Fan Film - An Idiot’s Array (Review)

  In Sabbac, an Idiot's Array is the winning hand. But that's only partly the focus of this fanfilm. It centers around a mechanic, Quip Farguil, who wants to gamble his freedom for a ship that he, according to Legends, will name the Millennium Falcon. He is accompanied by Eno Satori, a grey Jedi who's hiding from the Empire.

  It opens with an outstanding shot of Coruscant. Then it transitions to a metro terminal, which is surprisingly empty considering it's on the planet that never sleeps. But they did decorate it with some authentic Star Wars fonts. And then Quip and Eno are passing through while Quip is explaining his plan. The bickering is quite amusing, and it does a decent job introducing their characters except for revealing their names. They do reveal the previous name of the Falcon though: Stellar Envoy. I absolutely love all the different aliens we see in the bar. And Jenga blocks as betting chips? Fantastic! 

  Then they get to the playing room, and I love that they actually brought in Garindan. They also show Boba Fett watching them from the shadows, which is cool. Quip breaks his word by offering Eno as collateral, and he immediately loses his friend's freedom. I hate that the game was immediately over with one hand. This cringy moment kills my immersion in two ways; firstly it's insanely stupid to bet someone's freedom on one round no matter how good of a gambler you are, and secondly it shows too little of the game to let me care about the outcome. I'm not asking for a real game of course, but a little more effort could be put into this, like giving him a stack of chips to play a dozen  rounds with. The guy running the show gives Quip the option for double or nothing, and Garindan's reaction to his is incredibly funny. In this round Quip wins with an Idiot's Array, which of course is very predictable.

  And then it gets interesting. They figured out Quip is a Rebel and thus an easy pay-day, so they want to deliver him to the Empire. Then Boba Fett steps in and wants to claim the bounty that he's been trailing. So they end up in a Corellian Stand-off, a nice play on words on Mexican Stand-off. This means three different parties all at each other's throats. Boba Fett's actor nailed it, despite the Australian accent he is very authentic. Eno pulls out his lightsaber, and kills the guy who was detaining him (yay Wilhelm scream), and then get into close combat with Boba Fett. And here they show just how competent Fett is versus a guy how hasn't had proper Jedi training. Even when Eno gets a hit, the Mandalorian steel protects our favorite bounty hunter. After a short skirmish, Quip is able to overpower the other guy, but Boba has overpowered Eno. Quip fires his blaster, misses Boba but hits the roof, and right when Boba wants to fire his rocket (really stupid in these close quarters, but what the hell; he's got armor) the roofbar drops on his head. A good, albeit cheesy, end for this fanfilm.

Article by: Joel “Mith” Storms