Summary
Action packed and with plenty of heart, “Lucky 13” ticks all the right boxes but plays like a trailer for a video game you, unfortunately, won’t get to play.
Love, Death + Robots is a Netflix Anthology series created by Tim Miller and David Fincher. Here is the review for Episode 13, “Lucky 13”, which will contain spoilers. You can read the spoiler-free review of the entire series by clicking these words. You can check out our archive for reviews of each episode by clicking these words.
“Ships have personality, none of them are just machines…”
Let’s face it, most of us have felt like this about a machine at some stage. My first car was not just a car, it was a cantankerous and unreliable piece of junk and I loved every single inch of it. So, I can totally relate to the way that Colby Cutter feels about her ship, ‘Lucky 13’.
Rookies get the ship no-one wants – this one gets lucky 13. There is nothing technically wrong with it, just that its last 2 crews have died. Which is unheard of.
The new captain is sent out on her maiden voyage to check out a site that has been attacked by enemy ships – if anything is going to go wrong, she is the one likely to run into trouble.
As you would imagine, enemy ships attack. Lucky 13 sticks around to get all the marines off the planet. Executing a series of daring maneuvers, Cutter evades and ultimately destroys the enemy jets. Is the curse of Lucky 13 broken? A voiceover tells us that Cutter went on to fly a number of successful missions in Lucky 13 and even when she is offered a newer, better plane she declines. Soon ‘Lucky 13’ ceases to be used ironically, until one mission when Cutter is forced to abandon her beloved jet and set into self-destruct mode, but something isn’t right. Lucky 13 waits until the enemy is just close enough before exploding and the unit.
Another episode that plays like an extended video game cut scene; Lucky 13 connects you to both Cutter and her ship. Even if you have never flown a plane before if you have ever had an over-sentimentalized relationship with your 10-year-old Vauxhall Corsa you will understand this short. God bless Lucky 13.
