Star Wars: TIE Fighter
Star Wars: TIE Fighter
| 24 March 2015 (USA)
Star Wars: TIE Fighter Trailers

Paul “OtaKing” Johnson drops a real treat in the form of this “Star Wars: TIE Fighter” animated short fan film. Complete with appropriately radical electric guitar solos and impressive attention to detail, “TIE Fighter” casts the forces of the Galactic Empire not in the role of disposable cannon fodder seen in the Star Wars films, but as near-suicidal reckless angels of death. Johnson animated this 7-minute short over the course of “four years’ worth of weekends,” and his love and attention-to-detail shows.

Reviews
Horst in Translation ([email protected])

"TIE Fighter" is an American 7.5-minute short film from 2015 that managed to get millions and millions of views on Youtube after its release roughly 2 years ago. Writer and director is Paul Johnson and apparently this is his only work so far. The film's popularity is of course mostly due to its (relative loose) connection to the biggest film franchise of all time: Star Wars. You don't get it too often that animated films are made about characters and films that are originally in live action, which of course does not include all the superheroes from comic. But here we have one example of such an attempt. And visually, the film is certainly a success. it looks pretty decent and the effects are truly spectacular. Sadly, this cannot make up for the weaknesses in story-telling and character writing as it feels this one has none of it really. It is basically one spectacular scene following the next and it seems Johnson forgot about the core of it all: namely creating a story that justifies the visual side. Nonetheless, for a first film, it is not a bad achievement overall and certainly something to build a career on if he manages to improve in the coming years. Until then, I give "TIE Fighter" (despite the decent soundtrack) a thumbs-down. Worth seeing only for the biggest fans of science fiction animation.

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Nenko Genov

I just can't get enough of these 7 minutes! "TIE Fighter" is in my humble opinion the single most epic fan film ever created, and I have seen many. It is so incredibly well done that if I were an executive at Disney / Lucasfilm, I would immediately contact the creator and offer him a job! This is the living proof that Star Wars, anime and electric guitars mix really REALLY well and I would simply love to get a feature film done in the style of "TIE Fighter" or at least some more shorts or TV series. The camera angles, the movement, the sharp perspective, all trade marks of the anime action directing are present and it looks incredible. The level of detail is quite high, the atmosphere is incredible, the whole thing is just electrifying! It brings back so much of the best days of Japanese animation, back in the days when sci-fi, mecha and cyberpunk storytelling in anime was at its peak. Also some nods to "StarCom: The U.S. Space Force" that I appreciate so much. This is one legendary Star Wars music video that I find far superior to many officially licensed Star Wars visuals that are out there. The Force is more than strong with this one!

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imsometimesavailable

Combining incredible animation and a score that will get your blood pumping, this 7-minute video will make you want to sign up for the Imperial Navy.Heavily inspired by the TIE Fighter video game (probably still the best space flight-sim to this day), no shortcuts are taken on the animation when to comes to rapidly changing camera angles and sleek design. In ways it reminds of the "Call of the Primitives" episode of the original Transformers, but it also has a strong hint of anime (more Akira than Ghost in the Shell).The reaction videos are also great. Finally, I suppose there's this: if you played the original TIE Fighter game, or or a fan of the X-Wing miniatures game, you'll love this short film.

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recklessron

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.Except: It has no plot, no dialogue, no characters (let alone character development) and, seemingly, no point.It is simply a collage of badly done war scenes taken without context.Even die hard Star Wars fans will be hard pressed to find anything interesting, let alone redeeming, in this time waster.I suggest you avoid watching this and just watch the clock ticking as it will be equally entertaining.

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