Wednesday, March 20, 2019

LOVE DEATH + ROBOTS



Title: LOVE DEATH + ROBOTS
Created by: Tim Miller (Deadpool)
Network: Netflix

LOVE DEATH + ROBOTS is Netflix's newest adult-oriented animated anthology series, a kind of modern-day Animatrix or Halo Legends compilations, for those old enough to remember, or else Heavy Metal, for those even older.

Like all anthology series, LOVE DEATH + ROBOTS has its ups and downs, but overall most of the episodes are at least solid if not spectacular. At around 15 minutes a pop I found the length of episodes just right for visual snacking. 

Each episode has different writers, directors and animation studios, so thematically and tonally the series is all over the map. There's a hefty dose of military SF if that's your bag. I really like when they tried to be innovative either artistically or with the story, though sometimes it felt like nudity was shoehorned in for the sake of appearing more 'adult'. This is really apparent if you watch the series in order--I feel they front-loaded all the T&A (and PP) into the first few episodes, as the rest are actually a lot more mainstream in their appeal.

5-second episode reviews:

1. Sonnie's Edge: Cyberpunky. Human-controlled monsters fight in gladiatorial battles. Hoo boy, lots of weird rape imagery and Polar Express grade nudity in this one, which could put you off the series--but like I said, it's not really representative of the series as a whole. Felt a bit like when comic books try too hard, to be honest. Neato twist at the end.

2. Three Robots: Humorous post-apoc. A little cornball ("tell us what the humans were like") but the back and forth between the three robots of the title is pretty funny. Silly ending.

3. The Witness: Genre =??? Kinda cyberpunk I guess. Whoooooaaaah. This one is a trip and a half. More gratuitous nudity, but that ain't even the point. Very artsy, I really liked the way they played against it being CG, with "shaky" camera work, the "actors'" breath fogging the camera lens in closeups, visible sound effects, etc. etc. Easily the most visually innovative of the episodes.

4. Suits: MECHA! Yay! MECHA! A team of heavily-armed AgroMechs fight off an alien assault on their farms. In contrast to the first three eps, this one plays its story very, very, almost predictably straight. Like, almost cliche straight, which I think was the objective. You know exactly what's going to happen with these characters, and there's a kind of cozy comfortability with the way the story is handled.

5. Sucker of Souls: Horror. A team of mercenaries protect an archaeologist from the evil he has unleashed. Art style reminded me of the old Star Wars: Clone Wars animated shorts. Very simple premise and plot, but the banter among the characters elevates the experience and makes this a retro gem. Would shoot in the dick with a shotgun/10

6. When the Yogurt: Humor. Yogurt becomes intelligent. Eh, didn't think it was that funny to be honest. Just kind of goofy.

7. Beyond the Aquila Rift: Space Opera. This one was also very cool, with fantastic art direction/CG. Has a real Mass Effect/Alien/Serenity vibe to it, with space truckers stuck when something goes wrong with their ship. I thought the story (by Alastair Reynolds) was something we've seen before in SF (Star Trek sprang to mind), but the visuals make up for it. Zero Gravity banger/10

8. Good Hunting: Steampunk/Retro-future. The son of a spirit-hunter befriends a fox spirit in steampunk Hong Kong. Could have been a lot more fun but I felt the main story was a bit dull. Would not turn into a robotic sex doll/10

9. The Dump: Humor. Aside from "Three Robots", I thought the episodes that tried to be humorous were the weakest in the series. A lot of the jokes just don't land for me.

10. Shape-Shifters: Military SF. Werewolves in Afghanistan is an interesting idea. Pretty animation, but a bloody chewed-up mess thematically. Not really sure what it was trying to say.

11. Helping Hand: Hard SF. Kind of like a gross-out version of the movie Gravity. No, really. There's a sequence that can be a little stomach-churning even in CG. Still, once you get to this point in the series, something that moves slower, takes its time, builds the tension comes as a welcome relief.

12. Fish Night: Magic realism. A pair of traveling salesmen get stuck in the middle of the badlands and have to spend the night in their car. Loved the Through A Scanner Darkly style rotoscoping animation. Very pretty to look at. A bit "ah huh?" in terms of what actually happens, but it's more about the visuals than the story.

13. Lucky 13: Military SF. Again, great visuals save what is otherwise a fairly predictable story about a pilot and her notoriously "unlucky" gunship/dropship.

14. Zima Blue: Artsy. A far-future robot artist reveals the source of his inspiration. Color used to great effect.

15. Blindspot: Action. Vaguely Mad Max style road-warrior battle between a team of cyborgs trying to steal a microchip from a heavily defended transport truck. Okay I guess.

16. Ice Age: Humor. Couple discovers tiny, advanced civilization in their refrigerator ice box. Humor comes from their nonchalant attitude towards what's happening in their fridge. Charming, but not all that funny. But nice.

17. Alternate Histories: Humor. One of the better humor episodes, investigating possible histories based around increasingly improbably and unlikely scenarios of Hitler's death (e.g. killed by secret Russian gelatin gun, dies after marathon orgy with Viennese prostitutes etc.). The bizarro setups are pretty funny, but man o man, I can tell the two-second clip of Hitler's sex orgy is all anyone is going to remember about this one.

18. Secret War: Horror/Military SF. WW2 Russian soldiers on a mission to hunt down a pack of ghouls. Isn't Overlord based on much the same premise? Anyway, great CG work again, riveting and visceral battles set to stirring music. Very fun!

3 comments:

  1. Reviewing episodes 1 to 7

    Sonnie's edge - saw it coming a mile away, but still so fucking awesome!

    Three robots - victim: viewer. cause of death: blunt object to back of skull. murder weapon: moral.

    Witness - yeah, the first and only Asian woman in 7 episodes is a gratuitiously nude sex worker, fuck off. Cyberpunk Hong Kong is so rich with potential and this is the best utterly pointless bullshit they can come up with?

    Suits - for us Battletech fans, this thing screams in your face ARE YOU NOT ENTERTAINED? IS THIS NOT WHY YOU ARE HERE?

    Sucker of souls - pointless and boring and where's the robot, huh? HUH?!

    Yoghurt - even more pointless and boring.

    Aquila Rift - now this is what I signed up for. Hugh Jackman fucks a lonely alien bug. Porn meets anti-porn and annihilates everyone's brains. Nice. But wait: why did the bug help wake the navigator? Why could she see the bug the second time? And her reaction to the true form of that poor lonely thing is nowhere near over the top enough. Faced with that beastie nobody's first question is "WHO are you?", it's "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHH!"

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    1. Usually I crush dissenting opinions LIKE BUGS LIKE VERMIN I CRUSH EM I TELL YOU CRUSH but then you threw in a "Hugh Jackman fucks a lonely alien bug" and I knew I couldn't NOT publish. Looking forward to part 2.

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  2. Re: Aquila Rift - I actually found a good take on Reddit; the navigator is Tom's subconscious needling him that something is wrong. Makes a lotta sense.

    And now for the rest...

    Good Hunting - For me, the spirit of the story died along with the fox-spirit's mystical powers, the remainder is just steampunk-themed exploitation film.

    The Dump - Disgusting in so, so, so many ways.

    Shape Shifters - I bet the working title was "Dog Soldiers". Actually a lot of little themes here; brotherhood, civic duty, sacrifice; one of the stories that left me wanting more.

    Helping Hand - No, not Gravity; it's 127 Hours IN SPAAACE. Way cool and hardcore solution, obvious really to a casual student of physics, it's not rocket science... (oh wait)

    Fish Night - Producers missed a golden chance to belabour viewers with the Three Robots' SAVE! THE! ENVIRONMENT! blackjack; setting the scene in the future at the bottom of a dried-up Pacific Ocean rather than a cinematically-overused patch of American highway would have been a nice touch.

    Lucky 13 - Somebody paid very close attention to the military consultant on this piece, very cool. Implied sentient unlucky ship saves empathetic pilot... Old but gold storyline.

    Zima Blue - Very much the opposite of a lot of episodes in the series; visually disappointing but takes a stab at delivering a thought-provoking, zen-like message.

    Blindspot - "Look on the bright side, kid; you get to keep all the money"... psych! The Bruiser was more entertaining than the rest of the team and most of the episode combined.

    Ice Age - How is it that the equivalent throwaway gag from Men In Black 2 can be funnier than this purposefully-written episode? I mean... gah. Words fail me. Never mind I'll just drool over Mary Elizabeth Winstead.

    Alternate Histories - ....they really farmed out the animation on this one didn't they? And the story... How the FUCK does this shit get on Netflix, and things like this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gb38t9ZnBhM get less than a quarter million views on Youtube?! Okay, I don't expect everything to be highbrow thinky shit, but fucking hell, we're hitting peak filler in all aspects aren't we?

    Secret War - "We stand here! We die here! It has been an honour!" Truly, words to die by. It would OF COURSE be the Russians who both conceive and hush up a botched demon-dog-summoning project while fighting WW2 Well it's a nice episode, as expected of series bookend and climax, but it's an uphill task washing the taste of the previous foray into WW2 What If out of one's mouth.

    Conclusion: The format is promising, and lord knows we need more cyber/steam/any-punk content out there, but the scripts need work... serious work. There are 6 episodes in this series featuring videogame trailer-quality CGI with around 15-minute runtimes each. A lot can be done with this. Get with those Short Film Palme d'Or people and get shit done. Cause the current result is far more hype than substance; videogame trailers indeed rather than anything very meaningful. I'd literally rather watch Youtube... and I can't think of a judgement more damning for anything with the Netflix label on.

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