The Empire's Got Back!

Last night I mentioned a “Star Wars” fan film that had received some pretty high praise.
After having downloaded and watched it, I have to say that my mentioning it should in no way be construed as my endorsement of it.
The article I read about the movie (entitled “Revelations”) had extremely high praise for it, suggesting that it was not simply a very good fan film, but a very good film overall judged against any standard.
The latter was not the case, and I’m forced to conclude that either 1. The person who wrote the article was involved in making the film 2. The filmmaker had bribed the writer to praise it or 3. The writer of the article isn’t familiar with what a good movie is.
To be honest, for a fan film (and the fact that is very much a fan film, with all that entails, cannot be emphasized enough), “Revelations” was surprisingly good. Some of the effects were actually of professional-quality, and the basic concept of the story was interesting.
That being said, however, all of these positive aspects were marred by some embarrassingly bad dialogue delivered in even more embarrassingly bad performances. The fight scenes looked as though they may have been choreographed by “Star Wars Kid,” and in general seemed like the kind of cheesy light-saber battles you might see being acted out by geeks dressed in home-made costumes as they wait in line to buy tickets for “Revenge of the Sith.”
Speaking of which, most of the “actors” seemed like people who were just randomly grabbed off the street and thrown into costumes.
Most of the members of the largely female cast were, to be charitable, somewhat “big-boned.” That’s not necessarily a problem, but it does prove distracting when your eyes, which have glazed over in response to her wooden performance, drift downward and focus on the extremely wide hips of the movie’s villainess in an outfit that only serves to exaggerate that width.
Also, during the party scene when everyone stops in stunned silence as she enters the room, you can’t help but think that it’s not so much the result of awe and terror; it’s more like everyone is thinking “Damn, I bet she beeps like a garbage truck when she backs up.”
So yeah, the big-boned thing kind of detracts from the movie.
Still, all things considered, while this is not, as the article suggested, better than the real movies, it is worth checking out as long as you bear in mind that it is a fan film, though ultimately you may still end up wanting your 40+ minutes back.