It’s that time of year again, when we eat, drink and celebrate the release of another Star Wars film. We shall be seeing The Last Jedi this afternoon, but in the meantime I stumbled across a rather good fan film from German company, T7 Production.
Darth Maul: Apprentice is a 17 minute film that speculates about where Darth Maul came from and how he became the character that we see in The Phantom Menace.
The first minute or so sets up the premise and, to be honest, this part felt a bit clunky. This is primarily because — for me — the technologies on display didn’t really feel sufficiently consistent with what I tend to expect from the Star Wars universe.
That said, though, when the film gets going it really is spectacular.
Obviously, because this film is set before The Phantom Menace, it isn’t hard to see how things will end, but watching Darth Maul reach that ending really is gripping. This is especially true of some of the scenes involving Svenja Ju as the Jedi Apprentice. She puts in a particularly strong performance which makes for a genuinely powerful ending.
But that’s enough waffle from me. Darth Maul: Apprentice is available on YouTube, or you can watch it below.
Lightly Seared on the Reality Grill 