Metroid: the sky calls
2015 · 12m · Estados Unidos
Directed by Sam R. Balcomb
Genres: action, adventure, sci-fi
Tones: contemplative, mythic
Inspired by the Metroid games and 1960s and 1970s science fiction, a spacefaring heroine answers a call from the sky. Her mission unfolds in a retro science-fiction world.
Picked by Margot
The scouts
It's reverent toward its source material in a way that feels almost safe—a love letter to Metroid and retro-sci-fi rather than a subversion of either. The mythic tone is sincere, which is fine, but fine doesn't move me.
Balcomb understands the visual grammar of 70s sci-fi deeply enough to rebuild it with formal precision; the film knows exactly which lineage it belongs to and executes that inheritance with contemplative patience rather than pastiche energy. It's the kind of work that justifies the festival circuit.
The decision to keep the heroine mostly silent and let the retro-futuristic production design and score carry the narrative weight is what works—a single choice that transforms what could've been fan art into something with its own gravitational pull.