SPIRITS OF THE FORCE
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review written 4/19/2004

A great-looking logo leads to a fine crawl (though they didn't need to call Jaina Solo a Jedi when they established in the same sentence that Jedi are being discussed… and I'm not sure "unknowing" is used correctly). I'm impressed that we're going to see EU characters here. That's a bold move.

Gorgeous pan down and planet, followed by a wipe to a neat shot.

We meet two Jedi with great costumes and poor acting. (I like how Jaina's clothes mirror a costume worn by her grandmother in AOTC.) A third comes, who also does not do a good job acting. But I like seeing the "arrogant" Jedi's nonchalant swipes at the remotes, a fine way of establishing character visually.

A ship enters, and I loved the design of it, but something about it didn't seem quite in the scene. It seemed like a toy on strings had come in. The same problem results in the next shot when we see a temple from far away. I expect Terry Gilliam to pop up and say "It's only a model".

I do like the location of this film. I'm guessing right now it's a university somewhere (and so it is, Arizona State)—from the colors, I'd say it's in the Southwestern United States. It's a good choice though.

I also like how Kyle's eyes dart back and forth.

Does anyone actually ever say "Well, if it isn't ______"? I don't know. And if Kyle says people are having dreams so dark they don't remember them—well, it's nice description, but then why has anyone reported having a dream? Seems to me he needs to think about his metaphors.

I'm enjoying how we hear bits and snatches of lessons we learned in the SW films repeated by other characters, having been taught long ago. Jawa juice is a bit too much of a throwback though, as are pallies. That's got to be the first reference ever to pallies in a fan film, though.

You know, Jessica Bishop really looks right for the role of Jaina, but her performance distracts me a lot. When she runs after Kyle and tells him to come quickly I'm completely taken out of the story.

Ah, a lightsaber duel. That took long enough. When the nefarious villain emerges, unfortunately, it reminds me too much of Bugs Bunny or Road Runner stepping out from behind a tree. And I'm not a huge fan of the time-honored fan film device of Deepen Someone's Voice And They Are Evil.

Okay, stop with this camera circle, guys, I'm getting dizzy.

Holy crap. The shot beginning at 13:28 is one of the coolest I've seen in a very, very long time. An absolutely flawless effect. I rather like the ghost effect we see later, at least for creativity's sake. But either the costume or the expression on the ghost's face ruins the moment for me. But hey, now we know why the film got its title.

I also have to give this film major points for being the first I've seen to thank an upholstery establishment.

There's enough neat things in this film to make it worth a watch, and, in the end, that's what's important. The filmmaking craft is clear enough, and while admittedly I'll probably not remember much about this dream tomorrow, it held my attention for the course of its run.