I hate giving fan films a negative review, because we all know from whence they come: enthusiasm and a minimal budget. Even a bad fan film is still an effort of love for the genre, so unless one is really, really bad, rating one properly is a tricky balancing act between appreciating pro efforts and recognizing decent amateur attempts.
I give this some credit because of the interesting foundation-- a time long before Skywalker, when the Sith and Jedi are at their most powerful and fighting an intergalactic war. I'm not a Star Wars expert so I'm not sure if the concept of a different Empire is new or old hat. Avoiding spoilers but dealing with the plot: the points made are valid-- that both the Sith and the Jedi are extremes. Jedi begets Sith which war upon Jedi and require new Jedi which beget Sith-- that's the story line evidently now being pursued by the Disney franchise. Which is worse-- the Sith or the Jedi? I am guessing none of us will see the end of that story, ever.
Where this fan film falters however is in the obvious essential areas: poor script, poor story line, amateur fight choreography, bad directing and excessive acting. All of these are forgivable in a fan film with the exception of script and story line-- and I never cut anyone slack there. If one is going to undertake such a project, they need a sensible, well-rounded, well-scripted story from the beginning... or drop the project until a good story is obtained. A weak story is the same as building a house without a foundation. No matter how pretty it looks, eventually it's going to crumble.
Here we have yet more badly-presented light-saber duels (are there no experienced fencing coaches among fandom?), tiresome monologues and a goes-nowhere plot line that leaves the viewer taking away nothing. "What was that there all about?" is never a good ending for a film, professional or fan-film, and along with the typical flaws is why I give it 4 stars. I didn't give it the "bad film" 3 stars or below, but there are just better ways to spend 23+ minutes-- and a lot more could have been done with a script 23+ minutes long.
