TIE Fighter

Combining incredible animation and a score that will get your blood pumping, this 7-minute video will make you want to sign up for the Imperial Navy.

Heavily inspired by the TIE Fighter video game (probably still the best space flight-sim to this day), no shortcuts are taken on the animation when to comes to rapidly changing camera angles and sleek design. In ways it reminds of the "Call of the Primitives" episode of the original Transformers, but it also has a strong hint of anime (more Akira than Ghost in the Shell).

The reaction videos are also great. Finally, I suppose there's this: if you played the original TIE Fighter game, or or a fan of the X-Wing miniatures game, you'll love this short film.

I just can't get enough of these 7 minutes! "TIE Fighter" is in my humble opinion the single most epic fan film ever created, and I have seen many. It is so incredibly well done that if I were an executive at Disney / Lucasfilm, I would immediately contact the creator and offer him a job! This is the living proof that Star Wars, anime and electric guitars mix really REALLY well and I would simply love to get a feature film done in the style of "TIE Fighter" or at least some more shorts or TV series. The camera angles, the movement, the sharp perspective, all trade marks of the anime action directing are present and it looks incredible. The level of detail is quite high, the atmosphere is incredible, the whole thing is just electrifying! It brings back so much of the best days of Japanese animation, back in the days when sci-fi, mecha and cyberpunk storytelling in anime was at its peak. Also some nods to "StarCom: The U.S. Space Force" that I appreciate so much. This is one legendary Star Wars music video that I find far superior to many officially licensed Star Wars visuals that are out there. The Force is more than strong with this one!

The first thing I note of interest is that this is copyright Lucasfilms. That was a bit unexpected. However, that fact made the presentation that much more disappointing.

This is interesting in that it is presented from the standpoint of the tie fighter pilots viewing the rebels as the enemy force that must be destroyed for the good of the Empire. Few people stop to think about the flipside of the coin-- and realize that Rebels and Jedi kill people too... and those people have families and mothers and fathers and siblings just like everyone else. "Are the Jedi really the good guys?" is a question all to often not asked. This is especially so when we see how Obi Wan deals with his enemies (he seems to have rather a habit of cutting off limbs and leaving the mangled owner behind).

That considered, the twist in story is interesting. Unfortunately that's all the story provided as this proves to be nothing more than a continual dog fight throughout. It is done in the style of anime but several of the scenes seem to "jerk" or "slide"... lacking the finesse and art of good anime. The animation in this is decent enough, but isn't flawless.

It is both glitchy animation and lack of any story line whatsoever that drops this to a "barely okay" 4 stars for me. The short has no emotion, no climax, no resolution. It's like watching a child with toy spaceships going PEW! PEW! PEW! There's zero substance, so all that's left to rate is the anime. The anime pulls four stars of its own, but cannot hold up a short with no plot or story. As I always say: start with a good script first, then make the film. A commercial can do it in 30 seconds. Surely someone with 7 minutes can manage to accomplish more than exploding spaceships.