Broken Allegiance

I would have rated this higher except for the cliche "light saber fight in the forest" theme. I mean... can't fans come up with more original environments and concepts?

That said, this rocks. BEST fight choreography I've seen in any Star Wars film... big screen or fan. The bounty hunter's ship was awesome. Special effects weren't pristine... but good for a fan film.

Story was cliche and didn't consist of much more than "trying to get away and fighting the whole way". It's an action film, go figure. So not a lot in the way of originality, but it pulls off what it intends pretty well.

Favorite line in the film: "Wrong species!" That's gonna be a classic. :D

Excellent Star Wars-fan film. Special effects looked good and plausible and acting was ok. The plot is the main key - movies is not comedy as fan films usually are, and I consider that to be great. This could be a commercial spin-off! Although characters lack the evil mind of the Dark Side Devotee and considering their amounts of training, I don't think they would handle the Force Lightning... but I think they work out just fine to story like this.

Great fan fiction, best Star Wars fan movie I've seen this far.

Good job, boys! I think this is a pretty good film, with good actors, good director and very good fighting scenes! I hope we'll see a sequel soon!

Of all of the really poor fan films, this is one of the better ones, which isn't saying much. The plot is a wonderful idea, but the script is poor. The acting doesn't help to clean it up much either. There is very little character development and the story seems rushed. I can see this evolving into a series of films that follow the empire's pursuit of Ruan and Calis. If it does, I hope the character development is given a little more attention. The writing needs something, maybe some literary help from an English professor or teacher. The opening story synopsis that is presented in the traditional Star Wars fashion (tilted and fading away) says it all. The opening synopsis switches tenses from past to present which is a no-no in literature and reeks of mediocrity.

The only thing that saves this film from being a complete disaster (besides Niobe Dean, looking the way she does) is the wonderful cinematography. The camera work was very smooth and professional. The director took the time to set up every shot to avoid the scene looking like someone holding a handycam. They also tried to stay away from static tripod shots which other fan films have bored us with. Someone on the crew has clearly taken or is taking film making education.

Even though the special effects are somewhat cartoonish (as can be expected with their limited budget), they tried to focus on building actual sets rather than relying solely on computer models like other fan films have done. This gives the picture a more mature and believable look. I loved the use of actual pyro in this. Most fan films rely on cg pyro which is garbage and cheapens the film.

I hate to close it out this way but again, it seems as though a group of people wanted to make a fan film and utilize the available computer tools for effects rendering and so forth. This seems to be a plague among fan films. Concentrate on making a good picture, then spice it up. Don't build a picture around your effects. This film would be so much better if the writing was refined and the characters were more developed. This is a step in the right direction for a fan film, but it can do so much better.

Most Star Wars fan films give themselves away with bad lighting and bad acting. Special FX are easy enough, but the kind of care and skill that has to go into things like proper lighting are often overlooked by filmmaker wannabes. Amateur filmmakers also often fall for the temptation to cast themselves and their friends in their film rather than trying to cast actual actors (amateur or, preferably, professional), leading to horrific acting that becomes a constant distraction. Combine these sorts of "giveaway" serious fan films with an annoying proliferation of Star Wars spoof and parody fan films (it wasn't even that funny ten years ago, guys) and one can see a real problem.

Finding a good Star Wars fan film is like looking for an oasis in a desert of bad acting, bad lighting, overplayed special effects, and lame jokes.

So, when I came across the gem that is "Broken Allegiance" it warmed my heart. Combining professional production values (including great lighting, costuming, etc.) with professional actors and a compelling script, "Broken Allegiance" is the kind of thing more young filmmakers should strive for. Everything about this film says "professional," to the point where it looks virtually indistinguishable from an actual Star Wars film in many instances (it only gives itself away a little in some of the effects shots and in some mildly melodramatic moments among the actors).

I want give away too much about the story here except to say that it is about two dark Jedi apprentices fleeing Darth Vader in the period between Star Wars and The Empire Strikes Back. Over the course of the film, expect to develop real sympathy for the characters and their plight (and learn a subtly-presented secret that they're hiding from Vader).

This is the first time I've ever seen a Star Wars fan film that left me longing for its sequel (or, more accurately, continuing serialization). If Lucasfilm had any sense (and they don't), they would hire the people behind this and turn it into a television series.