Star Wars: Revelations

For those of you who are out of the loop, Star Wars Revelations was a fan made movie with shockingly un-fan movie production. The acting is, well Harrison Ford is the only actor in a Star Wars movie that so far has gone on from his Star Wars fame. Alec Guiness and Christopher Lee among others have had great movie careers, but they did not use their Star Wars roles to further their careers, and neither will any of the actors/actresses in Revelations. On a related note this movie did not share George Lucas' ability to mix a great plot with subpar dialogue. At no point during this movie does anyone say that they "wish they could wish" anything away, or any of the other corny lines that seem to congregate in Episode II, but I digress.

What we have in Revelations is a plot, which like the 6 big budget films in the series has more to it than meets the eye. There are several elements in the film, which upon further review you see where in the course of achieving a short-term objective, the empire, or in this case Darth Vader himself, furthered the cause of the rebellion. The Star Wars purists would probably not accept the concept of the seer, but I don't see them spending 3 years of their lives, or all of their money making a movie themselves. The 'artifact' that Revelations centers on, does indeed reveal several mysteries within the Jedi order. It adds to the original plotline for the destruction of the Jedi Temple and the ensuing deaths of the remaining Jedi spread throughout the galaxy. I enjoyed the little tie-in with Senator Mothma and Baal Organa being mentioned at the end as well.

The story as I have said makes sense and offers or 'reveals' to use the title a bit, clues as to how the rebellion began between Episodes III and IV, but what makes this movie rise above the typical fan flick genre, is the CGI work. The spaceflight scenes rival the Hollywood StarWars titles, and in fact the obligatory ship in flight scene that opens all star wars films is done to perfection in this one. The tie fighters that always seem to crash into the scenery are also well done as they careen to their ultimate explosive finales. You really forget that this movie was in fact made by one of the central characters when you see the quality of the CGI and background art. Incidentally, this CGI and art was done by individuals from around the world, who volunteered their skills and time, to see this movie done well.

One thing is for sure, if you watch this movie and do not want to grab a camera and some friends and film yourselves fighting with lightsabers, you aren't a Star Wars fan. Seriously though it definitely inspired me to want to make an indie movie and see how I could do. I can think of several of my friends that would beat each other with metal rods that we can draw lightsabers on during post production. All I have to do now is convince the wife that we 'need' a production quality DV camera.