Genre: Documentary
Director: Mark Edlitz
Cast: Olivia Munn, Ray Park, Peter Mayhew, D.M. Atlas, Jeremy Bulloch, Vince Collura
MPAA Rating: Not Rated
Summary: Star Wars has its hundreds of millions of “Star Wars Fans,” but there’s another kind of fan, one whose appreciation goes well beyond mere admiration for the films and becomes a part of their everyday life. This film is a fun, affectionate look at the men and women who have dedicated their personal and
professional lives to all things Star Wars - we call them the “Jedi Junkies”.
Run Time: 75 minutes
Jedi Junkies, directed by Mark Edlitz is a grand tour through the fandom of the Star Wars galaxy. While the film does include a few celebrities, including Attack of the Show’s Olivia Munn, and Star Wars alumni, including Ray Park (Darth Maul), Jeremy Bulloch (Boba Fett), Peter Mayhew (Chewbacca), and more, offering their comments on the fans of Star Wars, the real stars of this documentary are the fans themselves.
The film touches on a plethora of different Star Wars fans. Collectors and their most impressive collections make an appearance, including the director of The Blair Witch Project, Eduardo Sánchez who shows off his own enormous collection, along with some compulsive collectors who have enough Star Wars toys to open their own museums. We also get a look at the tribute band AeroSith, The New York Jedi – a lightsaber dueling/choreography group, a metal craftsman who creates custom lightsabers, a pair of fan films, the comedy web series Chad Vader, and no look at Star Wars fandom would be complete without a glimpse of the female fans who embrace the look of Slave Leia. While many of the people profiled in Jedi Junkies may seem extreme to some…if you’re a fan, they are easy to relate to.
The only real criticism I could point to in the entire film would be the inclusion of “The Belly Dancing Princess“, Amira Sa’id. I’m sure she’s a nice girl and she obviously has belly dancing skills, but her (thankfully short) segment was just awful. It was painfully obvious that she was reading cue cards and her dialogue makes her sound completely full of herself.
Jedi Junkies does and outstanding job of showing the uniqueness of different Star Wars fans. While we all have the same foundation for our passionate fandom, some choose to create custom lightsaber hilts by sculpting metal, some create fan films, some collect all things Star Wars, and some create music based on Star Wars. Something that I found intriguing about Jedi Junkies is how creative and imaginative the fans of Lucas’ Universe are. Keeping the uniqueness of those fans in mind, Jedi Junkies does a great job of capturing the common thread of community and friendship between Star Wars fans as well. In my article celebrating the 30th Anniversary of Star Wars: Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back, I made the statement that “Star Wars has been a catalyst for fandom, the likes of which the world had never seen before!” and this film does a fantastic job of proving my point.
Jedi Junkies is a nearly flawless look at the fans who bind the Star Wars galaxy together. If you’re a Star Wars fan or just a sci-fi fan, you’ll definitely dig this documentary.
I give Jedi Junkies Four Out of Five Stars
You can check out Jedi Junkies for yourself at iTunes or Amazon VOD
