Firebase

Firebase follows a group of American soldiers during the Vietnam War who come face to face with a mysterious supernatural foe known as the "River God". The River God it turns out was a villager who lost his wife and transformed into a skeletal entity with the abilities of invisibility and invincibility, hunting down the enemy soldiers to make them feel his pain.

As a concept Firebase is quite interesting, it reminded me a lot of the original Predator film with a group of soldiers in the jungle under attack from an invisible and seemingly invincible enemy. Unfortunately this short is little more than just that, a concept. There was a plan to turn Firebase into a feature length film via crowd funding but unfortunately it was cancelled soon after funding began. Sadly all we are left with is this interesting concept for a film that will likely never be made.

Could they please just make this into a longer movie!? :) A long time since I've really enjoyed myself with a new story, or concept. The River King was amazing, a couple of things here and there that could be improved upon, just make this a motion picture already!

As a fan of short films, and someone who wishes that more people would realize that Vimeo, YouTube, and sites like Short of the Week, all combine to provide lots of entertaining and creative things to watch, it was good to see Neill Blomkamp's new endeavor striking out into this media. Also to see them trying something new by making the film's assets available to those that buy the films. With this being the goal, it is essentially a form of proof-of-concept, which means that (like many of these) the films are not fully-contained pieces that deliver everything you may want.

Firebase is of this ilk. At its heart it has a terrific creature in the River God. The root of the creature suggests something more than a Predator style foe, but at the same time the power and destruction is on an impressive scale. Visually and design-wise, there was a lot to like in this element of the film. Around it though, it struggles to put a lot of exposition – which asks more than the actors can deliver in terms of keeping it natural and engaging. Additionally the rest of the film is a tad too generic, and does feel like a cut- scene from Call of Duty Black Ops (again something that the cast can't help with as they deliver rather generic characters). It still is well worth seeing however, with plenty of action and style in the delivery; but it never stops being generic, and the potential in the main character/monster remains just that throughout.

The idea and production values are ace, but the execution has too much exposition and wonky pacing. Too many things are repeated, too much monologing, and the editing could be considerable tighter.

Neill Blomkamp departs slightly from his trademark gritty visual style and socioeconomic premises with 'Firebase', a solidly crafted short within the Vietnam war genre that effectively breeds with straight out horror, injecting an unconquerable foe into the nightmarish fold. But it still retains the director's penchant for weaving CGI effects realistically into the setting.

What it lacks in characterisation and closure it more than makes up for in disturbing imagery and creatively building up its main threat. Something evil has risen in the jungles and the grimness of war horror is not forgotten either. For a short film, the budget is quite remarkable. It's pretty much movie quality, and Neill Blomkamp does a fantastic job of stretching that budget across its 25 minute runtime. From the hauntingly realistic raw footage-like montage at the start to the tempo-driven climax, 'Firebase' has a lot to like, and its a shame there's not more to it, just when it breaks stride with some awesome moments in its final scenes.

Lets hope Neill Blomkamp continues to impress with his short films from Oats Studios until his next major movie (maybe expanding on one his recent shorts). 8/10