Reviews of “Solstice-5” (2023) and related work
- Spin-off: “Solstice-5: Forgotten Archives” (2025)
“Solstice-5” (2023
)
Seen in 2025.
Industrial automation in a cold war on an exoplanet. There is no intelligent extraterrestrial life left, but organic geological formations stand “as the sole evidence of an advanced life form other than man”. This evidence is ignored because ignoring it enables resource extraction on a titanic scale, by competing paperclip maximizers.
The writing is lazy, there is no dramatic plot or characterization, and the terrain is clearly generated with the usual shortcuts in 3D sculpting tools, as evidenced by bilateral symmetries and terracing. The dieselpunk animation and neat production design carry this short film, as expected from concept artist Paul Chadeisson.
moving picture animation fiction
‣ “Solstice-5: Forgotten Archives” (2025)
Seen in 2025.
Landscape surgery, open war and fungal contamination of the natural petroleum.
All 3D CGI, cutting the human actors who appeared as talking heads in the original and replacing them with poorly animated, silent CGI figures in coveralls. The effects work is a little bit jankier; I guess there wasn’t time to get the oil looking slick.