15 Cons of Sora (Review 2024)

I’m going to be blunt: I’m honestly tired of everyone raving about Sora like it’s some miracle worker. Sure, it’s got those flashy demos and everyone seems dazzled by the idea of turning their text prompts into videos.

I get it—it’s new, it’s shiny, it promises to make content creation easier. But after messing around with it, I can’t ignore all the stuff that feels off. Not slightly off, but glaringly off. I’m not trying to be some grumpy contrarian, but I think it’s about time somebody lays out the ugly parts that most people tend to gloss over. If you’re sick of sugarcoated reviews, pull up a chair. We need to talk.

1. Bizarre Physics and Wacky Movements

Let’s start with a straightforward scenario: say you want a character strolling down a quiet street. Simple, right? Well, not for Sora. For some reason, it often just can’t handle basic physics. Characters’ legs switch positions in these jerky, unnatural ways—like their knees have been replaced with rubber hinges. Background objects can suddenly float or flicker out of existence, defying every law of nature you’ve ever known. Instead of creating that smooth, believable motion that sells a scene, Sora’s results feel more like a homemade puppet show run by someone who’s never held a puppet before. Forget immersion; you’ll be too busy squinting at the screen and muttering, “What on Earth is that even supposed to be?”

2. Object Permanence? More Like Object Disappearance

Remember learning about object permanence as a toddler, that comforting notion that things keep existing even when you can’t see them? Sora clearly never got that memo. Objects you’ve painstakingly included in your prompts pop in and out of view without a hint of logic. One frame: a tree swaying in the breeze. Next frame: poof, gone, as if it never existed. Need a character to reach for an apple in the next shot? Good luck if that apple hasn’t just vanished into thin air. Without consistency in what stays and what goes, it’s impossible to maintain a coherent narrative. Continuity matters in storytelling. Sora’s approach makes it feel more like a carnival magic act—except it’s accidentally funny rather than intentionally clever.

3. Snail’s Pace on High-Res Videos

High-res output sounds nice in theory, but let’s be realistic: Sora crawls at a snail’s pace when you ask it to spit out something like 1080p footage. You wait, and wait, and wait some more. In a world where timing is everything—where you want to quickly respond to trends, meet client deadlines, or just produce content without growing a beard in the meantime—this lag is a killer. Forget about cranking out multiple drafts in a single afternoon. With Sora, you might be stuck all day on just one attempt. It’s ironic: we’re sold on how “efficient” AI is supposed to be, yet here we are twiddling our thumbs, wishing we’d just hired a human animator to get it done by lunch.

4. Flopping into the Uncanny Valley

When Sora tries to go realistic, it falls headfirst into that dreaded uncanny valley. Movements appear sluggish, as though everything’s happening underwater. Characters stare blankly like mannequins, and every gesture feels a beat too slow. Instead of feeling natural or lifelike, it comes off creepy, like old-school CGI that never quite reached Pixar-level finesse. For quirky cartoonish or claymation-style videos, Sora can sort of pass muster. But aim for something that could fool the eye into thinking it’s real footage? Expect to be disappointed. The moment you notice that weird shoulder twitch or that slow, robotic blink, you’re ripped right out of any illusion you were trying to create.

5. No Sense of Context

Sora’s grasp of context is practically non-existent. It doesn’t understand that water should flow a certain way, that hair should move with the wind, or that clothing should drape naturally over a person’s body. Complex, real-world phenomena—think fluid dynamics or intricate interactions between multiple moving parts—just don’t translate. What you end up with is a series of educated guesses. It feels like showing a random person who’s never played sports a highlight of a basketball dunk and asking them to recreate it in animation. Sure, they know a ball goes in a hoop, but they’ll miss all those subtle movements that make it believable. That’s Sora for you: good at approximations, clueless about the details that matter.

6. Copyright and IP: The Creative Straitjacket

We all know using copyrighted materials without permission can lead to trouble. Sora plays it incredibly safe—maybe too safe. It won’t depict recognizable figures, brands, or logos. At first glance, that sounds great for keeping everyone out of legal hot water, but it also kills a whole dimension of storytelling. Cultural references? Iconic landmarks? Famous characters you wanted to parody? All off-limits. You’re stuck in Sora’s sanitized bubble where everyone is generic and nowhere is specific. Without the ability to incorporate familiar touchstones, your projects end up feeling like they take place in a weird alternate universe where nothing is allowed to look like anything you know.

7. Fuel for the Misinformation Machine

Let’s be blunt: as AI video generation tools become more accessible, there’s a real concern about misuse. Even if Sora’s not perfect now, improvements are inevitable. Imagine a day when someone can spin up a believable (or at least semi-believable) video of something that never happened—an event, a statement, a crime. This isn’t sci-fi anymore. It could undermine trust in actual footage. People might end up wondering, “Is this real or is it Sora?” While the tool’s creators might have good intentions, once it’s out in the wild, bad actors can use it however they please. That should make all of us uneasy.

8. Chained to Its Training Data

Sora’s output is basically a product of its training data—the massive stockpile of images and videos it learned from. And that raises uncomfortable questions: Were the original creators aware of how their work would be used? Did they get compensated or even acknowledged? We’re dealing with a potential ethical train wreck. Meanwhile, you might be struggling to get a certain aesthetic or style that wasn’t well-represented in the training set. You’re stuck wrestling with the machine’s baked-in preferences. Instead of feeling like an infinite well of creativity, it’s more like a selective library with missing volumes. You can only do what the data lets you do.

9. Fertile Ground for Ethical Nightmares

This one’s a natural extension of the misuse issue but worth emphasizing. With Sora, we’re stepping into an era where faking reality becomes child’s play. Today’s output might look clumsy, but give it time. If Sora (or something like it) can someday produce convincing, photo-realistic scenes, how do we fight misinformation at scale? People already doubt what they read online. Video used to be harder to fake, but not anymore. The existence of tools like Sora tilts the playing field, making it tougher to trust even what we see with our own eyes. It’s a recipe for confusion, manipulation, and plenty of people scratching their heads, unsure what’s real.

10. Don’t Believe the Hype: Quality vs. Reality

Sora’s marketing makes it sound like you’re getting a Hollywood studio in your laptop. The truth? It’s more like a talented yet clumsy intern. At first glance, some videos look okay, but stare too long and the cracks appear—jittery moments, flickering textures, and odd timing. There’s a disconnect between how the tool is sold and what it can actually produce. If you walk in expecting perfection, you’ll be let down. That’s the problem with all the glitzy hype: it sets the bar so high that when you finally see Sora’s work in full detail, you start to feel like you fell for a magic trick where you spotted the wires.

11. Prompt Writing: A New (Annoying) Skill Set

If you think you can just tell Sora “Show a man walking down a street” and get a perfect scene, think again. You need to craft prompts with the precision of a watchmaker. Vague instructions yield bizarre outcomes. Overly detailed instructions mean you’re spending more time writing prompts than it would’ve taken to do a rough hand-drawn animation. This isn’t the liberating creative experience you might’ve imagined; it’s more like wrestling with a fussy robot that only understands super-specific commands. Creativity should flow, not get stuck in a swamp of hyper-detailed, over-engineered prompt writing.

12. The Not-So-Public Tool

Right now, Sora isn’t even widely available. It’s in some sort of exclusive club, limiting the pool of users who can test it, break it, and offer honest feedback. Without a bunch of everyday creators banging on the tool, pushing it to its limits, and telling the developers what’s wrong, how does it improve? Limited access keeps the tool stuck in a bubble. We’re left guessing what it’s really good at (or terrible at) because we don’t have that broad, diverse community putting it through the wringer. It’s hard to trust a product that hides behind velvet ropes.

13. Half-Baked Watermarks

Sora’s supposed to watermark its AI-generated content, which sounds like a solid idea. Except it places these watermarks where they can be easily cropped out. So much for transparency. If someone wants to pass off Sora’s work as real footage, all they need is a simple edit. The watermark might as well not exist at all. This toothless safeguard makes you wonder if the creators genuinely thought this through, or if they just slapped something on to say they did. If you’re hoping watermarks would solve the authenticity problem, think again—they’re more like a flimsy sticker than a secure seal.

14. Stuck in the Training Data Echo Chamber

We already know Sora’s dependent on its training data, but let’s hammer this home. Whatever biases, aesthetics, or limitations existed in the original dataset—consciously or unconsciously—now shape what Sora can do. Want a gritty, hand-drawn look? Too bad if the training set mostly contained glossy corporate imagery. Want a truly fresh style? Unless it’s got something similar tucked away in that massive archive it devoured, you’re out of luck. It’s like trying to teach a musician a brand-new genre when they’ve only ever heard top-40 radio hits. Without fresh, varied input, you’re stuck in a loop of familiar outputs.

15. The Vanishing Line Between AI and Reality

Maybe the scariest drawback is the slippery slope we’re heading down. Already, you need a bit of a trained eye to spot weird quirks that scream “AI-generated.” As the technology improves, those telltale signs might fade. If we reach a point where Sora (or a future cousin of it) can crank out indistinguishable-from-real videos, then what? Every piece of visual evidence, every recorded moment, could be called into question. It’s a rabbit hole of skepticism—if you can’t trust what you see, you’re left in a permanent state of doubt. That’s a grim future, and Sora is one of the stepping stones on the path leading there.

In Closing: A Reality Check

Look, I’m not saying Sora is evil or useless. It’s an interesting, cutting-edge tool with potential. But the nonstop cheerleading has to stop. We’ve got glaring physics problems, disappearing objects, excruciatingly slow high-res rendering, flop-level attempts at realism, and a complete lack of understanding for how things actually move.

We’ve got crippling restrictions on referencing real-world icons, a looming threat of misuse, questionable ethics around training data, and the chilling possibility of a future where we can’t trust any video at face value. Add to that the disappointment gap between the hype and the reality, the fussy prompt requirements, the limited availability, the laughable watermark system, and the homogenized output tied to its training data. That’s a long list of reasons to be cautious, to say the least.

If you’re done being dazzled by the “wow factor” and ready for a sober look, here it is: Sora’s far from perfect. It’s a tech demo with a long way to go before it earns the glowing reputation some people want to give it right now. Don’t let the marketing fool you. Underneath the shiny surface, it’s still stumbling around, trying to find its footing. For now, consider this a warning label on the box. Use it if you must, but keep your expectations firmly in check.

Nevertheless, if you’ve weighed all these drawbacks. Still wish to go with the purchase, congratulations! You’re making a considered decision that you won’t regret.

Reference:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OY2x0TyKzIQ&pp=ygULc29yYSByZXZpZXc%3D
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RcuI0JAv610&pp=ygULc29yYSByZXZpZXc%3D
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8H_TCWCvUXM&pp=ygULc29yYSByZXZpZXc%3D
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zuYWIcPDLQg&pp=ygULc29yYSByZXZpZXc%3D