By [Flix for Short is Flixist’s way of showing off awesome short films we find around the web. Do you have a favorite short you saw? Why not tell us about it in our Community Blogs? We’d love to see what short films you can make and find!]
You may remember the ROSA trailer we reported two months ago. It showcased a duet of humanoid robotic lifeforms duking it out in a post-apocalyptic setting akin to that of WALL-E, except much more epic/less charming/more sexy(?). A Renaissance man of CG, Jesús Orellana, conquered this entire project all by himself during a single year. ROSA has already played at the Sitges Film Festival, Screamfest, Los Angeles Shorts Fest and SIFF, but now you can see it online for free.
I offer up my critique after the jump.
[Via Vimeo]If I may offer up my thoughts on ROSA, it’s visually astounding. It truly shows the complexity and brilliance that one man can achieve based solely on his own efforts. It’s an accomplishment that anyone should be proud of and I commend Jesús for it (the artist, not the god). That being said, as with most things these days, more thought is given to the visual direction as opposed to the story. It pains me to see this over and over again in the film industry. Films like Avatar make me lose faith in the art of cinema because it no longer becomes about the characters and instead becomes about how pretty something is, which can be gained from looking at a painting.
That’s why it saddens me to see a true independent film-maker who has chosen to create a story so incoherent and perplexing in light of the highly visceral Matrix-like fight scenes that we’ve seen so many times before. The fights lack meaning, the characters lack purpose and the world these characters live in is only vaguely hinted at. There is a lack of an overall point to it all. These robots were made for some purpose, perhaps to repopulate the world of plant life (as can be garnered from the death scenes), but what was the point of instilling these lifeforms with kung fu abilities or weapons? Was it just so that it would look cool on-screen? And why is everything the color of bronze?
If this short ends up being considered for a full-length feature by any Hollywood execs (going the route of 9, for example), here’s hoping they can at least work on the script… because the visual development is completed as far as I’m concerned. Give people a painting and they can stare at it for hours. Give people something to think about and they’ll stare at it for decades.