Another Star Wars Fan Film

Whew! I apologize for the extended hiatus, readers, but it has been a wild year! Life has hit us all between the eyes since March, and this author has been no exception to that rule. I have been busy, busy, busy these last few months. Unfortunately, that left me with too little time and mental energy to write posts here at Thoughts.

Although things haven’t calmed down entirely, I think I have enough motivation to get back to some semblance of posting regularity. It’s been difficult to keep up with the calendar or even look at it on some occasions, so there have been several major holidays which have passed me by. Hopefully, those will be the last ones to do so this year. Cross your fingers and say your prayers that will be the case!

So let’s see – there are a couple of Spotlight! posts which this author must attend to before the year is up, and there is a certain film she has to review as well. That particular movie required a lot of mulling over, so this author didn’t get to it as quickly as she wished. Now that she has had (more than enough!) time to consider it, however, perhaps she can do it due diligence.

There are also some books that need reviewing here at Thoughts. They have been shaking their metaphorical fingers at the Mithril Guardian for ages, telling her to write about them already so they can go back to sleep on the shelves. I shall endeavor to accommodate them and move on to other subjects in the near future.

In the meantime, I wish to leave you with this fantastic Star Wars fan film. As stated in this post here, your hostess usually eschews fan films. But some friends have recently managed to convince her to give more than a few a viewing, which has led to some experimental prodding on her part.

Admittedly, not all of my forays into the fan film scene have been – er, fun. Some of these films are downright terrible. But more than a few are good enough to fit into the canon of one or more franchise, if the owners were willing to give them official credence. This is especially true of Star Wars fan films, some of which are so good one could wish that they had appeared in theaters.

Hoshino is one such fan film. While it has some gaps in the narrative that make it difficult to pin down in the Star Wars timeline, it feels like it could have been set in either the Old Republic or at some point in the future of Luke Skywalker’s new Jedi Order. The story is short but not terribly so, and it can be viewed in one sitting.

The first thing about Hoshino that one notices is the CGI, and for good reason. Although the filmmakers did not have a big budget, they had more than enough money to pay for some impressive computer generated effects. This is above-SyFy film grade CG, and it deserves some recognition for being done on what was probably a shoe-string budget.

The actors are also quite capable and know their material well. You can feel the titular Hoshino’s impatience with her training and desire to do more, as well as her teacher’s grief when she pushes past her limits too early. And, whatever part of the Star Wars timeline the film is set in, the undercurrents of subtle menace and fear which tie the whole story together are masterfully conveyed through music and editing.

Since they spared so few expenses making this seven minute movie, I thought it best to link to the Making of Hoshino video. The filmmakers hired an orchestra to make the soundtrack for this movie, so they were willing to go as far as they could stretch their pocketbooks on this story. And while it is not perfect, the results are more than worth it!

I hope you enjoy Hoshino, readers. There may be some more Star Wars fan films that appear at Thoughts in the future. But for now, this one will do.

May the Force be with you!

The Mithril Guardian

 

Hoshino

 

Making of Hoshino

Blast from the Past: A Star Wars Fan Film

Normally, this blogger does not view fan films. This is not because she has a particular animus against fan films in general or in particular; for the most part, these stories simply are not my thing. Same for fan fiction – although I occasionally stumble upon some pieces that I enjoy, this blogger does not seek them out. Fan stories find me, not the other way around.

So when a friend recommended The Old Republic: Rescue Mission to this author, she agreed to take a look at it out of respect for and trust in her compadre. The fact that the film’s story is set in the time of Knights of the Old Republic made settling in to watch it easier, since I was already familiar with two of the main characters and some of the storyline.

Rescue Mission is a fan fiction piece set in the years following the events of the first Knights of the Old Republic video game. Mission, the young Twi’lek street thief, has been captured by Mandalorian bounty hunters on Alderaan. The three hope to use her to draw Revan, the Prodigal Knight, out into the open. Pursuing the Mandos are a group of Alderaanian special forces, who are joined by a pair of Jedi who were already in the system and sensed their need for help.

Some might think the inclusion of Alderaanian warriors is odd. Wasn’t Alderaan a pacifist world? By the time of the Battle of Yavin, it was. Four thousand years earlier, however, Alderaanians still had weapons, as well as standing army and navy. Three hundred years after this story takes place, the Sith tried to take Alderaan, only to be repulsed by Republic and Alderaanian forces.

Three members of one of Australia’s Mandalorain Mercs, a group of fans who make their own Mandalorian armor, play the bounty hunters in this film. Having learned about the Mercs a little while ago, this blogger was able to easily identify them by the high quality of their armor and their fluency with Mando’a. I would almost recommend this video based on their performances alone.

Luckily, there are other reasons to suggest giving it a watch. The film’s director does a stunning job portraying Revan, and the voice actor who speaks the Prodigal Knight’s lines also deserves major kudos. He really captures the charismatic power of the former Sith Lord turned Jedi Knight, delivering his lines without the slightest hitch. I can also say that the fan film is well-choreographed. The effects aren’t bad, despite the fact that the production is definitely low budget, and the lightsaber work is very believable.

Oh, before I forget, there is a mild content warning for this film. The production crew does not shy away from blood and death in this video. While it isn’t particularly graphic, younger viewers might have a bit of a problem with the scenes where characters cough up gobs of blood. Since this is Star Wars and there are lightsabers, we do watch someone get decapitated, too. It isn’t an explicit scene, but a particularly youthful audience may want to be aware of it all the same.

Other than these minor items, I highly recommend giving Rescue Mission a viewing. The story is good, the acting is great, and the Star Wars vibe is strong. What more could a fan ask for?

May the Force be with you, readers!

The Mithril Guardian

The Old Republic: Rescue Mission – (2015) Short Film