The aims of the animated anthology Secret Level, whose 15 shorts are based on video and tabletop games, are clear enough: As production company Blur Studio puts it on their website, “Secret Level is our love letter to gaming.” But despite the tangible earnestness of that claim, the series fails to shake off the cynicism of its commercial function and blinkered politics. Beneath flashes of beauty and fits of inspiration lies an elaborate branding exercise.
Secret Level features a handful of shorts that conjure impressive moods. The bleak industrial landscapes in “Armored Core: Asset Management” all but subsume the episode’s protagonist (Keanu Reeves)—and the formidable mech he pilots—conveying the extent of his alienation and the stakes of his mission; the economical “Warhammer 40,000: And They Shall Know No Fear” spares us unnecessary dialogue, setting its space marines loose with sweltering kineticism; and the martial arts revenge tale of...
Secret Level features a handful of shorts that conjure impressive moods. The bleak industrial landscapes in “Armored Core: Asset Management” all but subsume the episode’s protagonist (Keanu Reeves)—and the formidable mech he pilots—conveying the extent of his alienation and the stakes of his mission; the economical “Warhammer 40,000: And They Shall Know No Fear” spares us unnecessary dialogue, setting its space marines loose with sweltering kineticism; and the martial arts revenge tale of...
- 12/5/2024
- by Niv M. Sultan
- Slant Magazine
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