I must say, to begin with, that if you are looking for fresh, 100% original content this short film won't satisfy your needs. It is evident how it drew direct inspiration (sometimes even too directly) from Blade Runner, Alien 1&2, Prometheus, Dune and probably a few others. The director himself admitted to this.
However, I really enjoyed the way it is all put together. We get to see a visually stunning and exciting thriller of a young couple, in a dystopian future, who will put their lives and relationship at risk one last time, in order to get a passage to a better life on a distant world.
The dark final plot twist is probably the most original contribution of this film, and I must admit it left me impressed, I genuinely didn't expect it to turn that way but it comes together nicely.
The acting is convincing, and the otherworldly sceneries are the truly breathtaking part of the film, as I mentioned before. The film carries a good pace and manages to transmit a complete end-to-end story in barely 25 minutes.
It's one of the few sci-fi short films from the Dust platform that left me with an overall good impression so far, in spite of its relative lack of originality and minor scientific inaccuracies. I wouldn't have minded a few more minutes of this thrilling space adventure.
Review of The Beacon
