The Leviathan (SF Short Film)
Mar. 20th, 2015 10:17 amSo, there's this vaguely science-fictional short going around the Interwebs, entitled The Leviathan.
Truly, the CGI is epic. Other reviews are mixed; lots of people are very impressed with the quality of the rendering, although there's always that one snob who has to find something to criticize.
But I was overall, unimpressed. Epic CGI is no longer an interesting showcase in its own right; the story has to have some meaning.
The visuals around the crew are pretty good; the "actual work in space is hard work, done by the space-suited equivalent of chainhands" theme is well-illustrated, although nothing in the trailer emphasized the "involuntary" nature of the job; that also seems an unlikely handwave, as I can imagine a future where a *lot* of daredevil professionals would seek out a high-risk, high-reward job like that. (Harvesting the core component of an FTL engine would be a hella high-reward job.)
But the setting is terribly confused. Are they in a nebula? Are they above a gas giant? Why do men walk around the open bay of that larger recovery vehicle? Why isn't it enclosed? The setting has to be Jupiter or Saturn; they're clearly in a dense, gaseous place; they can't get FTL without the eggs, they can't get the eggs without FTL, so their first harvests had to be Jovian. If that's so, then a simple space suit isn't enough for the caustic, radioactive environs of even "upper" Jupiter. Don't these people have radar or sonar or some kind of "cloud penetrating" technology, even of the passive variety, that would let them track such a beast's wake through the dense, heavy cover? They have cheap and effective gravitics, which means they haven't talked to a hard science fiction writer about the consequences of cheap and effective gravitics.
All in all, I'll pay more attention to see if there's a good story being told here, but so far I'm not seeing enough thought put into the context implied by the trailer to convince me.
The Leviathan -- Teaser from Ruairi Robinson on Vimeo.
Truly, the CGI is epic. Other reviews are mixed; lots of people are very impressed with the quality of the rendering, although there's always that one snob who has to find something to criticize.
But I was overall, unimpressed. Epic CGI is no longer an interesting showcase in its own right; the story has to have some meaning.
The visuals around the crew are pretty good; the "actual work in space is hard work, done by the space-suited equivalent of chainhands" theme is well-illustrated, although nothing in the trailer emphasized the "involuntary" nature of the job; that also seems an unlikely handwave, as I can imagine a future where a *lot* of daredevil professionals would seek out a high-risk, high-reward job like that. (Harvesting the core component of an FTL engine would be a hella high-reward job.)
But the setting is terribly confused. Are they in a nebula? Are they above a gas giant? Why do men walk around the open bay of that larger recovery vehicle? Why isn't it enclosed? The setting has to be Jupiter or Saturn; they're clearly in a dense, gaseous place; they can't get FTL without the eggs, they can't get the eggs without FTL, so their first harvests had to be Jovian. If that's so, then a simple space suit isn't enough for the caustic, radioactive environs of even "upper" Jupiter. Don't these people have radar or sonar or some kind of "cloud penetrating" technology, even of the passive variety, that would let them track such a beast's wake through the dense, heavy cover? They have cheap and effective gravitics, which means they haven't talked to a hard science fiction writer about the consequences of cheap and effective gravitics.
All in all, I'll pay more attention to see if there's a good story being told here, but so far I'm not seeing enough thought put into the context implied by the trailer to convince me.
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