Star Wars: A Galaxy In Darkness

Description
For the first time in about two years of reviewing files here, I have to say that this time I am actually speechless…

*Uneasy silence*

The first thing really that I should probably say is; [b]WHAT HAVE I MISSED?![/b]. Yep, that’s right, unfortunately the previous episodes of this saga have completely slipped past me and after watching this I feel that I have missed out on one hell of a brilliant series here. Therefore I am reviewing this movie as a newcomer to the series, though I fully intend to download and watch the previous episodes at the nearest possible opportunity! :D

So, what are the main points that struck me straight away with this movie? Well, the first thing that made my eyes pop out of my head like some shocked cartoon character was the length of this film. Now I’ve seen plenty of JKA movies and videos before and usually you can fit a decent film into 10-15 minutes. This movie is [b]45 minutes[/b] long! Yes that’s right, this is actually the length of a proper high budget TV show. I actually had to look at the little progress bar at the bottom several times for my brain to register that it actually said 45 minutes!

This movie is far too long for me to be able to cover everything that caught my attention. There were so many references - some subtle and some not so subtle - to the Expanded Universe and the New Jedi Order novels in particular (of which I have read all of them). So, rather than spoiling the film for you by telling you too much about it, I will paste in the author’s synopsis below and then point out a few of my favourite bits of the film.

[b]The Synopsis[/b]

[quote]Alien invaders known as the Yuuzhan Vong have appeared at the edge of the galaxy. With victory after victory, this savage new enemy has reached the galactic core.

Vastly outnumbered, the New Republic fleet has gathered to meet the aliens head on as they launch their deadliest assault yet.

Having risen to the rank of admiral, the Dark Jedi now races to Coruscant with desperately needed reinforcements that could change the tide of battle....[/quote]

One aspect of this movie that I particularly liked was the mixture between footage from Jedi Academy and Empire At War. At first I wondered whether mixing two different games like that was a good idea, but the film has been masterfully edited together, and the scenes from both games flow seamlessly. Next to leave me speechless was the music which features various tracks from the Star Wars films, plus even some music from Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. The music, like the film itself flowed virtually seamlessly from scene to scene, switching from one track to another with very little noticeable change.

The story itself was well scripted and well directed, the voice acting was also very impressive. In fact…I could have sworn some of the people sounded just like a couple of the voice actors out of Knights of the old Republic… But maybe that is just my overactive imagination! :P

A few plot points and references that I noticed and particularly liked were:

- The Battle of Coruscant.

- The last stand of Chief of State Borsk Fey'lya in the Imperial Palace on Coruscant.

- The reference to the fleet of 10,000 Yuuzhan Vong ships sent to take Coruscant. I seem to remember that figure actually being given in the books, Star by Star I think it was.

- The references to Chiss space, which also featured quite a bit in the NJO Series.
- The Yuuzhan Vong characters actually using the Vong names for their bio-creations, half of which I would have thought were unpronounceable!

- Admiral Worf’s ‘don’t do a Falcon on me’ line.

- Loads of others!

I must say that I was a bit chuffed to see that my Mustafar map made in there briefly too! :D

I am glad to see too that the cast included a good variety of people from different countries, if everyone has an American accent, it’s not exactly very ‘Star Wars-y’ and does get a little annoying after a while. Like I said though, the cast is an excellent mixture of people from all over.

Now, onto the tricky part…improvements.

To be honest, I am so impressed with the quality and scope of this production, that I am hard pressed to think of ways it could have been improved. Personally I would say that some of the dialogue could have been a bit clearer, as the voices of some characters sounded a little muffled. I think some of the saber duels could have been a little more fluid as well, perhaps using a greater variety of moves.

Really that is all I can think of at the moment, I am still pretty blown away by this film. In fact I am going to try and find some way to burn it to a DVD so I can actually watch it on the TV, because I think that that is what it deserves! One thing I definitely would say though is [b]please make a HD or higher quality version of this movie![/b] As the footage does get a little grainy at times.

Well, that about wraps it up folks. Instead of saying my usual ‘if you like the look of it, give it a download’ line, I am instead going to say that this really is a [i]must download[/i] especially for fans of the NJO books. In fact…wait, let me try something…

*Waves Hand*

[i]You will download this file…[/i]

~Nozyspy~