Star Wars: Revelations

The advent of readily available CGI technology now allows many people to produce, with some effort and some expense still, I might add films/ videos of the calibre of big budget films.

The most interesting aspect, aside from the film itself (on which I shall comment further) is the question it raises about the huge amounts of finance that 'need' to be poured into Hollywood films. On the strength of this work by a relatively few dedicated people working for NOTHING and with a budget (insofar as I know) of AROUND $24000, the glaring disparity becomes clear, how much money is simply being poured down the toilet? how many millions? where is it all going? can actors still be justified in receiving pay packages of millions per film? No, not really, and a production such as this one will make people more aware of this fact. So well done for that.

To the film- Bad points: Cheesy props ( the holocron), some awful attempts at voice impressions ( the emperor )- when will people learn that an American cannot dub the voice of an Englishman?! Especially with villains such as grand moff tarkin, count dooku and any sith with the exception of Darth vader , but then again James earl jones accent is very correct anyway and the voice is distorted. But an American 'drawl' Doesn't work! it's about as evil as a rubber chicken.

TIE fighter pilots in awful choreography.

Peoples hair is much too clean and well cared for (Declan) in fact most things could have done with being a bit more worn looking.

Otherwise, Good points: Great costumes, amazing CGI, as good as a 'Proper' cinematic release, Costumes are great, nice park lightsabres popping out and going zummmmm, and the MUSIC is, well GREAT!!! Lightsabre fighting isn't that amazing however.

It doesn't really rise much above the standard of TV series such as 'xena' and 'hercules' but for a fan film, thats amazing.

If you judge this by the standards of a professional film, you're doing it a disservice. If you judge this to most fan films -- then it is an excellent film.

While some of the acting is stiff, and the dialogue is clumsy, there is the feeling of emotional bonds here between the characters. Some original thought went into creating "Revelations" and the plot shows it.

The special effects are very good (especially for a fan film.) Could it been tighter? Yes. Should it have been longer? Probably not. But is it worth the 47 minute download? I think so if only to see what might be coming in the future from such dedicated filmmakers and Star Wars fans.

I wouldn't underestimate the team behind "Revelations." They probably have a future in film-making.

I downloaded this in about half an hour via bit torrent.

The forty minutes i spent watching were not wasted, don't get me wrong - it's no Empire Strikes Back - but is worth watching. It follows the more of the same route that most die-hard fans lust after. More space fights, more glib dialogue and more lightsabers.

Much of the dialogue will be instantly recognisable to fans of the original movies. Having said that, it does not detract too much from the overall feel of the film as it feels familiar.

The plot sits fairly well within established parameters but of course is not part of the official star wars universe.

Don't go into this expecting a lucasfilm production but it'll raise a few smiles. Let's be honest - for twenty grand this is an amazing piece of work.

Enjoy (it is free after all!).

Since I don't believe it is possible or fair to consider this film without at least an introduction to the Fan Film Universe, I decided to visit the many Fan Films sites and view as many of the hundreds of fan films as was bearable. In the surprisingly large catalog of this genre, Star Wars Revelations is among the best. One has to cite what most others already have: good costumes, good CG, good sets, a decent core plot idea (unless you are a canonical Star Wars fan) and a very good score by Chris Bouchard. Bouchard uses a few of the standard Star Wars pieces as jumping off points to some fine musical work of his own that nicely weaves known themes throughout in addition to adding excellent new character leitmotifs. One of the things overlooked in some of the other comments is that the director did quite a decent job staging shots, especially in staging the crowd scenes, which is unusual in the Fan Film World, though the fight scenes near the end are weak and the pacing was slow. I do have to agree that the acting is the weak point, but I think one has to be at least a bit forgiving of that, due to this being a production done gratis by a group of Star Wars fans, likely acting in front of a green screen for the first time in their lives. Take a look at Gwyneth Paltrow attempting to act in front of an effects screen in "Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow" to see how difficult or impossible that can be, even for seasoned performers. Far from being a good movie, one should still consider this a good fan film and applaud all involved for their effort. I would also encourage people to view some of the other fan films out there. As has been noted already, there are some very good ones available (look for "Grayson" as one example).

I didn't expect much from this film, because I understood it to be a low-budget fan film, created by amateurs. I must also note that I liked the first three films, but haven't really enjoyed the last two all that much.

Revelations was a hell of a lot better than I expected. The fight scenes were fun to watch, the pacing was tight (it's only forty minutes long, but they pack a lot of action into that time frame), and the special effects were jaw-droppingly good. I was very impressed with the cityscapes, chase scenes, and CGI/actor interaction. Later, while watching with commentary, I learned that a number of elements that I'd assumed were real-world were, in fact, computer-generated.

The acting? Well, what the hell, it's not like the last couple of movies set the bar really high... But I thought it was okay. Oscar-worthy? Well, what do you think? Come on, it was shot on weekends for thirty grand. By volunteers. But, I got to confess, the characters grew on me. Some of the performances were obviously done in front of static screens, but some of them were really effective. And Christ, that one guy sounded just like Vader.

Costumes were astounding, the banter had some really good ANH-style one-liners in it, and the DVD was laid out professionally. The full-size MOV download is about 350 megs, but it's so worth getting the DVD version and watching it on a big TV with the sound turned up (sound design was excellent -- the lightsabers sounded perfect, and the music was well done).

Few low-budget movies cause people to pound the arm rest and laughingly yell obscenities at their friends, then shake their heads. This was one of them. Impressive!