Star Wars: Origins

'Star Wars: Origins' by Phil Hawkins is hard proof that short films can be just as high quality, epic in scale & attention grabbing as feature length films. From the stunning colour palette, the John Williams-esque score, the brutal & incomparable location of the Sahara, the gorgeous 'Star Wars' blockbuster rivalling cinematography, and evocative, poignant script. I was fortunate to catch this film on the big screen at a film festival and it was my favourite film of the festival. The sheer amount of detail in every single shot, incredible. This team fully deserves the praise it's earning, and the blood, sweat and tears were certainly worth it. I'm a bit of a sci-fi nerd, so I loved every 'easter egg', every nod to films like: 'Star Trek', 'The Mummy', 'Jurassic Park' and 'Indiana Jones' as well as the Star Wars Universe itself. My personal favourite shot being the 'origin' of the scrolling text, so well-known from the series, referenced in a similarly moving close-up of a beautifully drawn, hand written journal. The 'cave'/'pyramid' artwork & candles flickering is another personal love; this film is aesthetically pleasing as the story is moving emotionally & wistful. Highly recommend a watch! Nostalgic, epic excellence.

The family and friends reviews aren't exaggerating - this really is box office movie standard sound and vision. Some of it was apparently on location in Morocco and the special effects are indistinguishable to the amateur eye from what was filmed. I'm just not really able to work out what the point was. For example the most risible bit seems to be a woman driving a jeep through countless miles of desert being pursued by baddies who are unloading mounted machine guns from a few vehicle lengths behind. Then, apparently unable to land a single bullet amongst the thousands that have been fired at nearly point blank range they fire a rocket launcher at her when are within ramming distance. This isn't a spoiler because there's really nothing to spoil. What a waste.

Visually this was on par with the actual movies. Plot-wise it was interesting and funny. The dialog though... could have done without all the recycled quotes. Aside from "I've got a bad feeling about this" the rest are all way too cliché, and took away from the movie as a whole for me. The same goes for the newer movies as well.

Viewers will appreciate the care and attention to detail in pace, cinematography, humor and music. An interesting and entertaining blend of Indiana Jones meets Star Wars.