646f9e108c A short Star Wars animation, focused on the Empire, drawn and shaded in the style of classic '80s anime. Empire and rebel forces engage in a frantic all-or-nothing dogfight in space, but the Empire has 3 Tie Fighter aces up its sleeve.
The first thing I note of interest is that this is copyright Lucasfilms. That was a bit unexpected. However, that fact made the presentation that much more disappointing.<br/><br/>This is interesting in that it is presented from the standpoint of the tie fighter pilots viewing the rebels as the enemy force that must be destroyed for the good of the Empire. Few people stop to think about the flipside of the coin-- and realize that Rebels and Jedi kill people too... and those people have families and mothers and fathers and siblings just like everyone else. "Are the Jedi really the good guys?" is a question all to often not asked. This is especially so when we see how Obi Wan deals with his enemies (he seems to have rather a habit of cutting off limbs and leaving the mangled owner behind).<br/><br/>That considered, the twist in story is interesting. Unfortunately that's all the story provided as this proves to be nothing more than a continual dog fight throughout. It is done in the style of anime but several of the scenes seem to "jerk" or "slide"... lacking the finesse and art of good anime. The animation in this is decent enough, but isn't flawless.<br/><br/>It is both glitchy animation and lack of any story line whatsoever that drops this to a "barely okay" 4 stars for me. The short has no emotion, no climax, no resolution. It's like watching a child with toy spaceships going PEW! PEW! PEW! There's zero substance, so all that's left to rate is the anime. The anime pulls four stars of its own, but cannot hold up a short with no plot or story. As I always say: start with a good script first, then make the film. A commercial can do it in 30 seconds. Surely someone with 7 minutes can manage to accomplish more than exploding spaceships.
If you like watching 2 dimensional illustrations that appear to be overlaid on further away 2 dimensional illustrations also overlaid on even further away 2 dimensional illustrations all trying to look like 3D animation then this might be entertaining.<br/><br/>Except: It has no plot, no dialogue, no characters (let alone character development) and, seemingly, no point.<br/><br/>It is simply a collage of badly done war scenes taken without context.<br/><br/>Even die hard Star Wars fans will be hard pressed to find anything interesting, let alone redeeming, in this time waster.<br/><br/>I suggest you avoid watching this and just watch the clock ticking as it will be equally entertaining.