Zygote (2017)

To me, this movie is perfection.

Boring

Pretty good movie overall. First half was nothing special but it got better as it went along.

Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

If you choose between seeing this and Life (2017)... choose this instead.Let me explain why. George Miller, master storyteller and director of the Mad Max films, has said that audiences have learned how to "speed read" films, citing the number of cuts between the earlier Mad Max movies and the latest, Fury Road: Wikipedia claims that Fury Road contains 2,700 cuts while The Road Warrior had only 1,200. I bring this up because Zygote offers us the very same setup as films like Alien, Aliens, John Carpenter's The Thing, Event Horizon, and even Life, of this year: Zygote is set in a derelict and remote station featuring workers being stalked by a horrible creature. Zygote is superior to Life only because it is much more condensed. I'm judging Zygote by Life because they came out the same year and Life has failed to evolve.No, I'm not giving preference to Zygote over Life just because Zygote is shorter-- Zygote is condensed. As the Mad Max movies have evolved to suit the abilities of "speed reading" audiences, Zygote offers us everything Alien, Life, and The Thing offers without dragging out the entire show. The "trapped in space with a horrible monster" genre has been done to death. Zygote wisely gives us all of the feelings of isolation, fear, claustrophobia, and wonder that the genre offers us in just over 20 minutes. "Life" was overlong rehash of a film we've seen more than a dozen times now. Perhaps Zygote-- or rather, its format-- is the evolution of the genre. A criticism: the opening exposition is weak, just the male lead talking and explaining the setup. And he speaks in such a gravelly-growly "please take me seriously, I'm a hardened veteran, no really" kind of way I wished there was an option for subtitles.In any case, props to the FX department of Zygote-- they did a wonder creating their monster. Now THERE is a scary creature I'd rate in the same category of creepy-cool as Alien's xenomorph. Not Life's "Calvin..." that thing looked like a lizard with a four feelers.

There is nothing innovative or new about this short apart from one image. The idea and execution seem more tired than anything else, and i got the feeling of a few excited kids getting their hands on a lot of high-tech gear and funds and not really knowing what to do with it - which is kind of a shame. So there's a lot of effort here, but at the end this was more boring than anything else.

Director Neill Blomkamp's experimental venture Oats Studios has produced shorts from a wide range of genres, including comedy, fantasy, and war, but primarily sci-fi, which often crosses over into the former three. "Zygote" is the first horror outing from the Oats team, and it is a strong case for a full-length horror feature from Blomkamp.Zygote has definitely been my favorite narrative Oats short so far. With the previous shorts "Rakka" and "Firebase", a lot of the story was told through expository narration and flashbacks, which still worked because of how it built the world, but made them seem less like a traditional short. With Zygote however, the story felt much more natural, with much of the backstory and worldbuilding coming through dialogue and mise en scene. In Zygote, Jose Pablo Cantillo and Dakota Fanning play the two remaining survivors of a mineral mining facility somewhere in the north. Genetic experimentation by one of the occupants has created an abomination made from parts of other living things. Cantillo and Fanning must make a last stand against the monstrosity to ensure the crew's sacrifice was not in vain.The terror of this short is palpable, and showcases Neill's range as a director. Scenes of the wailing, undulating Zygote stalking down dark corridors are sure to stick with you. Jose Pablo Cantillo and Dakota Fanning were brilliant in their roles, clearly conveying the fear of being trapped inside with the monster, as well as the simultaneous courage to stand off with it.If I had any criticisms, I would say that some of Jose's dialogue sounded a little fast or whispered, making it hard to hear, but it didn't detract from his overall performance. As for the Zygote itself, while the creature was terrifying, (maybe giving the Thing a run for its money!) I think it could have benefited from a wider range of vocal sounds, and was more scary when obscured by dark lighting, thus giving it a sense of mystery.All in all, wonderful work from the Oats team! I'll be looking forward to Volume 2!

*** This review may contain spoilers ***Director/writer Neill Blomkamp did a wonderful job directing this visually appealing and imaginative Sci-Fi/Horror short film. Clearly this type of film is in his wheelhouse having directed the likes of Chappie, Elysium and District 9 - all in my top favorite films of all time.His imagination in the creation of the creature was unusually pleasant and creepy - mission accomplished, although I may have chosen a different sound for the creature other than sounding asthmatic.Dakota Fanning's character and performance as Barklay was on point and very well executed. However, Jose Pablo Cantillo's character as Quinn was a little overboard - in the characters dialogue and in his acting.The plot certainly had many holes, the biggest being how everyone died, including soldier Quinn. Yet Barklay, just a young girl with little combat experience managed to take the creature down all on her own with just a handgun, and managed to make it to the protected 'safe room' where no one else with access was able to do so.So although the directing, cinematography/VFX, editing and sound/score were all great, it fell short for me on the writing. Nevertheless, certainly enjoyable for a time-limited short film, and I recommend this to all who enjoy a good sci-fi horror.It's an 8/10 from me.