For those not familiar with the games, this short film is a part documentary and part-promo for the game Deus Ex: Human Revolution which features a main character with a vast array of cyborgian enhancements. As a result this short is from a filmmaker who lost an eye in a shotgun accident; he has had a minicamera installed into one eye socket to feed to another device and this is the starting point for him (and us) to meet with some others at the cutting edge of body part replacements and enhanced robotic and human interfaces of various kinds.
As with nearly all technology, the speed with which it is developing is impressive but not quite as impressive as what lies beyond what we currently have – not so much in the realm of crazy ideas, but more in the development labs and prototypes around the world. This documentary is therefore interesting for rooting around on the edges of this but is limited by the very thing that makes it possible. So while the film is engaging for showing us more advanced prosthetics and interfaces, it has to keep coming back to the game – either to show a clip or to ask a specific question about how far away we are from the technology we see in the game etc. This breaks up the film as a documentary and uses time and direction that could have been better used.
This is a necessary evil I guess because the film does not exist without this connection, but it does mean that the film never gets beyond the superficial in terms of what it comes. This makes it okay for a short and worth a look but ultimately not particularly satisfying – partly because it is such an interesting topic and it always feels like there is so much more to look at and talk about, which it doesn't do.
As with nearly all technology, the speed with which it is developing is impressive but not quite as impressive as what lies beyond what we currently have – not so much in the realm of crazy ideas, but more in the development labs and prototypes around the world. This documentary is therefore interesting for rooting around on the edges of this but is limited by the very thing that makes it possible. So while the film is engaging for showing us more advanced prosthetics and interfaces, it has to keep coming back to the game – either to show a clip or to ask a specific question about how far away we are from the technology we see in the game etc. This breaks up the film as a documentary and uses time and direction that could have been better used.
This is a necessary evil I guess because the film does not exist without this connection, but it does mean that the film never gets beyond the superficial in terms of what it comes. This makes it okay for a short and worth a look but ultimately not particularly satisfying – partly because it is such an interesting topic and it always feels like there is so much more to look at and talk about, which it doesn't do.
