Daemon reviews The Egg

'The Egg' by Animatechna is an iClone machinima based around some of the questions that have kept people up at night since the dawn of time, like 'is there a God', 'is there an afterlife', 'why are we here', and 'why oh merciful God why are they letting the asshole who made Alien vs Predator make a Three Musketeers movie in 3D that involves flamethrower turrets and has Orlando Bloom as the villain'. What, that last question hasn't kept you up at night? It should.

My scruples with animation tools like iClone and Moviestorm notwithstanding, all I really care about when going into a machinima like this is, 'is it cleverly written', and it is. It could be in Halo for all the difference it would make in my eyes, though I will admit that visually the short is very imaginative, even if the facial animations hiccup at the same rate that a hummingbird flaps its wings.

There are a few clever twists to some of the things we usually hear in these kinds of scenarios, like reincarnation and our true purpose in the universe, which like I said is all I could really hope for. The actual dialogue, however, alternates between being clever and being expository and wooden.

We've all seen the dramatic short of the one guy who monologues all by himself, but far more heinous in my eyes are the dramatic shorts where there is more then one person, but the other person only exists to further on the story without actually contributing anything. The human character in this story is an example of that. All he does is ask questions throughout the entire short. His character has no chance to develop or become interesting because he plays one note during the whole concert.

The character of God itself is also rather interesting, but his portrayal opens up a few questions, namely, 'why is God white'? Personally I think it would have been great if the God character would take on whatever form would appeal the most to the person he was talking to like, say, a loved one or a parent, something like that. Would have fit a lot more considering what we learn in the short.

There are a few other discrepancies and overall inconsistencies, but those are small complaints. The short is fairly inventive and I'd say it's worth a look. Honestly, these are the kinds of shorts that I'd like to see more of in the community, even if this short did commit the atrocious act of portraying a God character who is not Morgan Freeman.