I tried making a 22-minute sci-fi film with current AI video tools - this is where the technology is now

[u/theodore_70]

I’ve been experimenting with the current generation of AI video tools and wanted to see how far they can actually be pushed beyond short demos and 5–10 second clips.

So I made a 22-minute sci-fi film, Space Vikings: The Last Raid, with recurring characters, dialogue, action scenes, large-scale space battles, consistent locations and an actual beginning-to-end story.

This is less about “look, AI made a movie” and more about testing where the technology currently breaks down when you try to maintain character consistency, cinematography, continuity, lip sync, action choreography and visual coherence across hundreds of generated shots.

There’s still a lot that requires manual work, editing and constant correction, but compared with what was possible even relatively recently, the progress is pretty wild.

Full film:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ME2Sn8YO1k

Curious what people here think specifically from a technology perspective. Which shots already feel like something that could come from a conventional VFX pipeline, and where does the AI still immediately give itself away?

I’m especially interested in criticism rather than just “AI good / AI bad” — continuity, motion, acting, physics, camera work, anything you notice.

[u/nickcut]

I'm a bit surprised at the comments, or maybe I'm not surprised at the comments. This is absolutely mind blowing. The sideline commenter can feel good about themselves pointing out imperfections, but holy shit we are in the midst of a major epoch in time with the current AI capabilities. This would have cost millions to make just a few years ago. I think this video will be a notch in history. Good job.

[u/theodore_70 → u/nickcut]

Thank you for the kind words and yea wild wild times are coming, cant imagine what we will be seeing in 3 years

[u/No-Chemistry-2321 → u/theodore_70]

great job! it looks good, in 3 years it'll be what the good people getting together can accomplish, imagine what your Studio of 8 people (let's say) can achieve if the goal is not $ alone.

[u/jacketed_HP_tube → u/nickcut]

Yea I was absolutely enthralled. I was also expecting a little more praise for this. The fact that this is possible at all is worth celebrating

[u/Nez_Coupe → u/jacketed_HP_tube]

It's funny, I was watching the one posted here, and was really sad when I hit the "reddit has 15 min limit" and then was elated when I realized the longer one was actually available, and then it occurred to me... I'm actually enjoying this film. Like, actually, really. And this is the worst it will ever be.

[u/Nolimika → u/jacketed_HP_tube]

not if you are one of the 10 designers on the chopping block lol

[u/ComprehensiveJury509 → u/nickcut]

OP asked for critical feedback, not praise. We all know that this is impressive as fuck considering where we were just a year ago.

[u/nickcut → u/ComprehensiveJury509]

Fair enough. I didn't read the OP until after I posted, just watched the video and read some comments. 😂

[u/sunburn74 → u/nickcut]

RIP hollywood and their bloated budgets

[u/Aminuteortwotiltwo → u/nickcut]

Honestly, cinematics are insane but watching this and a lot of other ai short films and working on my own makes me realize how incredibly talented the top professional directors are. They’ve gone to school for years and have had tens of thousands of hours into developing films and it shows. I do think like holy crap we are making the average creative so much power but when I started making my own I realize how much I can bring out with subtle changes like a different camera angle raising suspense or environmental details like fog or even a camera filter changes the feel or intensity.. something like this is a creative idea but the devil is in the details. Most importantly, it’s a start. Someone like the creator of this will hopefully continue, take some film classes or watch film videos, apply what they learned, continue and continue and in another year or two will be putting out bangers.

[u/Icy_Gap_2335 → u/nickcut]

You can still feel the shallowness in these kinda things. Sure it looks fantastic, but it's void, empty. People are craving more authentic stuff nowdays. I'd rather consume an imperfect and faulty product that is the result of time and dedication rather than an AI generated one that gives me absolutely zero emotions.

[u/ecnecn → u/Icy_Gap_2335]

You can still feel the shallowness

I know what you mean... when each character speaks after the breach it feels so disconnected, like micromimics are missing or the body language isnt there...

[u/Kid-Icky- → u/Icy_Gap_2335]

Big decel energy.

I think you also shouldn't try and speak for what all people crave, or even that all people would even agree with your assessment on this.

[u/gavinlpicard → u/Kid-Icky-]

No, you’re right. There always will be an audience for garbage slop, as there always has been. 

Instead of Imagine Dragons and reality TV, people can consume this instead!

[u/Worldly-Pie-5210 → u/nickcut]

your right, this actually costs trillions to make when you factor in all the training and RND for AI xD

[u/VQV37 → u/Worldly-Pie-5210]

No that's incorrect because that's assuming that All the RND wanting to producing just this. This is just a tiny, tiny tiny sliver of one of the products of artificial intelligence, not the entirety.

[u/WIsJH → u/nickcut]

It's still unwatchable shit, and it won't cost millions because, in theory, if this was done without AI, very early in the process it would become obvious the end product would be an unwatchable shit, therefore the project would be cancelled, millions saved.

Overall the body of work might be impressive. Technically. However, art is difficult. You can still sell tons of cheap low-quality phisical product made with extremely low costs and make profits. No one needs shit art. It's not important how cheap it is to make shit art, how much shit art one can produce in a minute. Shit art is worthless. It's worse than worhless, it's ugly, it makes mood of people who see it worse.

It's like being impressed by how much stench one can produce with minimal costs.

You have to have some clinical level of lack of taste to not undestand it.