Star Wars Revelations

After reading a brief review online last week, I headed to the home page for the Revelations fan production. I just finished watching the DVD they have available for free download via BitTorrent and I'm quite amazed. Here's an exceptional use of the BT protocol to deliver a large file to a massive number of people on the net--and the MPAA says BitTorrent is bad.

Anyway, about the film... it clocks in at over 45 minutes with lots of story, action, and lots of the requisite lightsaber battles. Despite the story feeling rushed and underdeveloped in spots, I felt the overall experience was very close to the official films by Lucas himself only. The special effects blew me away considering that they didn't have a typical multi-million-dollar film budget. The detailed models and backgrounds are convincing and well animated and fit the overall feeling of the universe. Also of note is the musical score, driving the whole storyline much like John Williams' and even has quite a few re-orchestrated classics placed in appropriate spots such as the opening title crawl.

I won't go into the story here to avoid any spoilers... go watch it for yourself because it's well worth the 45 minutes. The acting isn't top-notch professional, but it's really good for amateurs. Considering that they are dedicated fans, I can't say I'm surprised, though. I've already burned a spare copy of the DVD and will start circulating it around at work, as I'm sure many of my co-workers (fellow techie people) will enjoy it as well. I can't say it enough... I'm impressed. Old George didn't shut this production down with his army of highly-paid lawyers so that should tell you something--Lucas doesn't seem to hesitate shooting down any fan projects that might possibly hurt his creation's image (but he gladly ruins it himself with crap like Jar Jar). Anyway, go watch it. Now.