Short Film Review: The Trenches

The Trenches

Anyone remember Suckerpunch? It was a silly film about girls in an asylum, who escaped into the fantasy worlds inside their heads in order to formulate a plan to get out. You probably don‘t remember it. A lot of people don‘t. I only remember it, because I went to the theater to see it with some friends, and it was not so good. But the advertising departments made a series of short films to help promote. Each took place in one of the five fantasy worlds. The one being covered here is the film that focuses on the fantasy World War I world and is called The Trenches. So yes. We are making a complete turn from realistic a War World drama in the last post to complete nonsense.

The film focuses on a soldier who is fighting the great war against the Nazis (of course he’s a good guy) but he is shot down in the course of combat. After the battle is corpse is taken back to secret Nazi lab where he is brought back to life, brainwashed, and placed on a steampunk somewhat mechanical suit that must be keeping him alive. But as he goes into the battle for the bad guys he fails at his duty as he still somehow remembers his wife and child.

The good? This is a surprisingly deep three minutes film. And sadly it had more heart and story than the film it is supposed to advertising. The animation is mostly flash comic animation mixed in with some slight traditional animation. But it’s unique and beautiful.

The bad? It really is much too short. And this is world I actually world like to see more of. I think this is something that could easily been over minutes long.

Overall, it’s a shorty. But is a beautiful shorty. If you like steampunk. Then this little film is for you. I recommend this mostly to people who might enjoy this sort of stuff.

3 flicks out of four.

Overall rating: A Short but Sweet Tale about Steampunk Nazi Soldiers in World War I

Director: Zack Snyder

Run Time: 3:06 minutes

Genre: Steampunk / Action

Where To Find It: Youtube, Suckerpunch DVD