I watched the clip.

It is a total meatbot massacre!

And I mean that in the positive sense.

If Starwars and 'Trek are the new mythology, let them be subject to play. There will be hackery applenty, but memic resurrection for eterntity.

Wow, either you are completely dilusional or have horrendous taste. I watched Revelations and can say it was one of the worst fan films I have ever seen. And that is definitely saying something.

I understand you don't like the new Star Wars films. But they are far better than this trash. The acting and dialog is unbearably bad. Sure Attack of the Clones had some poor dialog, but
it's Shakespeare compared to this.

Also, how in god's name could you say that the effects give ILM a run for their money? It looks like bad video game CG. Either you are lying, or have let your hatred of the prequels cloud your judgment to the point of embarassment. Either, I thought the article was pretty much trash. Cheers!

~Greg

How can he say " fans can also give Industrial Light and Magic a run for its money"? That statement is ridiculous, the people that brought us the T-1000 in terminator 2, the skeletons in Pirates of the Caribbean, the digital water in the perfect storm, and COMPLEATLY digital clone troopers in episode 2(Which I thought were guys in suits the first time I saw it) are no better then amateurs who get paid. How can he say that, has he seen any recent movies by ILM? I know everyone hates the prequels but you have to admit the special effects were amazing. There is no way 5 guys with Adobe Premier can do a better job then ILM. By the way the special effects in Revelations are nothing to brag about.

Heh. I think we'll have to disagree on this one -- I thought the chase scene was as good as anything in Lucas' two movies, honestly.

You're both quite right that the acting had some pretty lousy moments, but I would also argue that at its worst, it didn't come close to plumbing the depths sounded out by Attack of the Clones. Those scenes between Christensen and Portman -- my god, it was so surgically devoid of emotion it was like watching Brecht.

That BitTorrent thing seems to work pretty well.

I watched this thing, and surprisingly found myself getting caught up in the story. The main problem is indeed the script, which is a shame because the scene-by-scene plot outline is pretty good. The dialogue is too 'on the nose' - too many lines like 'You lied to me!' when 'What!?' could have done just as well, and a fair number of lines of dialogue which redundantly narrated what was going on and could simply have been elided.

That said, I saw 'attack of the clones' in the theater, and I haven't the faintest idea what happens in that movie - the dialogue was so unlistenably bad that I just zoned out and stopped paying attention.

All in all, an interesting, and mostly successful, experiment. Perhaps in the future we really will get movies made in the same no-budget way that albums are made today.

"The dialogue is too 'on the nose' - too many lines like 'You lied to me!' when 'What!?' could have done just as well, and a fair number of lines of dialogue which redundantly narrated what was going on and could simply have been elided."

Yeah, that's it precisely: It didn't feel loose and goofy enough, which was the feel that so nicely animated the original trilogy. Actually, one of the biggest problems seemed to be that the director got too caught up in the pomposity of the Jedi universe, and overlooked the humor that, at his best, Lucas always included. One of the best parts of the original movie is Han Solo continually making wisecracks about what total hippie claptrap this "force" thing seems to be. Indeed, the more seriously the movies took Jedis, the more boring and mopey they became.

What a terrific article. I can't wait to download it.

I think we're going to have to wait a few years before a new crop of successful artists start letting people remix/resample. Those who have made a good bit of money are more inclined to listen to their agent or lawyer rather than other artists.

And btw, I already received a cease and desist letter from a movie studio about a noncommercial fan fiction website idea.

I think Robert Ebert wrote a column that said that the reason the presequels never really worked is that there was no Hans Solo-ish character in them, providing precisely the sort of counterweight that you are mentioning.

There's something to be said for cheap movies; they force you to be more creative and make do with what you got. Seriously, American Pie III cost 55 million dollars to make. I could have made the same lousy film for less than $10,000

"There's something to be said for cheap movies; they force you to be more creative and make do with what you got"

Spot on!

I remember Francis Ford Coppola saying something like "Portable video cameras will allow us to find the Mozart of cinema, who is probably some 9-year-old girl living in Ilinois>"

Speaking of humor and Star Wars fan films, I'm reminded of the hilarious "Troops" which was made in '97.

Watching "Revelations," I was really impressed with the visual recreation of Star Wars motifs, but the acting and writing didn't match the polish of the visuals. I guess the story was interesting enough to keep me watching until the end, but I can't help but think that something like "Troops" is a better use of those visual skills. Try something that Lucas can't or won't do with the commercial property. Use the "home video aesthetic" to your advantage.

I'm also struck by the potential for videogames to fill the niche for fan created content. The stories that arise out of Star Wars: Galaxies could be considered to be a kind of fan fiction. Lucas could go one step further and use the MMOG medium to abdicate authorship to the fans. An MMOG set after episode VI could continue the universe with fans cast as the heroes.