Tuesday, March 19, 2024

Series Review: ‘Love, Death & Robots 2’ is a modest upgrade


Directors: Jennifer Yuh Nelson, Tim Miller, Robert Valley, Alex Beaty (and more)
Writers: Tim Miller, Philip Gelatt, John Scalzi (and more); J.G. Ballard, Joe R. Lansdale, Joachim Heijndermans (and more) (short stories adapted from)
Stars: Nolan North, Élodie Yung, Nancy Linari, Joe Dempsie, Peter Franzén, Archie Madekwe (and more)

Synopsis: A collection of animated short stories that span various genres including science fiction, fantasy, horror and comedy.

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With Love, Death & Robots’ debut in 2019, the Tim Miller-created (and David Fincher-produced) series proved that animation is a realm which also permits adults, though not without glaring flaws. It may be for mature audiences, but the hyper-dependence on bloodshed and wanton titillation makes the case that it doesn’t possess maturity. Too many of the 18 shorts failed to validate the usage of explicit spices, causing the story and animation, all of which have points of difference that can astound, to be secondary to the graphic brushstrokes. Sonnie’s Edge can’t resist reminding viewers the protagonist is an assault victim in dialogue and design. And the point of the striptease in The Witness is…? The angsty song choice isn’t the only crime in your sheets-shredding set piece, Beyond the Aquila Rift (the fact that it’s rendered into a set piece!).

For its second round, Love, Death & Robots recruits Jennifer Yuh Nelson of Kung Fu Panda 2 to be the supervising director, who hopefully can keep the male gaze and hunger for crimson in check more actively and pointedly than her Volume 1 counterpart’s Gabriele Pennacchioli. Despite having 10 fewer episodes, whether due to COVID or as intended all along, to showcase a more mindful and story-driven approach, improvements are detectable here. Not all of the eight shorts are equal in quality, such is the reality of anthologies, but they treat you as adults. No excess. Justified grime. Thin or thick, purpose is present. Volume 2 has found the right levels for all future loving, dying and robot-ing to apply, should Miller and company still see this as an experiment worth tinkering.

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Top left, going clockwise: ‘Automated Customer Service,’ ‘Pop Squad,’ ‘The Tall Grass’ and ‘Life Hutch.’ | Courtesy of Netflix

Automated Customer Service (Atoll Studio)

A sleepy retirement community is about to get it boomin’ when yogi Jeanette (Nancy Linari) accidentally turns her boxy vacuum robot into a killing machine. From here, directing team Meat Dept takes a nightmare scenario — meeting the agent after ‘0’ is pressed — and blends it with funnies of the twisted variety, at times centering around Jeanette’s fluffy dog. The result is a start to Volume 2 that is as quirky and riotous as the geriatric caricatures populating the setting. [B+]

Ice (Passion Animation Studios)

From Robert Valley of Volume 1’s Zima Blue comes a hyper-stylish story about adaptation. Wanting to no longer be stigmatized by the natives of an icy planet as an “extro,” or persons without synthetic enhancements, Sedgewick (Archie Madekwe) joins his little brother Fletcher (Sebastian Croft) for a dangerous race against titanic whales. The short has precious little to absorb beyond what’s on screen, a letdown since Zima Blue managed to use its succinct aesthetics to tackle existentialism, but what’s on screen is a superb example of evoking the cinematic feeling solely through color use. [C+]

Pop Squad (Blur Studio)

The first (of three) star-studded and photorealistic short sees Detective Briggs (Nolan North), married to diva Alice (Élodie Yung), being worn down after years working as a population controller. Jennifer Yuh Nelson seems to have brought together Dark City, Blade Runner, Deus Ex games and Altered Carbon to create an environment dreamy to be a part of and yet sterile to a horrific degree, or at the very least will be a wonder on the big screen. Gorgeous and thought-provoking, this is the second-best short of Volume 2. [A-]

Snow in the Desert (Unit Image)

The allegorical and literal collide in this short from the team behind — gulp — Beyond the Aquila Rift. Albino recluse Snow (Peter Franzén) is being hunted because his balls (not a typo, swear) is the key to immortality, and it’s up to him and his only ally Hirald (Zita Hanrot) to keep them safe. Although somewhat predictable because of the apparent emphases in dialogue, this short recalls those pulpy, potentially set-on-Mars films of times past holding an endearing belief that it’s grander than it really is. One copulation scene, but now leaning toward tasteful rather than exploitative. [B]

Top left, going clockwise: ‘Ice,’ ‘All Through the House,’ ‘The Drowned Giant’ and ‘Snow in the Desert.’ | Courtesy of Netflix

The Tall Grass (Axis Studios)

Bespectacled passenger Laird (Joe Dempsie), refusing to listen to his conductor (Steven Pacey), wanders far from the train and into the overgrown fields full of fainting while lights. Although the short boasts the most unique style that adds to its fable, by-the-campfire tone — characters seem to be carved out of wood, and humans move at a different frame rates than non-humans — it is really Volume 2’s odd duck. It doesn’t seem to belong in this series, on top of being like Ice it begins and ends at “style exercise.” Still, a better use of the titular setting than the In the Tall Grass feature, which is also from Netflix. [C]

All Through the House (Blink Industries)

Here’s something to tide you over, fans of Henry Selick. Believing Santa has arrived, siblings Leah (Divi Mittal) and Billy (Sami Amber) want to take a peek, an action they will soon regret as he is less of a chubby old man and more a sentient Phil Tippett creation. Although strangely kid-friendly in a series that’s anything but and clocking in at just seven minutes, Elliot Dear’s work offers a different option besides Gremlins for folks programming “Horror on Christmas” in their households. [B]

Life Hutch (Blur Studio)

Who is your Killmonger? It is not the pilot Terence (Michael B. Jordan) who is taking shelter in a pod — called a life hutch in this world — but rather a quadruped assistant mech currently so malfunctioned it will kill anything that moves. A hyper-realistic, sometimes to the point you can’t decide whether Jordan or textures are animated, and claustrophobic cat-and-mouse yarn that is straightforward to a fault. Try not to think of it as being in the same universe as Volume 1’s meaningful Lucky 13 and you might enjoy this. Even better, boot up Black Mirror’s rogue bot episode Metalhead. [C+] 

The Drowned Giant (Blur Studio)

Creator Tim Miller writes and directs the anthology’s biggest surprise-slash-special ending — a pensive, heartfelt look at existence through the researcher Steven (Steve Pacey) who encounters the beached carcass of a colossal man. Don’t expect any mayhem here, just impressions and questions on the way we treat-then-mistreat wonders and on the natural order that is now extra-magnified. What begins as a phenomenon might end as anything but. Tom Holkenborg’s gentle score emphasizes both the bitter and the sweet nestling in this lesson. [A]

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gj2iCJkp6Ko

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