200 years after humanity has abandoned the real world for a digital one, the system’s most talented security agent is forced out of retirement to recruit and lead a team of talented warriors to eliminate a threat from a world no one has seen for centuries. The real world.
Short films are either an incredibly delicate art with no room for backstory and only space for subtle storytelling OR they are superb showcases both of concept and of imagery. Both forms work but in completely different manners and “EXT” falls distinctly into the latter category. It’s deeply expository in nature, setting us up to feel excited about the blowout fight, so it sacrifices any notion of nuance. Instead, it gives us badass robot commando squadrons fighting Gatling gun robot bears, and yeah! That can be fun! “EXT” feels like a proof-of-concept short uninterested in its storytelling in favor of more atmospheric and eye-catching filmmaking.
I don’t begrudge a short its desire to shoehorn context in with opening subtitles or an extended monologue. Admittedly for this short, I lost track of who exactly was talking. A computer code, generated by digitized humans, fights against a violent terrorist group intent on returning humanity to the real world? They inhabit the bodies of robots and fight on the surface while the code-warriors verbally debate? There’s a lot at play here and I abandoned a lot of it quickly after. Storywise, I couldn’t track it all. All I could remember was: robot samurai is the protagonist and robot bears are the antagonists.
That battle though proved very adept. It felt ripped out of the imagination of any teenager obsessed with anime and science fiction. The posturing, weapons-slicing-through-the-air, and all-around badassery at play is admirable. SO much so I wanted more. I wanted so much more. I’d even argue this short could do without so much of its narration and boil itself down to just the simpler version with fighting robots and arguing computer codes.
“EXT” has a lot on its mind and sidetracks us with long talks about “what is humanity?” but the badass fighting is what keeps us invested. We’re promised a good time and we succeed in finding it. Still, I could do with more samurai sword battle. Next time perhaps…
“EXT” recently premiered at the San Antonio Film Festival
