Codehunters
February 29th, 2008“Codehunters,” directed by Swiss comic artist Ben Hibon (bio here) for the MTV Asia 2006 video awards.
I hesitate to post this because the animation’s so stiff and the acting’s so clichéd, but there are glimmers of brilliance inamongst all that posturing. The art direction is nice, with feature-level detail in the style of Moebius, Bilal, et al.
There’s some tech info at Animago available as well as a CGSociety feature.
The real problem here, again, is progression: dynamics. This piece has none. The whole thing is either slow establishing reveals or slow-motion action — every shot is a money shot.
The music follow suit almost exactly. The score has two modes: plodding, and waiting. Between action sequences, during shots featuring slow-motion or other apparently dramatically significant moments, there’s a sort of ambient freeze-frame music, as though we’re waiting for a shoe to drop. During action sequences, we get the same walking-pace beat in the same key throughout, with no modal progression at all, like credits music. One is left with the impression of a highlights reel, or a recap, or a flashback, as though nothing that’s happening is truly significant.
I think it’s telling that over a quarter of the running length is credits — one of many traits “Codehunters” shares with Matrix: Revolutions.
Happy Leap Day!
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