“Love, Death, Robots” (LDR) is another Netflix original that seems to push the mold that they have given themselves. LDR is an anthology of animated short stories that include various genres including science fiction, fantasy, horror and comedy. Since this is an anthology the stories are short, very short, and most people don’t necessarily like that. I know I don’t really approve of the decision simply because Netflix could have capitalized on the aspect of using each short as a movie. That would most likely be much more profitable in the long run. But that’s from an economic perspective. From a director’s perspective I think the choice is nice. The only issue is I think some of them are too short. Some stories are around 15-18 minutes, others are as short as 5. Yes, some stories do fit within that 5 minute time span, thus calling them a short, but I feel they could’ve drawn out the runtime on some just a tad.
Now the reason I think the stories were so short is because the graphics were nothing short from fantastic, breathtaking, absolutely unbelievable. Hands down the best graphics in any form of media today. No other movie, short story, even video game comes close to the level of detail that has been put into some of these short stories. Only one of the stories has live people as actors and It even took me a second to actually confirm if they indeed were real people. Even when the art style is a little playful where it’s more of a cartoon it still feels like the graphics are out of this world. Take the newest Spiderman movie Into the Spiderverse. The graphics were obviously cartoonish, but it was still unbelievable. That’s the type of graphics that are associated with LDR.
The stories themselves are crazy. Completely outlandish to the more toned down to reality stories. I think there was a good balance of eccentricity and conventionality. But the thing that I appreciate more than anything is that there’s no narration. Okay, yes, one of the films do have narration but that’s because it’s the only voice we hear the entire time. In all the other stories they don’t tell you anything beforehand. You just size up the scene and then just simply watch. Nothing fancy I know, but that’s where a good story differentiates itself. You have to let the viewer set of the scene in their own mind so it can be their story just as much as his/her’s.
All-in-all I love the decision of just having an anthology of stories to pick from when you have a minute of alone time. Maybe you’re off work and need something to help you take your mind off things. Take ten or 15 minutes just to watch one of these short stories. It’s the perfect little slot of time to take a study break too. Definitely check this little collection out, it’s worth it.
Thomas's movie review 