South African Robocop QT movie
The #7 listing on the “Top Ten Most Important Websites (to me) of 2004″ is not a site at all but rather a viral movie. Vancouver’s The Embassy arrived on the scene in 2003 and immediately set about making some of the freshest visual pieces that advertising and the web have seen for some time. Their dancing Citroen Transformer ad created quite a buzz on the viral circuit, but what really caught my eye was the above piece directed by Neill Blomkamp.

Consisting of raw, almost touristy footage of the slums outside of Johannesburg, combined with 3D renderings of a robot policing its streets, this is like nothing I have ever seen. The CG is seamless and the unfamiliar setting immediately pulls viewers out of their comfort zones and forces them to question whether what they are seeing is in fact real. As scary a vision of future policing this might be, it is not that far off of present military strategy.