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.
