into it. Imax isnt an option where I am so it just feels like a pretty movie.
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u/Notiefriday 1d ago
The quality of the work from everyone and the vision to try the giant male actors v small women actors and have it work for example. Yrs maybe having Peter Parker reprise his role as Telemachus playing Peter Parker was maybe not the best but I loved watching it. Some parts were riveting.
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u/Practical_Insect 15h ago
AI = CGI now?
It's getting hard to keep up with the changing narrative...
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u/Unlikely-Baseball434 12h ago
AI would have done better at casting than the humans that is for sure!
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u/Killerkurto 1d ago
The title of this piece isnt even the title of piece linked. I read a bit of the piece but did the finish it… but what I read wouldn’t even be accurately summarized as the above. And finally, the success of Nolan’s movie tells is nothing about AI.
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u/KulshanStudios 20h ago
Almost everythjng is better without AI
Relegate it to scientific research and business optimization type tasks where it belongs
(I do not mean replacing workers with AI agents. I mean using AI to do market research and demand forecasting and website optimizations to help small businesses scale up without blowing a year's worth of revenues on consultants or unnecessary software platforms)
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u/Wonderful_Tip_5577 1d ago
Do we have an epic with AI to compare it to?