Neill Blomkamp's New Sci-Fi Short “Rakka” Now Streaming on Steam and YouTube

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Megalith

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District 9 director Neill Blomkamp has released the first film from his experimental Oats Studios, “Rakka.” The sci-fi short depicts the aftermath of an alien invasion from various points of view that include a resistance movement led by Sigourney Weaver and a climactic battle with resistance fighters shooting down an alien aircraft. If you like what you see, you can purchase an asset package that includes the movie in surround sound, concept art, scripts, and 3D models.

Rakka is the story of broken humanity following the invasion of a technologically superior alien species. Bleak harrowing and unrelenting, the humans we meet must find enough courage to go on fighting. Want to get involved or support this project? We've made film assets for Rakka available on Steam and will be adding more later. Join the discussion and support this experiment on Steam or our official web page.
 
Oh, District 9 director... not the director for Elysium or Chappie, which both came after, and SUCKED. LOL! :D
 
I just watched C.H.A.P.P.i.E. again last night, wish they'd do a sequel of that, and of course District 9 is awesome and there's still a very small chance they'll do a sequel for that one to finally give us fans some level of finality on the story of the main character Wikus. Blomkamp does a fantastic job with these stories so this one "Rakka" is absolutely something I'll be checking out.

C.H.A.P.P.i.E. WAS AWESOME. :D
 
Blomkamp is a fucking visual wizard - every one of his movies has a visual realm of realism that is just unbelievable.
 
Oh, guess I'm the minority then. Elysium I thought was very forced propaganda to the point the plot didn't even make sense anymore, and aside from Die Antwoord not really being actors, I didn't buy Chappie as a believable AI.
 
It's called "Suspension of disbelief" and it's a requirement to enjoy most movies unless they're documentaries. ;)

Anyway, I wasn't fond of Elysium myself, just didn't have a good feel to it for me personally, I'm not knocking the concept or the presentation, guess Matt Damon just didn't appease me in that role I suppose. As for C.H.A.P.P.i.E. the entire point was to have weird strange people doing weird strange things so going in I knew that and Blomkamp is known for making movies that sit just outside our reality in most respects so it's almost a requirement to go into the viewing with an off-kilter sort of eye for what's going on.

Yeah, I know, I'm weird, maybe I can get a part in his next movie, who knows. :D

But I do agree with Dr.LaRd about just how well Blomkamp brings things into a visual representation that is just unmatched by any other film maker that I've had the chance to witness over the years, it's just insane the amount of work that gets done in his movies and if you go look at the production budgets they're amazingly low compared to what Hollywood itself does in a similar situation.
 
Tiberian said:
It's called "Suspension of disbelief"
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Oh absolutely, you tell me there's dragons and magic and I am on-board 100% (unless you use magic in a particular way, and then forget you can use it for a very similar situation in the future but don't because of bad writing for a plot device, then I get mad).

But when you're forcing "white people are evil, open the borders to America or you're Satan" propaganda so hard that the plot makes no sense at all, then you've lost me. I thought Matt Damon was great as an actor (heck, there were a lot of great actors in that movie), just the writing was soooooo horrible, and IMO that's on the director.
 
Ducman69 said:
Oh, guess I'm the minority then. Elysium I thought was very forced propaganda to the point the plot didn't even make sense anymore, and aside from Die Antwoord not really being actors, I didn't buy Chappie as a believable AI.
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You and my friend would get along. I honestly don't care to pay attention to social undertones, I just want an enjoyable movie and Elysium did a great job with the post apocalyptic feel. It all made perfect sense to me, Earth is a shit hole and all the rich people left to live in their perfect little space station. Alien Covenant on the other hand, ugh, so much religious imagery Jesus himself awoke just to turn it off.
 
MavericK said:
I liked Elysium... Chappie I think was ruined by Die Antwoord, IMO, but not a bad movie or concept.
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100% agree. Not a bad movie, but that thing starts to feel like a pencil in the ear after a while.
 
Ducman69 said:
Oh absolutely, you tell me there's dragons and magic and I am on-board 100% (unless you use magic in a particular way, and then forget you can use it for a very similar situation in the future but don't because of bad writing for a plot device, then I get mad).

But when you're forcing "white people are evil, open the borders to America or you're Satan" propaganda so hard that the plot makes no sense at all, then you've lost me. I thought Matt Damon was great as an actor (heck, there were a lot of great actors in that movie), just the writing was soooooo horrible, and IMO that's on the director.
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xoGkq.jpg
 
Ducman69 said:
Oh, District 9 director... not the director for Elysium or Chappie, which both came after, and SUCKED. LOL! :D
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Elysium was good in its own way. The story in Chappie was terrible, the acting laughable, but the motion capture is the gold-standard every movie should shoot for.(incidentially played by the actor who played Kreiger in Elysium, Sharlto Copley). I simply could not take my eyes off Chappie.
 
Ducman69 said:
Oh absolutely, you tell me there's dragons and magic and I am on-board 100% (unless you use magic in a particular way, and then forget you can use it for a very similar situation in the future but don't because of bad writing for a plot device, then I get mad).

But when you're forcing "white people are evil, open the borders to America or you're Satan" propaganda so hard that the plot makes no sense at all, then you've lost me. I thought Matt Damon was great as an actor (heck, there were a lot of great actors in that movie), just the writing was soooooo horrible, and IMO that's on the director.
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I took elysium as a criticism on medical care in general. I think it made a good point. We have medical technology that we simply refuse to subsidize and people die because no one wants to sacrifice to make it happen.
 
Spire3660 said:
I took elysium as a criticism on medical care in general. I think it made a good point. We have medical technology that we simply refuse to subsidize and people die because no one wants to sacrifice to make it happen.
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The fact that Matt Damon was apparently the only non-evil white person left in civilization, the cheap factory labor (even though automation is already expanding today, yet alone a couple hundred years from now), total lack of OSHA and nonsensical dangerous duties that are pointless except as a plot device, police state, with Elysium basically being the US with overly gungho border patrol guards and deportation back to Mexico (and yes the "shitty future Earth" was actually filmed in modern day Mexico) which apparently has run out of everything except for spray paint for graffiti which covers literally everything, made it clear it was the most openly political socialist movie of the decade... the socialist healthcare commentary, about how healthcare costs nothing (a lie) and is just withheld because white people are evil, was just icing on the propaganda cake.

I mean, they laid it on thiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiick!
 
Elysium is a good movie once you take-out the 45 minutes devoted to Matt Damon getting a mech suit installed in/on his body for absolutely no reason whatsoever (what was it, like, a giant USB drive or something ridiculous they tried to explain away!?). But I'm really sick and tired of them spinning up these sci fi movies only to tell a 3rd grade lesson: "Medicine isn't only for the rich!". *groan*.
 
I've seen all of his work, and district 9 has to be the best rounded of the bunch. The other two seem disjointed. Elysium should've had a different lead, Damon to me =Bourne. Chappie was almost experimental, in a bad way.
 
All of his movies were watchable, didn't mind elysium, kinda stole plot from Battle Angel, at least the damn lead character died for a change of pace. Chappie was fully watchable without being painful to watch not sure why all the absolute hatred

Denis Villeneuve should learn from this guy if he's going to be directing more Scifi movies


HeadRusch said:
Elysium is a good movie once you take-out the 45 minutes devoted to Matt Damon getting a mech suit installed in/on his body for absolutely no reason whatsoever (what was it, like, a giant USB drive or something ridiculous they tried to explain away!?). But I'm really sick and tired of them spinning up these sci fi movies only to tell a 3rd grade lesson: "Medicine isn't only for the rich!". *groan*.
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He was exposed to radiation and extremely ill with his body shutting down, it was like an EXO suit for a paralyzed person type deal.
 
He was exposed to radiation and extremely ill with his body shutting down, it was like an EXO suit for a paralyzed person type deal.
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Thanks, for some reason I thought there was another reason he needed the suit, and the reason was ridiculous.......other than that, I thought the film had merit, it ranks in my book as a rewatch, cuz Matt doesn't get too "Damony" ;) He mostly grunts and gets his ass kicked a lot......I can watch a movie like that more than once.
 
MavericK said:
I liked Elysium... Chappie I think was ruined by Die Antwoord, IMO, but not a bad movie or concept.
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You mean saved by Die Antwoord. I remember thinking "oh that's a really cool cameo" and about twenty minutes later thinking... "holy shit, that's no cameo, this is awesome".

If anyone should get blamed for being bad in that movie, it's Hugh Jackman.
 
Loved District 9, Chappie I just pretend it didn't happen. I loved this Rakka short. Yes borrowed from other concepts, but Blomkamp's style can be unmatched. Bring it on!

Also, Sharto Copley is great, hope he makes a cameo in the next short for Rakka.

I approve!
 
Not to change the subject or anything, but that was a MAD COOL short. I was pissed there is no full movie to follow.
 
NickJames said:
You and my friend would get along. I honestly don't care to pay attention to social undertones, I just want an enjoyable movie and Elysium did a great job with the post apocalyptic feel.
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Probably comes from English lit, heh!

The public desire to be entertained, and creative fictional stories w/ alternative universes are entertaining for a variety of reasons. Bread and circuses as the Romans said.

But authors have learned even since pre-biblical times that rather than just be entertaining and shallow there can be a "moral to the story". A message the author can convey through story-telling that is more compelling, because you plant the idea in a subtle enough way that they think its their own, which sticks.

Today we call this "subtext", subtle suggestion while being entertained, and like in South Park where Randy was going to ruin the desire for women to give men blowjobs (the whole point of the musicals) because he was too obvious with the subtext. The movie Inception played on this basic premise, planting an idea in the subconscious so they think its their own.

Now, not all books and TV have subtext or an agenda, and its entirely possible to read too much into something, but particularly if you know the media maker has a history of inserting subtext into their story telling, then its worthwhile to ask "what imagery and ideas are they trying to plant".

---------------------------------sorry for wall of text----------------------------

So first off there's a lot of imagery all over the place:

In the opening scene you have a black coal/oily structure that has big smoke stacks that is spewing a gas into the air that is killing humanity by killing the planet, raising the global temperature so that the water level rises, and destroying the forests. What is that an analog for? Fossil fuels perhaps?

Next they show freedom fighters that have gathered in caves to fight this technologically superior oil/coal powered invader, bent on global conquest. Women and even little children are helping the war effort, and its justified. Next you see Toyota pickup truck convoys (remember, like ISIS uses after they captured all those Toyotas) in a desert like environment with machine guns mounted onto the bed, and a woman that has strapped explosives to her chest as a suicide bomber.

While they are showing this they say that everyone should know its wrong, but the politicians tell us a different story that its all OK, and we go back to the imperialist coal/oil warmongering race cutting into people's heads to "brainwash" them. These sellouts are lost to humanity, and can be killed without moral concern because they are lost to us "freedom fighters" and effectively already dead like that guy trying to talk the people ambushing into laying down their arms, walking the streets with the alien invader soldiers. An analog perhaps to middle-eastern governments that are cooperative and condemn the ISIS "freedom fighters".

The "freedom fighters" then go on to use suicide vests and road-side IED bombs to attack the coal/oil warmonger invading race, and after we see that not only is this understandable and justified, but its even perhaps God's will that it be done, as the image of an angel appears to one of the Jihadi... I mean "freedom fighters" as he lay in the dirt dying.

Further we then see a bomb maker that they say would have been locked up in normal times, but his skills with improvised explosives and ability to recruit (anti-brainwashing devices) and create a dirty-bomb WMD means that he's a justified and necessary evil to fight these invaders. And he asks for bait, people who aren't needed, just as Jihadists for example for a while were using mentally handicapped people in their suicide attacks. And to many in the audience, when the stakes are this high, maybe its justified or at least a moral gray area.

To complete the "role reversal" played here to sympathize with ISIS freedom fighters, the ISIS-like Toyota pickup convoy is blended with symbols of our patriotism in the Texas and American flags shown off VERY prominently, in place of what we see on TV with ISIS flags on the convoys.

And of course it ends with a beheading of the wounded enemy soldier after shooting down the alien flying drone (hmm, wonder who else uses drones), only to flash to the recruiter who is talking to Ahmir (another stereotypically middle-eastern name for the role-reversal) who we now see is wearing an iconic black and white checkered keffiyeh (neck scarf) popular with Islamist soldiers.

Add it all up, and it paints a pretty clear picture of who the evil aliens are meant to represent, fossil fuel warmongers destroying the planet with global warming ('Murica), and to make the audience more sympathetic to a group of people that fight out of caves, using IEDs, suicide vests, and guerrilla tactics, that don't take prisoners, behead those that are captured, and drive in modified armed Toyota pickup truck envoys wearing arabic soldier garb (your friendly neighborhood ISIS).
 
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Had to stop it about 3 minutes in, while the visuals were kinda cool the monologue had me wishing aliens would invade. Shut up and get to the action already....
 
I still don't get why people were excited for his Alien Concept. It would have sucked too. The man is a one trick pony.
 
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