Review of E N V O Y

                                   

          I will be reviewing a CGI film produced by Black Sun Entertainment, called E N V O Y. Out of the other CGI movies, this seemed the most interesting. To grab the viewers attention, the movie starts off with the camera footage of a child being interrogated in an empty room, and then cuts to flashback, and then back to the interrogation room, ending the movie off in the same place it started. The full short movie can be found on YouTube, here.

          In the middle of the film, the giant CGI robot emerges from a cornfield, the first of the CGI used during the film. The protagonist, a child named Kyle somehow found that whenever he threw a ball into a cornfield, something threw it back at him. He brings his older brother, Jason, to show him. Jason is a bit skeptical at first, but is soon convinced when the ball is thrown back out of the field and over their heads. Then, the robot emerges from the field, crushing corn stalks in its wake. I believe that the CGI robot was made with motion capturing. If it was, an actor would have been standing where the robot was, covered in dots. The actor would wear a helmet with a camera attached to a stick on the side, that is positioned in front of them, right by their mouth. External cameras would also be positioned all around the set, as well, in order to capture all the motions and movements of the stand-in actors.

          At the very end of the film, back in the interrogation room again, the interrogator is losing patience with Kyle, who refuses to tell the man anything, claiming that the robot was his friend. Suddenly, the lights turn off, and the room becomes pitch black. When the emergency lights activate, it reveals that Kyle had somehow escaped. The man draws his pistol, then turns around, just in time to come face to face with the robot, who doesn't seem to be too happy with him. Then, the screen fades to black, and the credits roll, leaving the man's fate up to the viewers interpretation. This was likely made using frame-to-frame animation, as the entire robot's body isn't visible, making the job much easier. Giant pincer-like appendages also protrude from the robot's back in a menacing stance, which would likely be a tad difficult to animate using motion capture. This would have been done by a group drawing the character frame by frame, choreographing it to react to the actors actions, and then inserting it into a scene of the movie.

          The film has an overall dark and mysterious mood. This is due to the somewhat interrogation scenes, and the "ambiguous monster" idea. One main attribute of this is the absence of any music other than a few ominous songs. The movie was also has a couple of clichés to it. One of them being that the majority of the plot is a flashback, another being where only one specific person can communicate with a some unknown creature, and that nobody believes him. These attributes came together really well to make an overall ominous mood, which worked really well, due to the nature of the plot.

          I liked this short film, and I wish that Black Sun Entertainment would make a full movie out of it. The futuristic robot in an present day environment worked well, and the general plot was entertaining. I think the creators put a lot of time and effort into the CGI robot, because it was extremely detailed and thoroughly made. They were also successful in making the robot menacing, from the Iron Man look, the ventilators, the breathing, and the pincers at the very end. CGI is a very useful tool that can be used to make some very amazing creations, such as the robot in this film, the sets and scenes from the Star Wars prequels, the character Grand Moff Wilhuff Tarkin from Rogue One, and many others. It can also be used to make cool effects, such as when the robot shoots off his laser at a sniper during the film. In the end, CGI is an amazing invention that we should be grateful for, and shouldn't take for granted.