Invasion! VR Review – Hiding Behind the Camera

<p>With the advent of virtual reality comes its application to cinema&period; Films are a primarily passive medium&comma; meaning that virtual reality has the potential to provide interaction within something inherently static&period; With <em>Invasion&excl; <&sol;em>there is a glimmer of possibility&comma; but the ultimate challenge of turning viewers into cinematographers still seems a difficult feat to accomplish&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Featuring the voice talent of Ethan Hawke as the Voice of the Cosmos&comma; <em>Invasion&excl; <&sol;em>takes viewers to a remote location on Earth where an alien space ship is about to meet a rabbit that is not all that impressed&period; Only six minutes long&comma; the short does manage to bring quite a bit of quirk and humor in such a small amount of time&period; Hanging its hat on the interactions between the aliens and the rabbits &lpar;one of which is you&rpar;&comma; there&&num;8217&semi;s actually quite a bit of fun to be had&period; Unfortunately&comma; it&&num;8217&semi;s when you realize how much better the film would be without virtual reality that makes it obvious film is not ready for the transition&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The problem largely resides in the importance of direction&period; A camera isn&&num;8217&semi;t just a plaything&comma; and it isn&&num;8217&semi;t something that should be given to others unless there is a reason&period; The short exemplifies why giving the camera to the viewer requires constant spectacle&period; The only time I felt the need to follow the action of the short was in the opening shot when a spaceship moved around me&period; But once I was on Earth and watching interactions between the aliens and my rabbit friend&comma; I realized how inconsequential VR was to the experience&period; He would cower behind me&comma; but I only knew that by looking behind me&period; You can&&num;8217&semi;t feel the rabbit&&num;8217&semi;s presence&period; There&&num;8217&semi;s no indication he&&num;8217&semi;s cowering&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;114581" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-114581" style&equals;"width&colon; 1000px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"wp-image-114581 size-large" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2016&sol;10&sol;24123811&sol;baobab-virtual-reality-animation-studio-invasion-3-1024x576&period;jpg" alt&equals;"Invasion&excl;" width&equals;"1000" height&equals;"563" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-114581" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">&lpar;<em>Invasion&excl;<&sol;em>&comma; Baobab Studios&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>This is due to the action happening in front of you&period; VR removes subtlety from the equation because viewers will naturally follow the spectacle&period; So when <em>Invasion&excl; <&sol;em>decides to have things happen behind the viewer&comma; it means it can&&num;8217&semi;t have things happen in front of you&period; Otherwise&comma; it needs to indicate to turn around&period; But then what&&num;8217&semi;s the point of giving the camera to the viewer&quest; Just back it up and make it stationary&period; Removing key components of film like editing&comma; and also not having any interactivity&comma; essentially makes <em>Invasion&excl; <&sol;em>a waste of resources&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>There is a little bit of fun to be had&comma; and there&&num;8217&semi;s plenty of cuteness too&period; The rabbit&&num;8217&semi;s introduction is cute and its conflict with the aliens is kind of adorable&period; The aliens themselves run into a lot of hijinks just trying to understand Earth&comma; but this is really just a short for comedic effect&period; There&&num;8217&semi;s an idea of the meek standing up to defend the Earth&comma; as narrated by Ethan Hawke&period; But it isn&&num;8217&semi;t really a message that&&num;8217&semi;s conveyed that effectively&period; This is mainly because I never got a sense the rabbit was aware of its actions&comma; and felt more like it was just messing with the aliens&period; But this is why things like a soundtrack or editing matter to film&period; It conveys actions in a different light&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em>Invasion&excl; <&sol;em>isn&&num;8217&semi;t a bad short&comma; but it works against film as a medium&period; It accentuates the issues with bringing viewer control to film&period; There are glimpses of director Eric Darnell understanding the need for action so viewers know where to look and when&comma; but it still means the film loses any subtlety &&num;8211&semi; a component that is crucial to any character building&period; It&&num;8217&semi;s worth the six minutes&comma; but <em>Invasion&excl; <&sol;em>is ultimately just an example of why VR is still miles from being a suitable medium for film&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;