Star Wars: Threads of Destiny

I've just stumbled over this film here on IMDb, downloaded it and gave it a go, despite the rather bad reviews. And I sat there, totally awed by what I saw. This has got to be one of the most ambitious fan projects ever done and, in my opinion, they pulled it off.

From the opening score to the end credits this film was full of great ideas,great scenes and great effects. The music was excellent, the actors mostly good or sometimes even great and the story entertaining.

For those of you, who think you know better or you could do this better: You are wrong. But let me put all that into perspective: The making of this film cost EUR 6000,- !!

If you complain about flaws in acting, story or continuity, let me tell you there are hundreds if not thousands of movies out there, that had a budget of 100k or more, that had professional writers, directors and actors and that are worse. Not to mention the really bad movies that cost many millions. Sure, the production quality is that of a fan film - but there it is top notch and as such a masterpiece.

Everybody who has ever tried to make just one costume or to build a 3D model or to write, act or shoot a dialog knows how much work and time, and what's even more, how much love was put into making this movie.

More than 100 people spend their time working on this, the whole production took 9 years,there are more than 1500 FX shots and the overall outcome is simply awesome, with the 3D and FX being the real stars of the movie (as it always was in Star Wars).

Don't get me wrong. Don't expect a polished,commercial movie. This is a no-budget fan made film, but it is the best I have ever seen.

There's a lot of bad reviews and ratings for Threads of Destiny here, and I believe they're all mistaken and/or out of line. But allow me to explain what Threads of Destiny is;

Threads of Destiny, is a Star Wars fan film set 96 years after the Return Of The Jedi. The Skenvi Empire, a smaller group of bad guys set out to secure their resources and parts of the galaxy for their own, in order to ensure a lucrative future. The New Republic can't have that, and sends out two Jedi ambassadors to make a better deal for the planet of Coreign. Sound familiar? That's because it is. Threads of Destiny remembers what was good about Star Wars back in the day, but also knows what the prequels did right, by making a compelling story about good vs evil, but also has smugglers, aliens, women and robots.

If you've ever watched the original trilogy, you'd know that the visual effects are quite dated. Such is, regrettably the case with Threads also, but that's to be expected. The film was shot in 2005 on DV-camcorders, and put together by an ensemble of visual effects artists over 8 years.

What people tend to forget when watching this film, is just that. They pick on the Swenglish(Which could really just be a foreign space-accent, to be fair), and the sub-par compositing. Again, the film was shot on DV on poorly lit green screens, and we have to give them credit for doing what they did.

This is a FAN FILM, it's not Episode VII. The amount of work put into this film over nearly a decade is astonishing. The music is great, the sound mixing is awesome, and the story is good. The fact that the VFX look dated, is because, frankly, they are. They're also made by dozens of people around the planet, all being coordinated by Rasmus Tirzitis - the director. Not some fancy VFX house, or even a visual effects supervisor; the director.

So please, when you're rating this film, please take the story into consideration. Not the acting, not the visual effects.

After all, if we rated the original Star Wars films based on their visual effects, we wouldn't give them 10/10 today.

For an amateur Fan Film this is top notch. The special effects are well done, though the same problem most fan films have shine through in the story and acting. It hits upon the clichés, and by the numbers, and the actors come across more than a little stunted, sounding a bit more like Live Action Roleplayers (LARPers).

For all that I stayed with it through the whole thing, which is actually pretty impressive. The acting, as it was, and story were at least if not better than Episodes 1 and 2. I'd really enjoy seeing something like this done by some passionate people willing to push new boundaries instead of the normal Star Wars tropes.

This is going to be a mixture of pros and cons; no spoilers. I came across it by accident while searching something else on YouTube, came here and read the reviews (love to hate). I was 20 in 1977 so I saw the 1st (a.k.a. 4th) Lucas Star Wars movie when it debuted and many times after.

Is this anywhere near the insight and writing skill of George Lucas...no. Is it the best fan film (and I've probably seen about 50- 60), yes. The "Summary" line says I want to look at 2 things; movie and reviews.

The script is a combination of concepts of scenes from all 6 films (the 7th hadn't come out at the time I wrote this). While the dialog wasn't taken from the original movies, the themes for most of the movie were. I won't say which ones. Just see the movie. However there have been multiple reviews that make it seem like the writer is stealing from the original. Now the counterpoint: this is a movie about an ancient order (think back...you got it, the Jedi Knights, steeped in custom and tradition). While the writer uses concepts from the original films, why shouldn't he? If this is an ancient order than changing the rules would be bad script writing. Yes the dialog could have been snappier in MANY places but the writer did, as Lucas did in the 2nd 3 installments, keep the rules of the Jedi order constant. They WOULDN'T change over time. So while he should take a writing class to learn to give a script a better flow, he stayed loyal to the ideas of Star Wars.

Something that I couldn't believe as I read this were a comments about the fact that the actors had accents. It leads me to believe that these reviewers might never have seen the original movies; perhaps books on tape. LOL Does anyone recall one or two scenes from ANY of the Star Wars movies? How about the admiral on Vader's command ship? Anyone remember him (before Vader used the force and killed him) he had a few lines as did his subordinates (one of whom was later promoted). And then there was Tarkin (Commander of the death star, etc. played by Peter Cushing), of course let's not forget a couple other minor characters. They would be Alec Guinness and Anthony Daniels. I think they played Obi-Wan and 3P0. Guess what they all had in common? ACCENTS! Why this was even mentioned I can't imagine. And to suggest they take diction lessons. Talk about absurd.

Back to the film. Let's address special effects which people seem again to like or find endless criticism of. I've done computer animation for several large advertising campaigns; concept to sitting at a computer and creating. Was the green screen perfect? I agree with many of you and the answer is no. But would I criticize it to the degree I've seen here...you guess the answer to this one. Just to do a still shot of something against a green screen is an art in just lighting the screen correctly let alone putting moving characters in front of it (and I mean even the slightest move). The fact that this was started in 2005 and is complete is amazing! Having done this work I saw every imperfection there was and probably more than most because it was my business so I know what to look for. BUT, it's a fan film with relatively no budget. Even with the software that was available in 2005 for home or small commercial use they pushed it to its absolute limits so for that alone it should be appreciated. And for the people who commented that this was really a special effects movie, ever seen the behind-the-scenes documentaries of the original Star Wars. Lucas did the same thing only he had a movie studio budget behind him. He wasn't creating his animations on a variety of PCs/Macs/small commercial workstations or whatever they used for this film. And if you think the original Star Wars CGI was amazing I could point out about 100 artifacts (computer image glitches) in Lucas' 1st film alone and it's my personal favorite because it started the whole thing. When people write reviews criticizing an art form, they really should do a little research before "opening mouth and inserting foot". I agree this movie was far from perfect but at least know what you are writing about before making a comment.

Will they make another movie? I actually hope so. Did it have faults? Plenty. Was it an amazing effort? Absolutely. And to all the "arm- chair" critics: a well thought out critique is a pleasure to read. Good or bad in regards to what is being reviewed they can be valuable and might help people from wasting their time. But, there's the key. Know what you're talking about. And regarding the fact that a Swedish person might have a Swedish accent (sorry, you still get a DUH on that one) you neglected to point out which version of English, you as an expert, feel they should be speaking. Did you wish a proper English accent (as in, from England), an American dialect? Just using those 2 countries alone, how many dialectic variations are there? Either country, you have recognizable and very different dialects: north, south, east, west, central region of either country. Who decides?

To people reading this, by now you have probably guessed that about 1/3 of this review is about the fan film. If you are a true Star Wars fan you will probably enjoy it once (you may not want to watch it 1,000 times like the Lucas films but you'll probably enjoy it). The summary of the film here on IMDb is accurate (again, not giving any spoilers). Read what the critics/reviewers have to say with a "grain of salt" and form your own opinions. Enjoy.

First the good news. The storyline is excellent. The music is excellent. The outer space shots are excellent. The chicks are gorgeous Swedes. Unfortunately there is only one good actor in the flick. That's the guy who plays the Sith Lord. I suppose playing a bad guy does a give an actor more meat to chew on.

The guys playing Jedi both had the most annoying habit I have ever seen in a film. They walk about in nearly every scene with their hands clasp together in front of them. They appear as if they're covering or supporting their dangly bits. Someone should have yelled HANDS at them every time they did it. I can't think of habit I've seen an actor have in a film that was more irritating. These folks are stoic Swedes acting in this film so they have little energy or charisma. It's not their fault. That's just the way they are. If another movie gets made by the same crew I would recommend requiring the male actors to shave daily. Having a few days of beard on the face of every male that's old enough to grow a beard is not becoming. If you ever use that king again, get him a crown. He might clean up nicely with a shave and a crown.

From there I'm afraid things get a little worse. As a photographer I was constantly annoyed by the lighting and cinematography. For some reason the light was constantly spilling over into the scene around the edges. Nearly every scene had haze and smoke and fog for no apparent purpose. That constant light spilling in from the edges coupled with the particles of fog and smoke or whatever it was made many scenes blurry which is to say pretty awful. Many scenes appeared to have been shot through glass that had reflections on it's surface.

Still, when all is said and done, I enjoyed the movie. It was apparently the herculean efforts of one guy and a few other people. They are to be commended for the efforts. I hope they make another film and get better acting, lighting and cinematography.