New Broken Allegiance review

I'm posting this for 2 reasons:

1) Because I'd like to rave about a cool fanfilm, and
2) Because Stephen Rees (editor of BA) wanted me to post it somewhere, so he could show it off to all his friends.

Here it is:

"During the last few weeks? worth of columns [it's taken from the website http://dk.starwars.nu/] I?ve told extensively about the Star Wars fan culture and what results have come from it, so it is totally understandable if you draw a huge sigh when I now tell you, that I just HAVE to talk about *one* more fan film?

But I assure you, that it?s worth it, because this fan film is probably the most ambitious of its kind to date - certainly from a production viewpoint.

The movie is called ?Broken Allegiance? and it?s made by a group of Aussie Star Wars fans. At first glance it looks like just another chip off the old ?Jedi-fighting-Sith-in-a-forest? block, but there are several features, which makes it stand out from the rest.

First of all the writer has taken the time to flesh out a background story for the main characters, and their equipped with a decent amount of personality as well. The good guys aren?t just oh so goody-goody through and through, and the bad guy is bad for a reason.

Then you notice the special effects, which are several leagues above and beyond your average Star Wars fan film. Just the amount of green screen used would make The Flannelled One himself blush! But what even more impressive is, that it?s far from always obvious that a shot is a green screen shot. At any rate the green screen effects are blended far better into the foreground action than is the case in the original versions of Episode IV-VI!!! [Note: Should probably just have been Ep. IV to be fair to ILM? ]

But that?s not all? The fully CGI shots are top notch! Some of them are so good, that you find yourself sitting with slightly open mouth thinking ?wow!?

If this was it, you would be satisfied, but in this age of DVDs there?s always a demand for behind-the-scenes info on the movies you see, and this is where ?Broken Allegiance? seriously sets itself apart from other fan productions and delivers BIG TIME!

In addition to the feature film, which clocks in at 23 minutes, you can log on to the film?s web site and download 2 trailers, 23 production stills, 4 poster concepts, the film?s soundtrack (which by the way is composed, arranged and conducted by a music academy student) in MP3 format, the complete script, 2 feature length commentary tracks (with instructions as to how to get it to work on your computer) and last but definitely no least, 67(!) minutes of behind-the-scenes footage in 14 featurettes covering everything from casting and set building over fight training and score recording to TV spots and a gag reel!!!

If you compare the amount of extra features to the length of the film, even the Extended Edition box sets of the Lord of the Rings movies will have a hard time keeping up with this baby, which you can enjoy absolutely free of charge!

 

Ok, so the timing of this review appearing here looks a bit suspicious - but it is pure coincidence.

I recently discovered the review on http://dk.starwars.nu, but I couldn't read it because in was in Danish. I contacted the author for an English version so I could read it - an low and behold he publishes it here.

As far as the "show it off to all his friends" line... hmm I wonder how that'll go down here. (trembles in anticipation)

Go easy on him guys - he's just enthusiastic.

Best let this thread sink away quietly...

 

I hope I don't get any reviews like that...

 

I liked the film. ITs a fun watch.

 

My review. For all my reviews, visit THE FAN FILM MENACE


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This film's trailers led to high expectations. And it didn't disappoint.

We start with an opening crawl which doesn't look perfect (or read perfectly), but after that crawl, we pan down to? something that'll make you crap your pants.

I cannot say enough good things about the space scenes in this film. They are simply gorgeous, not just in terms of looking right, but looking stylish. It's not merely a matter of photo-realism. Look at the colors! (I especially love colors.) The composition! Only one space battle beats what we see here, and that's ROTJ's.

The fun doesn't stop when we see 'real' people either. Paul Hooper and Niobe Dean (pause for swooning) aren't just plotzed in office chairs, they've got red lights on their faces and they're shaking. When they engage in the time-honored ritual of screaming about crap on the spaceship all blowin' up and stuff, I feel their tension. These are trained actors, yes, but even trained actors complain of working with weird stuff like sci-fi dialogue and the dreaded bluescreen. Hooper and Dean make it work.

Now let's face it. Nick Hallam and pals had a little bit more in the way of resources and money and education than the average fan filmmaker. So I'm going to shut my mouth about the great effects and production values for a bit, and point out what the BA boys did right that you can too.

Let's talk about Niobe Dean's hair. I'm serious. How is that ponytail wrapped? That's not a twelve-cent scrunchie from the corner store. It might be something they bought off the shelf, though. Or it might be a custom-made prop, one that I can't imagine is very hard to fabricate. The point is that someone thought to take the time and put her hair in something you might find in the Star Wars universe of cool stuff. (Note: I first noticed this prop in the long dialogue scene starting at 8:20, which is not exactly the best-written or best-acted scene in the bunch, so... well, let's just say they should have tried to shorten it. Moving on.)

What's that healing stick thingy that gets whipped out at 11:30? Someone had to think of that. I never saw that in a fan film before.

I have seen lightsaber duels, of course. And this has one, a very good one. The sabers look great, the choreography is neat. The "clothesline" move at 13:57 had me giggling in appreciation. The fact that Korbain Thor had invented a little "gunsaber" was very cool. The "wrong species" joke?funny, funny stuff, and BA got there well before Men in Black II!

And 15:08... I don't want to spoil it, which makes it hard to talk about. But WHAT a surprise. (For now, let's call it "pie throwing".) We've seen pie throwing before. And the pie throwing was in both cases precipitated by a line, a glance, a pose?something to alert you to the fact that something big was coming. Neither the Star Wars movies, nor (to my knowledge) any fan films had ever had a character just pick up the pie and throw it without any warning.

This takes imagination.

15:08 alone could make up for a lot of flaws. And there are flaws. I don't like how in the duel someone seems to die every thirty seconds, and the bait-and-switch tactic later takes too damn long... and why the building of suspense on "Show me your face" when the audience KNOWS who's wearing the helmet?

Most irritating of all (in my view) is the original music. Which is wonderful! The music itself is not the problem! But it does not seem to mix well with the John Williams music?it seems muffled, quiet, dull in comparison. The pie throwing (you know what I'm talking about) music in particular seems to be running out of breath. Were there problems in recording, or mixing?

Still. Don't worry. Believe the hype. Download this film now, and be sure to watch alllll the way to the end of the credits for something that will make you happy.

(No, not Niobe Dean as Jabba's slave girl.)

A
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Rick McCallum loves you!

 

That's what you get when you mix 5 parts 'Public Relations' with 1 part 'lack of substance'.

I think BA has the best special effects in any fanfilm to date. Its opening scene definately took me by surprise and captivated me. Also, the BTS featurettes where a lot of fun to watch and gave great insight into just how hard the BA team worked to put this complex film out.

But I mean come on...

First of all the writer has taken the time to flesh out a background story for the main characters, and their equipped with a decent amount of personality as well. The good guys aren?t just oh so goody-goody through and through, and the bad guy is bad for a reason.

I mean really - 'The Rendarian Backlash' had a better story, hell... I thought the 'Duality' story was better. And characterization? What? Some badly thrown together lines, something about love, a bad guy, darth vader, and a crappy lightsaber fight do not equate to an awsome story.

If you want my 'review' of the film I'd tell you that it is a film with WAAAAAY more style than substance. The style is great, the FX are great, but calling it a great (or good, or decent) story is crossing that line between review and PR.

Adam-esque review score: B

 

the best thing about BA, I thought, was the subtle additives, like the imperials walking in the hallway during the bounty hunter/vader transmission... and the smoke rising from the hunter. That is what made it all the more interesting to watch...

 

WhisperingDeath: First of all, I haven't seen 'The Rendarian Backlash', so I can't comment on that.

And secondly, you can't be serious about 'Duality'!?! It hardly had any storyline at all!!!

 

I think that's exactly his point. Just because BA gives a bunch of expositional info doesn't mean it has a story either.

 

I've said before and I'll probably say again: The only serious, in-universe fanfilm that I can think of with better, more believable characterizations than BA is Rogue.

 

It's so nice to see you all following in my footsteps of FanFilm Reviews.

 

nah, no one is THAT long-winded!

 

Considering they had 2 martial art experts cherogaphing the saber fight, it sucked.
The fight looked like they were fighting with old scottish broad swords.

Korbain Thor's craft looked like something out of Blake's 7.

The only redeeming thing was Niobe, and seems to be why all the fan boys comment the most on.
Nothing quite like having a aussie doing a broken American accent.

All said & done just seems like a mish mash of other films put into one and passed off as an original SWfanfilm.

 

And secondly, you can't be serious about 'Duality'!?! It hardly had any storyline at all!!!

It was meant to be a duel. Plain and simple. Crew Of Two made no bones about that.

It was not meant to have a storyline.

 

It's so nice to see you all following in my footsteps of FanFilm Reviews.

I'm sure people were writing Fan Film reviews without the influence of JediTAC...

 

GoreLord: It's not like BA was hyped as a SW equivalent to LOTR! But it did have a story.

Duality might not have been hyped for it's story, but with a virtual countdown on the frontpage of TF.N to the release of Duality, I was expecting a lot more than a (albeit very impressive) duel/FX-test...

 

I don't understand where these "reviewers" are getting the "story" out of BA. Every positive review in regards to BA has stated "great story," in one way or another, but it appears that the reviewers read much more into BA that actually EXISTS in the film. The positive reviewers seem to develop their own backstory for BA, to fill in the holes. Do we know why they are running? No. We assume why they are running. Do we know exactly what Vader had planned for them? No. Do we know where they escaped from? No. Why would two Dark Jedi (if there are even that) fall in love? Once again are imaginations are left to wander. BA ends up to be just another "fanfilm in a forest." Yeah, the Special effects are fantastic, but I would have much rather had a real story that had a beginning, a middle and an end. Not an escape, a short spacefight, a ground lightsaber fight and and end.

 

AYE-CARUMBA !!!

I've said it before and I'll keep saying it until it sinks in through some of the ultra-thick, close-minded skulls of so many . . .

DUALITY HAS A STORY !!!

Why must everything be so plain and simple with some of you people?? Why must something be served on a platter with no room for actual thought or introspect??

The story in DUALITY is there ... it simply takes a little more thought provoking brainpwer to draw it out and see it. Sheesh, what is so difficult about it, I ask you? Wow, so it didn't have an opening crawl setting up everythng - so what?? Wow, so there's not much dialogue in the film - so what? Wow, so we aren't blatantly given the backstories of the characters - so what?? Is there a beginning, a middle and and end - OH YOU BETCHA THERE IS !!!


People, please take a step out of the Comic-Book, Curious George, A-B-C mentality and utilize a little bit of the mindpower and creative thought available to (most of) you.


JediTAC

P.S. (Sure, there were plenty of FanFilm Reviews before the great TAC . . . I simply revolutionized the craft. )

Wow ... am I full of myself or what ??

 

Aw, I miss TAC's brash style - without him on the boards there is no-one to ballance out my sometimes harsh style of writing.

And for once he is ranting about something I agree with!

I was refering to the full of himself part not the duality

 

Well, I'll give you a hint; it's not 'what.'

 

a story is just basically a sequence of events...

 

sto·ry1 ( P ) Pronunciation Key (stôr, str)
n. pl. sto·ries

1) An account or recital of an event or a series of events