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District 9 director made a live-action trailer for Anthem, and it’s pretty cool

Steven Petite
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Conviction – An Anthem Trailer From Neill Blomkamp

Though originally advertised as a short film set in BioWare’s Anthem universe, Neill Blomkamp’s Conviction is more like a four-minute movie trailer. A mix of CGI effects and live action, Conviction takes viewers back decades before the start of the game and then quickly races forward.

Produced by Blomkamp’s Oats Studios, Conviction is a well-done trailer and makes us think that an Anthem movie could actually be pretty cool. In fact, if we didn’t know any better, we would have thought the trailer was for a potential summer blockbuster.

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The trailer shows a group of freelancers finding a young woman in the the jungle. They bring her back to Fort Tarsis, the main hub in Anthem. It appears that the woman is an important figure in Anthem‘s overarching struggle. Other than that key detail, much of the trailer revolves around the history of Anthem and why the world is the way it is. While EA is still being fairly vague about the lore, the javelin suits and their abilities do look great in live action.

Anthem Hands-on Preview
Anthem: The Video Game

It’s slightly odd that EA commissioned Blomkamp to create a live action Anthem trailer. As we said, it was originally meant to be a short film. But at less than four minutes and set up exactly like a movie trailer, it’s not even really that.

Blomkamp is best known for co-writing and directing the 2009 science fiction film District 9. The innovative film was nominated for four Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Adapted Screenplay. Ironically enough, District 9 was adapted from a short film by Blomkamp called Alive in Joburg. Blomkamp’s next film, Greenland, is a thriller expected to release this year with Chris Evans in a leading role.

Anthem, the actual video game, meanwhile, officially launches February 22 on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC. Some users can start playing as early as February 15, though. It’s sort of confusing, but we have a handy explainer to help you understand when you can start your job as a freelancer.

Also make sure to check out our hands-on preview of Anthem. We’ve largely enjoyed what we’ve played so far and are anxious to check out the full experience.

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