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Good start, but then it gets ruined

Unshakable, witty and deeply felt, the film will be paying emotional dividends for a long, long time.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

This first short film effort by David Levy comes out of the gate strong. From just the first few shots we get this gritty meets high-tech view of the world Levy is trying to create. It's a world that's a little bit Mad Max, a little bit Terminator, a little bit planet Jakku from Star Wars, all nicely infused with a whole lot of that compelling sci-fi "atmosphere." That is to the say, it's a feast for the eyes, ears, and mind. The incredible imagery and the attention to detail in production aspects from costuming to the soundtrack are clearly the strongest features of the work. From my understanding, this short was created with the hopes of making it into a feature and it'd definitely be something worth checking out if that were to happen. Being a unabashed advocate for strong female characters, I love Levy's choice to make the only human left on the Earth a woman who knows how to handle herself in this hard-edged world. The relationship she shares with the mechanical beings she's left with on the planet are all the more interesting for it. Despite the fluctuations in the acting performance, the main character comes across as layered and interesting, full of strength but also vulnerability. Indeed, one of most interesting moments of the short is when we see her reach out and hold the hand of Marker, one of the robots, in an attempt to acquire his help in finding other life forms left on Earth. Just that one moment begs so many questions: Can he be trusted to help her? At what capacity does feel human-like emotions as she does? What is the nature of their relationship? Needless to say, there's a lot of feature length potential for the protagonist and the supporting characters we meet embedded in the story.Another of the comments on here talked about the short starting off strong but not having a definitive ending. I think that can be explained with the intent of Levy to pack into so short a time all the potential for a feature length storyline. Based off of how strong the concept for the world is and how many things Levy nailed here, I'm confident that given the time to really flesh the ending out he could indeed build up to and provide that cathartic resolution viewers of similar mindsets are hoping for. This short really reminded me of feature length Halo film I once saw that I think many people would count out if the budget wasn't high enough or if some relentless marketing campaign hadn't flooded two months of their lives with high octane, unskippable Youtube ads. But I think this is a mistake. It's a treat getting to watch a brand new world, complete with complex and intriguing characters, be realized on screen in such a clear way and after seeing this, I'm hoping Levy gets the chance to fully realize the vision. Or at the very least, I hope he gets to lend his strong conception skills to projects that would be much improved with his considerable talent behind them.

"P.L.U.G." is a science fiction short film from last year that runs for 16 minutes, including credits. The writer, director and producer is David Vyle Levy and it's his first effort in these areas, even if he is not entirely new to film. Maybe this lack of experience is also what makes this film a failure all in all. There are solid ingredients, like the atmosphere, the effects and also the settings, but the writing and just the overall product isn't working out. Maybe it's just me as I am not too big on science fiction in general, but still, this was a disappointing watch. The acting (by the lead actress) isn't helping matters either. Not recommended.

UPDATED REVIEW AND RATING After giving this "short" a then-deserved 2-star rating for having no plot and no ending, I received a very nice private message from director David Levy explaining that rather than being a "short"... this was in actuality a "short pilot" for a feature film. That stated, this is worth considerably more than 2 stars. So I've updated it to 6 stars (I'd give it 7 except that... there's only so much one can give for a totally undeveloped plot line.)We have all seen recently a flood of "shorts" in which the author / director / producers seem unable to come up with an ending. Were this JUST a short... it would deserve a 2-star rating. However, knowing now that it is a premise: the acting is decent, the costumes are excellent, directing is good. It's a fine first act. If one understands from the beginning that there will be no resolution or conclusion in this... it's a decent watch. I'd look forward to seeing the feature film.