THE INVISIBLE ENEMY
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review written 7/20/2003

You can't go wrong with Ewok jokes. And this film definitely had the right ideas. It simply suffers in the execution. A brisk comedy cannot afford to plod, and The Invisible Enemy has issues.

The crawl is painful to watch. Wrong font, bad centering, weird spacing. Graphics and effects are not this film's strong suit. But look at the neat stormtrooper costumes! And I like how the light plays on them from the trees.

Voices in this film are problematic. There was clearly trouble timing the neccesary overdubbing when performing the actions. As a result, all the dialogue sounds Shatner-ized. Which is a shame, because there's some good jokes. Private Johnson may be the first gay joke in fan film history, and it's surprisingly funny. Mostly because no one thinks he's much of a trooper, and he's the only one who has a good bead on Endor.

I like the inspiring music that plays during the head stormtrooper's speech, and the jovial laughter at the "ultimate evil" joke. When the humor can be timed in post rather than in-camera, the jokes work in this film.

The Ewok attack effects are amusing and well-done. Showing just the hands is funnier than showing the whole thing. Sometimes comedy works best when the viewer connects the dots in his own head. Their voices sound pretty good too.

Vader appears: nice surprise. His helmet looks a little cheap, though, and it's made too obvious that the group didn't have the rest of the costume. While the voice is a little off, I love his dialogue. "Interesting" is an instant smile. Palpatine is not too well-handled. Again, dubbing issues.

Elliot Selle had a vision when he did this. The vision is on the screen, albeit in muddled form. That's gotta be worth something.