Overall: GOOD
The first release from South African filmmaker Neill Blomkamp's Oats Studios is Rakka; a post-apocalyptic, alien takeover sci-fi vehicle randomly staring Sigourney Weaver. Set up to make short films for potential expansion into feature length ones or a full series, Oats dropped its first batch in the summer of 2017. This one seems notably akin to Bloomkamp's District 9 with the whole humans vs. aliens concept, even if this time the aliens are very clearly coming up on top and look like snakemen instead of bugmen. More of a teaser or introduction for any growing number of spin-off ideas than any kind of well-rounded story, Rakka does not bring anything unique or wheel-changing to the table, but it is nevertheless well done with adequate CGI in pretty much every shot and a nice, gritty war-ravaged look.
Overall: MEH
Structured almost identically to Oats Studios' first release Rakka, Firebase is another extended trailer where badass soldiers walk in slow motion and square off against an unknown, CGI-designed foe while the soundtrack swells and builds dramatically without a single break. Naturally, the premise is slightly different of course; as opposed to hostile aliens formulating the earth with militant force, something that could be alien, interdimensional, or just balls out supernatural seemingly sprouts into existence here during the Vietnam War. Then gritty, grimacing soldiers want to fuck it up because action movies are cool. Once again, the film looks fantastic and Neil Blomkamp's style of fusing faux-documentary footage with convincing on-location shooting creates the right atmosphere, but the dialog, line-readings, and entire presentation really are too derivative of so much that we have seen before, including Blomkamp's own work which could perhaps afford to stretch out a bit farther from his obvious comfort zone.
Overall: GOOD
Technically the fifth installment in the first volume of Neil Blomkamp's Oats Studios projects, Zygote is the first one that is either not essentially a comedy sketch or styled as an extended trailer for an alien war film. While it still certainly fits right at home with both Rakka and Firebase by having some sort of combat team, (or what is left of one), doing desperate battle with a monster/alien thing, it is more simple, linear, and stripped down with only two characters on screen essentially making a run for it. In that regard, this is easily the most horror movie-esque out of this batch, not at all squandered by the fact that the monster is genuinely horrifying both to behold and listen to. Wisely, Blomkamp keeps it comparatively more in the shadows, thus hiding its CGI nature even though it still moves too smoothly to appear completely convincing, as is common. The actual plot is barely decipherable due to Jose Pablo Cantillo's mumbled enunciation, (Dakota Fanning says about three words and just looks scared), but for a heart-racing chase sequence which is practically all that it is designed as, job well done.
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