Ok, I want to start with a big of a, I don't know if I'd call it a justification as much as a explanation. Why do I do these lists, why do I do the daily history lists.
Because I enjoy it, I think its fun to do, they force me to do a bit of research and writing, and I hope that they add something to this board outside of the whole "Flames suck, hockey makes me angry" vibe that this board sometimes has.
I would go into another reason for making these lists, but at the moment that one might be too personal, and might be construed as looking for sympathy or something like that, so we'll leave that locked behind the storage room door at the back of my brain where it belongs.
Plus someday 20 years down the road, someone will do a google search on "Best video games of the 80's" and there I'll be a touch of immortality after I'm gone. Grim thought process right? Sure, but that's the way it is.
So I thought I'd take a break from video games. Don't get me wrong, I love looking at old video games, and I love the fact that you guys add your own selections to these lists, but I also love movies and creativity. So this week I want to look at some of my favorite fan films. These movies represent the purest form of fan love for franchises, they display the impact of the power of movies and books on a fan, and their desire to use their creativity and ingenuity to add to the stories, or shift things in their own direction.
So I've created a list of some of what I think are the best fan films that I've seen. There are hundreds of these things, some incredible, some incredibly bad.
They might have cheesy effects, or terrible acting as the fans try to become their hero's outside of conventions, some are so bad they're amazing, some are so good that its blinding.
Again, I want to remind you that really these are in no particular order. One thing that you will notice is that these lists tend to be Star Wars heavy, but that's mainly because the Star Wars universe seems to be where amateur film makers tend to go because of the open ended nature of a GFFA.
10) Venom - Truth in Journalism - This film follows the day in a life of Eddie Brock as he's followed by a documentary film crew. This is really well shot and acted, and sometimes films in a docu-drama manner are very cool, especially when you're unknowingly following one of the great Marvel Villains
(Note, unfortunately the you-tube version has had its sound track stripped due to copywrite issues)
9) Power Rangers (2015) - This movie actually almost has a big studio feel, it starts with an incredibly well shot battlescene, and then we find out what happened to the Power Rangers. This is a cool story of betrayal, and a who done it film that borrows almost from the Usual Suspects. Also really cool because it continued the trend of Hollywood involvement in these projects with the Dawson writing and starring in it
8) This was one of the original well known Fan Films as two teenage friends reshot Indiana Jones scene for scene. Mostly this survives as video tapes, but it was amazing because it was a recreation and a real salute to the original film. They reunited to shoot missing scenes. Spielberg loved this film
7) Dirty Laundry - This was a what if movie. What if things went bad when a hero is doing something ordinary, like doing his laundry. It answers the question (Does the Punisher run separate laundry loads). What makes this cool is that Thomas Jane reprises his role as the Punisher, Ron Pearlman also makes an appearance
6) Judge Minty - A sequel or spinoff of the Judge Dredd movies, we always wondered what happened when a Judge retires and goes to bring Justice to Anarchy. This film is all about old age and anarchy as Judge Minty retires and leaves Mega City
5) Darth Maul - Apprentice - I find this movie amazing because it fills in the gap around Maul and also Sideous. Well acted, and well choreographed, it had a big movie feel. It also dove into something that TCW and Rebels explored, that Maul was a victim at times.
4) Scout - Not one of the more well known movies, and one of the simpler movies with two main characters. A scout trooper on one side and a rebel soldier on the other side as they fought for their lives in a confrontation. The ending isn't as much of a surprise as gut wrenching and reminds us that in war, individual battles show that there are victims on both sides.
3) Star Trek - Prelude to Anaxar - This was supposed to be a trailer to a much bigger project, but also illustrated the difference between the Star Wars and Star Trek universe as Star Wars let the fans make whatever they wanted, while Star Trek pretty much crushed this project. Again I love the story line of this prelude, And it contains a who's who of science fiction actors including the late Richard Hatch. From my understanding Anaxar is being filmed, but it might not be as great as the prelude thanks to the powers that be.
2) Darth Vader vs Batman - I can't do these films without including the best of the Super Power Beat Down series, and one of the best ones in Batman vs Darth Vader. This series of films did a what if where they bought together the best of different franchise to fight to the death. In this one, The Empire has captured Superman and Batman heads out to save him and ends up fighting Vader himself. The choreography is amazing and it debates the battle between technology and magic as Vader uses the Force and Batman uses technology, but in the best there can only be one.
1) Troops - This movie actually transitioned fan films from badly shot movies to an actual phenomenon. This was clearly a labor of love as it combined Imperial Stormtroopers with the reality feel of the show cops. Hilarious and sly, when it was posted in 1997 it overwhelmed the site that it was posted on, and on top of that some fans took 24 hours to download it.
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My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;
Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!
Last edited by CaptainCrunch; 03-24-2018 at 11:33 AM.
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Not the greatest movie by any stretch, but I liked how they tried to keep the characters as close to the old games as possible. Plus there’s some NES Easter eggs in it. I find it amazing how these movies can be made with next to no money and are still better than some multimillion dollar productions.
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Entertainment List - Best Fan Films
