A Short Review of New Star Wars Fan Film “Power”

Avery Bazan and several other directors are currently engaged in various projects concerning the Star Wars universe that, while not sanctioned by Disney or Lucasfilm, are still worth checking out since they bring up a number of interesting ideas that explore the Star Wars universe in a manner that makes it clear that things aren’t always as black and white as we’d like to see them. In Power, Avery’s own creation, a Master Jedi and his apprentice are set against each other as their warring ideologies erupt into a fight of great proportions as the two engage in a fight that takes them back and forth along the coastline in a furious bout that tests their power and capability in the Force as each seeks to convince the other that power is the only thing worth clinging to in the dark times that existed in the years between the downfall of the Jedi and the emergence of a new era that would see the Jedi eventually returned to prominence for a time. Set between Revenge of the Sith and A New Hope, Power is one of many stories that could easily fit into the timeline of the overall story and shows the heated exchange between two of the last surviving Jedi to escape Order 66, as the master and his apprentice took to working undercover with smugglers during this time.

Watching this short film was impressive really since the choreography, despite being just a little choppy in some areas, was still very impressive and I’ll be honest, the lightsaber/blaster combo attack was amazing despite the fact that against a master there’s not a lot of chance that it would work, especially if they can pull a Darth Vader and absorb the energy blasts, or deflect them, with an open palm. In a way this short opens up a lot of ideas about how powerful other Jedi were and the fact that while Anakin was said to be the Chosen One, and Obi-Wan and many other Jedi were known for their exploits and wisdom within the Force, there were at one time many other Jedi that were quite powerful and easily as accomplished but hadn’t received the same level of notoriety as their peers. This is why fan films are important to be realistic, since they open up a wider world that the creators of said stories might not have discussed or even thought of with others. In a way the fan films give rise to an even more impressive level of fan service than the franchise ever could since the writers that Disney has hired on these days, and the directors, are bound to follow the edicts of the Mouse House to the letter, and anything that’s not deemed important enough or pertinent to the story is scrapped.

In all honesty it would be interesting to see what might happen if the fans took hold of the EU canon and came up with their own version of Star Wars, perhaps bringing the library of Star Wars to life from the Expanded Universe canon, in which we’d see a great number of thrilling adventures, not necessarily from the point of view of the main characters, but close enough in relation to see how the stories affected the galaxy at large, and not just the core group that so many people know so much about. Try telling me that people wouldn’t help to support a representation of the Yuuzhan Vong war and I’d gladly laugh, since many Star Wars fans might actually admit that it would be a serious desire to see such a spectacle, or to watch the Skywalker lineage play out long enough to include such characters as Cade Skywalker and his very interesting character arc. At this point there’s no way to say if anyone would have the nerve to take on such a project since it would be one that would require a massive amount of capital for even the simplest of effects. But Avery Bazan and many others are giving us a lot of hope in terms of what Star Wars could become thanks to fan films.

Power is a definite look at the corruption of the Jedi and what it means to question the overall ideology of the order. While the Jedi are meant to guardians, beholden to the Republic and bound to serve in their own capacity as peace-keepers, their proclivity towards violence is in fact hard to deny. The lightsabers they carry aren’t just for show after all, and as master and apprentice battle not just for supremacy, but for survival, it’s more than a little obvious that the Jedi are not always bound by their desire for peace, and in this line of thinking are every bit as violent as the Sith. The difference between them is still palpable, but when survival is the prize at the end of the fight, the line between good and evil blurs, and the first step taken is often the step too far.