WHEN SENATORS ATTACK IV
creators' Web site
Web site for downloading @ TheForce.Net

review written 2/22/2003

This is my favorite fan film of all time, and I’m not even sure why.

Structured around spoofing TPM Trailer B, it follows a simple comedic tradition—make jokes, fast and furious. This works well. If a joke fails, there’s another three hot on its heels. (Works for Mel Brooks.) Couple that with imaginative and colorful and downright funny animation reminiscient of “South Park” and Terry Gilliam’s work for some mixed-media fun.

You’ve NEVER seen a fan film like this, which may be why I like it.

The shot of the Trade Federation tanks (at about 0:23) establishes a trend of clever sound design and simple cutout graphics. And it’s a nice-looking shot, too. The tanks even float nicely. The shake when the tank falls is well-handled.

Then a shot of Sio Bibble’s head and some balloons establishing the catch phrase “We’re all gonna die.” WTF? you ask. Exactly.

More shots—action figures, toys. It all fits. The camera work helps legitimize the deliberately low production values (love those shakes!) The look of this thing just doesn’t happen often. I can’t describe it. I’m giddy. At 0:44 we have a panning shot of a toy on a live green field. Bluescreened over this are toy droids on toy STAPs making TIE-fighter sounds, and boom, suddenly we have stock footage explosions composited in nicely.

Insanity ensues. There’s no way I can talk about every single shot. Found footage, puppets, heads on sticks. People interacting with action figures. Soda cans, dizzying digital zooms. Battle droids doing the Macarena. Something or other going on at 1:09. Palpatine’s music cue at 1:56 is beautifully absurd, but will change the way you hear that music in trailers forever.

Now, this is not a perfect flick. I could have done without some of the found footage. Some of the lines are hard to hear (in particular the one where Panaka gets shot, and the “Obi-Wan’s number” line, which I always thought said “a woman’s number”—I like my version better). What’s up with all the Pennzoil racetrack imagery? Could they have found something else to represent the Podrace? The Linda Tripp joke is gonna be a lot less funny as time goes on, as are the Pepsi cans we don’t see every day any more. The Q-Tips joke is too subtle and disconnected, and some of the lines—well, you can just tell they gave up on what to do. And the title… is… well, disappointing. (Although it is neat that they come up with it well before anyone said anything about “Attack of the Clones”.)

But none of this matters, for at 2 minutes and 16 seconds is possibly the funniest line in fan film history, which I’m not gonna spoil for you.

I value originality and creativity in fan films. I don’t like seeing the same darn thing over and over again. WHEN SENATORS ATTACK IV delivers, and delivers in a big way.

If you want a departure from the usual saber duel or by-the-numbers spoof, give this a watch. Then make a friend watch it, and see how he reacts… which may be the best part of it all.