Machines turning on their human creators is a rapidly-aging tale. If you’ve seen the Battlestar Galactica reboot, played the Mass Effect series of games or watched the Terminator movies, you’re likely well acquainted with the trope. But what about machines turning on their alien creators? Does this premise hold any fresh material?
German Kaleb Lechowski has a crack at the altered formula in the above six-minute short, entitled “R’ha”. The 22-year old put the clip together solo over the course of seven months and while it’s not perfect, it’s an astounding effort given the constraints.
I think the short really shines when it opens up on a large futuristic metropolis, complete with descending warheads, fighters and spider-like giant mechs. The animations on the captured alien can be a little stilted and the voice acting isn’t the greatest, or even easy to understand, but I’m willing to give the guy a break considering he apparently spent the hefty sum of zero dollars on actors.
The story isn’t interesting enough to warrant, say, a feature-length version, but perhaps someone can give it a treatment that does add more to the mix than “it’s Battlestar Galactica with aliens instead of humans”.
[Vimeo, via The Hollywood Reporter]