Short films have been seeing a great rise in popularity in most recent years, capturing great deals of emotion, visually pleasing effects, and popular actors too. Often times, short films will even go on to become full length theatrical films.

In a more recent short film, RISE stars Anton Yelchin. Yelchin is best known for his role as Pavel Chekov in the newest reboot of Star Trek. In this short film, Yelchin plays a sentient robot in a futuristic world where these robots are vilified and hunted down.

RISE takes place only a little over 2 decades into the future where sentient robots turn against humanity. But it then takes us into the eyes of these robots; robots that feel as we do, who become scared as we do. The performance in this 5 minute flick is compelling; you can see the great deals of emotion within the wrinkles of their faces (or even lack thereof).

It makes you contemplate, in these short 5 minutes, what it feels for these robots. Scared creations who are being killed for the actions of one. And how a radical human attack to them acts as a catalyst to make them…well, more human.

It’s a very compelling short film that I wish I could see more of. It ends on a note where it leaves me wanting more of this conflict, and if the resolution here leaves these robots on the winning side or humanity.

What are your thoughts on the short film? Would you like to see more? Leave a comment below, and for more movie goodness come back here to Cinemaniacs!