Official BROKEN ALLEGIANCE comments thread

That bounty hunter's ship looks so familiar...is it from a SW video game or somewhere else? Or does it just look like another SW ship?

 

THAT WAS AMAZING!!!

What camera did they use to shoot the exterior shots? I know they used the PD-150 for studio work but did they use it for the exteriors too, cause the picture was amazing!

Effects - OH MY GOD
Acting - VERY NICE
Story - SUPERB
Costumes - HOLY POODOO (great)
Directing - Better than a nose plug in a cow farm (that means really good)

Peace
the floydman

 

fantastic movie everyone. i loved it.

the only thing i would change about it - the saber fights could have been a bit faster, with less flare and more hate (they are using the darkside). of course, they were still really good.

and i dug the christopher lambert-sounding bounty hunter.

it didn't feel like star trek, it felt like stargate sg1 (that's a compliment)

 

Okay, I know you've all been waiting ... so here it is ......


JediTAC's Official Review: BROKEN ALLEGIANCE
A most interesting depiction of events occurring between A New Hope and The Empire Strikes Back - with everyone's favorite Sith Lord, Darth Vader, finding out the true meaning of "what goes around, comes around." (Obi Wan would have a great chuckle over the events of this film).

Okay, this is as far of a "spoiler" as youa re going to get from me in terms of the overall storyline.
On with the elements of the film.

STORY:
Overall, the events taking place in Broken Allegiance flow well and maintain the relative quick pace of the film. I did not find there to be any cliche' taglines or dialogue (which sometimes plagues Star Wars FanFilms). I enjoyed the interaction between Vader and his Imperial Staff, as well as the dialogue interaction between the Bounty Hunter and the Sith Apprentices.

For the time span/frame of the film, the story moved along nicely - with a nice set up within the quintessential opening scroll.

On a constructive note ... I am still not sure about the "Bounty Hunter with a lightsaber" idea. It is certainly original and, for the most part, weaved into the story well enough to make it believable. However, not enough is revealed about the Bounty Hunter to know why he is skilled in the Jedi/Sith/DarkForce Arts. (Perhaps we are not meant to know). Personally, I enjoy the mystique and exclusiveness of only Jedi/Sith wielding lightsabers. Nevertheless, the direction of the fight choreorgaphy, as well as the Bounty Hunter's dual blaster/lightsaber configuration certainly made for an interesting element to the story.


ACTING:
For the most part, the acting was good. Of the two Sith Apprentices, the female lead was the stronger ... although the male lead's performance was nicely delivered as well.

I enjoyed the masked actor's physical portrayal of Darth Vader ... however, I do think that there were just a tad bit too many quintessential/Vader-esque finger/fist gestures throughout the film. (Didn't his mother tell him that it was impolite to point?) Nevertheless, the vast majority of Vader's movements and mannerisms were right on the money and certainly added to the feel and ominence of the character. I feel it important, also, to mention that the voiceover actor's work for Vader's voice was very well done .. about as close to James Earl Jones as I have heard to date -along with KnightQuest. (Disclaimer: If it was the same voiceover artist, forgive my ignorance).

The Bounty Hunter's portrayal was pretty nice. At times, he seemed a tad bit "too" angry with life ... and the pursuit of Sith Apprentices. I think a cooler/more calculated approach may have lent more strength to his character - as a highly successful and sought after bounty hunter. Nevertheless, for what Director, Nick Hallam, had envisioned for this character, the actor delivered a convincing performance.

The rest of the ensemble delivered their parts well ... rounding out a well-complimented cast.


MAKE-UP/COSTUME:
As with many of today's ever-improving FanFilm presentations, the costuming in Broken Allegiance was top notch. It is hard to pick out a "best" costume amongst the lot, because every costume I saw was excellent. I will say that it never ceases to amaze me the quality of those crafters in their ability to recreate exacting replica Vader and Stormtrooper armor. The armor crafters for Broken Allegiance have simply outdone themselves with the quality of the Vader/Trooper armor .... not to mention the completely original armor of the Bounty Hunter. Very nice work.

The only real "make-up" comments I can make are in regards to the Bounty Hunter. Without question, the facial make-up effects were very nicely accomplished ... certainly depicting the ferocity of the character, as well as his experience throughout his years (i.e. battle scars).

As a bit of const

 

Visually, BA is the film SW fan film fans have been waiting for. The models really are quite spectacular, and the space combat and various visual FX are well done.
There are, however, a few problems with BA. First off, and the most disappointing, is the jerky way the Star Wars fanfare dies off after the opening scrawl. Fan Films with alot less money and talented personnel have found ways to make that transition smooth, and coming as it does right off the bat, the music "glitch" is rather disappointing. The acting only really becomes very well done after the crash landing: Much of the Sith duo's lines, especially during their brief space encounter with Thor, sound horribly staged.
The only visual Fx glitch were the lightsabrés, which were a little sub-par compared to other films on this site.
Overall, however, the "feel" of the film, the way it was shot and edited, makes it by far the best cinematic effort on TFN. The acting, for the most part, works well enough to be believable. Overall, a very nice film that i enjoyed watching.

A nitpick: After watching the fight choreography "MAKING OF", I have to admit to being a little disappointed in the plain-ness of the lightsabre battle.

 

Fantastic movie!!!!!


I loved every bit of it,bravo!

 

I really liked the film, I did think the footsteps on the star destroyer were a little loud. I agree with tac that your ship is the best i've seen in any film! If it only had the speed and movement like the jedi starfighter it would be my favorite ever! Who modeled it? He deserves a big applause. The score was excellent, and so was the fight. (I hate to say that I thought the sith looked better as the bounty hunter) I didn't get to see the last few minutes of the film since IE crashed But I'm sure it was as good as the rest of the film

Jedi Tac's, TacReview was like the little figures on a perfect wedding cake

 

<<(Disclaimer: If it was the same voiceover artist, forgive my ignorance).>>

We forgive you, lol.

 

Okay, gotta say, I loved BA. It's a keeper and I'm majorly looking forward to BA2, if there's gonna be one (please?).

To that end, forgive me for the following (hopefully constructive) critiques. After the lovefest this thread has been so far I hate to feel like I'm pooping all over your celebration. But considering I want to see more from y'all, and hopefully you have more planned, it'll help for next time.

Okay, to begin with, the original music you guys had written was great. It was very John Williams, and you can't beat a live orchestra for that little extra something no sound bank can match, no matter how huge and expensive.

My only nit on the music was that the transitions between the real Williams themes and the new stuff were...um...nonexistant. I'm a big fan of music and so always have an ear to it, so that was kind of jarring to me. It would be easier to do a crossfade transition like you did if the new music overlapped the original some.

The costumes were great. No nits there.

The 3D stuff was incredible. Absolutely incredible. Awesome lighting, texturing, modelling, and complex shot setups. It was great fun to watch...except the ships moved kind of slow. And not just the slow transports. It was a low speed chase on the TIE end, too. Thor's ship moved a little slow in a few of the shots too.

But that's only, like, 15% of those shots. If that. The rest of them were awesome, the jumps to hyperspace looked flawless in comparison to the real films, and I KNOW I couldn't top it. Just crank up the velocities.

As far as make-up goes...I dunno. Thor was apparently a different race of creature than human (THOROUGHLY enjoyed the "Wrong species" bit). But he looked pretty human, if a bit jaundiced.

You don't need a deformation for a bounty hunter necessarily. Jango Fett proves it. But you chose to go with it, and I like the concept of a scarred up madman, but somewhat like TAC said, if you were going to do it, I think you might have taken it a bit farther.

Personally, I think Ben did an even better job of Vader this time around than in KQ or Dark Skies.

Best bluescreen work since Duality. I know the limitations of DV keying so I'm not going to nit this.

Fight choreography. Considering the entire featurette on it (in which the choreography was quite interesting), I was more than a little disappointed to see the final result. It was rather slow, such as when they both swipe at his legs, and considering the expertise of the coordinators I would have expected more variety in the attacks and parries. I guess TAC and I were watching different fights.

I REALLY liked the dual-use blaster and lightsaber, though. He clicked up the handle and out came the blade, and I cheered. Seriously. My roomates looked at me funny.

And as soon as you saw my name on this one you knew it was coming: Saber effects.

Wasn't a big fan of the saber effects. It looks like AfterEffects was used, and big time keyframing was used in lieu of frame-by-frame tweaking around the emitters for the stationary saber shots. With sabers sitting there, they could also bear a little flicker, too.

The colors seemed a little saturated, especially near to the core, could have maybe been a little more feathered. Also, add a bit of white over the whole thing to blend it together and make it look more "hot" than "painted".

Overall, really loved it. One of my favorites. Congratulations on the release, Vidman, and I look forward to the next one!

M. Scott

 

The Film was great I loved everything about it, but am I the only one that had a slight problem with the musical score. Don't get me wrong the score in it'self was great, The themes were all great themes, but I found there to be a few problems with it.

First of all the transition from the main title theme was very awkward and abrubt, That could have been done better. Same thing goes for the transition at the end credits

The orchestra just sounded way too much like amatures and It was way too overpowered by the brass section more so than the score for Episode 4 A New Hope which is very much brass dominaited, but still sounds great. It just sounded way too much like a high school band trying desperately to sound like an orchestra.He could of enhanced it with his computer. I would of rather the score be all computer music like Seeds of Darkness was. That sounded better.

I also would of liked to have seen a lot more usage of the Imperial March.

Is it just me or does anyone else feel this way?

Ronald C

 

Hmmm, not much more to add. Dorkman pretty much nailed it on the head I think. Congrats on the release.

 

The film was friggin amazing. Great job all around. Great effects, great score, good acting, original story, good fights. Overall I dug the hell out of it. It's my favorite fan film to date. And not just because Niobe is a goddess. Great job guys!

 

mm the pleasures of downloading at 200k/s should have it in a few minutes

 

I have four words to say about this fan film:


BEST FAN FILM EVER

 

. . . . until the next one he sees.

 

Stuff that rocked:

Plot. Good good.
(The "love" aspect was small and easily could have been left out, but it added another layer to the characters, which is cool.)

CGI.

Costumes!

Sets!

Saber choreography.
Good for the most part.

The bounty hunter's ship landing at time 12:00.

Bounty hunter's display console/scanner.

Those awesome nebulae at 7:37, 8:00, etc.

"Wrong species"

Nice long space shots.
(Especially the final shot)

That force push.
(sweeet)

Bounty hunter's makeup.
(Whatever you guys. That was cool.)

Non-saber combat.

The explosion at time 4:20.

That little plot twist at 18:00.

The painful incident at time 14:16.

The part patient people can appreciate.

The saber over the white BG was hardly visible! Yes! So glad you overcame the temptation to have it violate the realistic attributes of real light sources. Right on.



Stuff that didn't rock so much:

Transitions between JW music and original music were, as Dorkman put it, nonexistent.

I was majorly bugged by how the incident at time 15:03 occurs and then later it's like it didn't happen.

Lightsabers weren't bad, but could have been better.

The effect at time 10:40.

I guess you can pronounce Boba Fett however you want.

Is it just me or does it look like Vader is doing a little ice skating at time 19:52?

Keying. I know it's damn near impossible to do a good key with DV, and I wasn't LOOKING for problems, I just noticed some.

Vader's gesticulations didn't seem to go with the voice.



All in all:

Great. It sure felt like a film. Great effects, get environments, costumes, etc. Acting and performances were cool too. I really enjoyed watching this, didn't get bored, and a couple times said "Sweet!"

 

Outstanding fanfilm. Two Thumbs WAY up.

Nothing is perfect, but all of the things people are picking at PALES in comparison to everything done right. I really enjoyed watching this.

You guys did a really good job.

*clap* *clap* *clap*

 

<<. . . . until the next one he sees.>>

 

Most polished film since Duality.

 

Beautiful! Possibly the best all around fanfilm I have seen. Every aspect was extremely well thought out and attention to detail was amazing. I can't imagine the amount of effeort that went in to this. Really realy awesome work guys and girls! I was truly impressed. Keep it up!



- Ani


(Any plans for a sequel? )

 

All i have to say is wow...

It's like duality but with a plot!

 

I couldn't add a review that wouldn't repeat the already in-depth reviews provided so far, all I can say is that it probably the only fanfilm that lasted 20 minutes and I enjoyed every bit. Not everything is perfect, but if anything, the parts that are less than perfect are still better than many other fanfilms, and are only so apparent because of the quality of the remainder. THe CG is excellent, the costumes are top-notch, the acting is far better than average, and the entire package is quite nicely polished.

And yes, "wrong species" is probably the best line in the film

I for one liked Thor, I took it for granted that at some point he had been trained by Vader, since they seemed to have a relationship prior to now. Perhaps he was an apprentice who simply reached his peak, and it wasn't enough for what Vader had in mind? A little exposition would have helped clear this up, but I'm not complaining. The lightsaber/blaster combo was keen... I also got a kick out of the "concussion disc". I would have liked to see more of his gadgets, perhaps if the chase had been extended a bit more...

If anything, my biggest complaint is that there wasn't more to it. As it is, this fanfilm definitley ranks amongst my top favorites. Congratulations to everyone incolved on an excellent fanfilm, and a double thumbs-up to the CG design and animation team... but remember guys, TIEs can shoot faster than that!

 

I think I posed here earlier, but somehow it was erased...haha typical; but aside from having the impression of an air head on this board, I wanted to say I was impressed. The acting was great. That girl was ewcellent and delivered her lines well. Except her mood transitiions were too abrupt. But I don't think any of us could have done as great. the bounty hunter was Star Trek like (I lvoe star trek) But hey, it's something new. all you of are just not used to it : ) I give my grade as an outsider an A. These people deserve all the compliments and encouragement they can get! I'm impressed. Congrats, you got talent and my respect!






that is quite possibly the longest post I have ever done.

 

excellent film
this was probably my favorite
one thing thought i noticed was about the bounty hunter ship looking familiar. it is very similar to the drahk ships from babylon 5. Great effects very original and a fan film where the good guys didnt get killed. Very good

 

you know the ship looks like the alien craft (weren't they called chigs or something?) from the flop tv series space above and beyond...but only in the three claw thingy prong design...