Runway Gen-4 | An Honest AI Video Generator Review

Sep 18

Note: This Review is Non-Biased and Not Affiliated with Runway in Any Way.

In this article, we will give you an analysis of Runway Gen-4.

Runway is a phenomenal company that has been making some major moves since its origin.

We can agree that Runway’s toll box of different AI creative tools such as frames, Aleph, AI rotoscoping and more make it necessary for your arsenal, but in this article, we are looking specifically at their AI Video Generator, Runway Gen-4.

Runway’s specs are decently impressive and hold up well against the top AI video generators.

1080p Output with 4k Upscaling capabilities
24fps Video
Up to 10 Second Single Video Generations
Ability to Extend Clips up to 40 Seconds long
Now Includes Veo 3

When Gen-4 launched, it was easily one of the top 3 AI video generators on the market, but since then, it has been passed by multiple other options, showing that Runway’s value is less in Gen-4 and more in the platform as a whole.

If it’s you’re only option, you can absolutely generate beautiful videos using Gen-4, but I wouldn’t suggest it as your first option.

Below, we will take a deep dive into the strengths and weaknesses of Runway’s AI video generator.

Runway Gen-4 - Benchmark Score (4.3/10)

In our Curious Refuge Labs™ review, Runway Gen-4 was scored on five categories: Prompt Adherence, Temporal Consistency, Visual Fidelity, Motion Quality, and Style/Cinematic Realism. The average scores were:

Prompt Adherence: 5.6/10
Temporal Consistency: 4.1/10
Visual Fidelity: 4.4/10
Motion Quality: 4.0/10
Style & Cinematic Realism: 3.3/10
Total Curious Refuge Labs™ Score: 4.3/10

These benchmarks highlight the tools’ strong performance in accurately interpreting prompts and producing polished visuals, while also pointing to room for growth in lifelike motion and stylistic realism.

We test all videos across a wide array of real-world scenarios for professional artists and filmmakers.

How to use Runway’s AI Video Features | AI Video Tutorial

Below is a tutorial where we show you some of the strengths of using Runway Gen-4 in conjunction with some of their other amazing AI features.

Runway Gen-4 | AI Video Expert Review

Below is a detailed review of how Runway Gen-4 performs against the categories listed above.

Prompt Adherence: 5.6/10 (Subpar)

Gen-4 most often does pretty well when you are prompting relatively simple scenarios (e.g. landscapes, single characters, or over-the-shoulder conversations).

In the examples below, you can see that the over-shoulder conversation shot and the drone shot are relatively decent outputs, but when you get to more difficult details (like the video on the far right), the quality goes downhill pretty quickly.

All in all, prompt adherence ranks the highest in our five categories, but that doesn’t say too much given the specific score out of 10.

If the prompts are basic, and the movement is simple, then you might get what you want from Runway Gen-4, but if you need more intense prompt adherence or movement, it will be tough.

Temporal Consistency: 4.1/10 (Poor)

Continuity is one of Gen-4’s weakest points. Many AI video generators struggle with random quirks, but you can almost guarantee that your generations will have an issue with flickering.

Dynamic solo actions (like shadowboxing) often jitter unnaturally.

Similar to the example here, the more movement or actions, the worse the output from Runway.

One quirk runway has had for a while is the tendency to generate everything in slow motion. Even when you don’t want it. If you want a slow motion shot, give it a try, but no guarantee that it will hold up consistency from the original image.

Visual Fidelity: 4.4/10 (Poor)

Remember that the 6-finger hand issue everybody experienced when generating AI images? Well, Runway Gen-4 has a similar problem, but it generates hands more as blobs.

Gen-4 greatly struggles with fidelity in small details.

Once you get past the first 2 seconds of each generation, the details and facial features typically fall apart.

In the example here, you can see it starts off decent, but the longer the video goes on, it begins to completely fall apart. The small details such as the hands and fingers, and details on the face crumble.

Motion Quality: 4.0/10 (Poor)

Gen-4 struggles to model natural motion. If it’s a simple drone movement showing minimal motion, then it can often generate average shots, but even simple product pours look incredibly unrealistic.

Group scenes turn into blobs of colors, and fast-paced action shots are just outright unattainable

Runway Gen-4

Many might think that all AI video generators struggle with decent motion quality, but actually, this is one of the categories that is setting the best of the best tools apart from the others. Gen-4 is not one of those.

Style & Cinematic Realism: 3.3/10 (Poor)

The biggest gap between Runway’s marketing and reality lies here.

Everything the Runway content team puts out is absolutely beautiful, but whenever you hop in to recreate those, it is not nearly as easy as you would expect, and sometimes it is impossible.

It is highly unlikely, and nearly impossible, that Gen-4 generates video that could look realistic without significant time spent refining and editing.

The details fall apart, the physics are unrealistic, and it often looks more like poorly done CGI from 2010.

At its best, Gen-4 hints at cinematic realism; at its worst, it looks unmistakably “AI.”

Do We Recommend Runway Gen-4 for AI Video Artists?

If we are strictly talking about Runway Gen-4, we would recommend another tool. There are better quality and more realistic options available for much cheaper.

But as always, there is a caveat. Looking at Runway only through the lens of Gen-4 doesn’t make them look great, but when we consider Runway in the scope of things like Aleph, Frames, AI Background remover, and the rest of their tools, it is phenomenal and a tool we would highly recommend you have in your arsenal.

Is Runway Gen-4 Copyright Cleared?

For Runway, this question is a tad ambiguous. Looking at their help page, which says, ‘As between you and Runway, you retain ownership and all your rights to content you upload and generate on Runway.’

So, Runways said you have no limitations when using their tool for monetized, commercial projects.

On the other hand, there have been some questions raised regarding the content Runway was trained on and what that means for the copyright of the content created using their tools.

Right now, we are at a place where time will only tell. We recommend doing some research before diving into using Gen-4 for a large commercial project.

How Does Runway Gen-4 Stack Up Against Other AI Video Tools?

In our opinion, we feel like Runway Gen-4 is pretty subpar against other AI video tools. In many cases, Runway Gen-4 struggles to generate videos that can truly compete with the best of the best.