Epinions Time Capsule: 'Star Wars: The Clone Wars' Movie Review
Pros: Reasonably good story; a good introduction
to the TV series
Cons: Emphasizes action over plot
In October 2008, Time-Warner's Cartoon Network will begin to
air The Clone Wars, an animated Star Wars series produced by
Lucasfilm Limited and Warner Bros. as part of the ongoing Clone Wars
multimedia franchise set "a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far
away,"
Produced by George Lucas and Catherine Winder, the first season will consist of 22 episodes dealing with the conflict between Count Dooku's Confederacy of Independent System (or Separatists) and the Galactic Republic led by Supreme Chancellor Palpatine and protected by the Jedi-led clone army. (A second TV live-action series, set between Revenge of the Sith and A New Hope will air on TNT, which is also owned by Time-Warner; it's supposed to air in 2009.)
Although Lucas had said that after Revenge of the Sith there wouldn't be any more Star Wars theatrical films, he apparently liked some of the footage being done for The Clone Wars that he suggested to supervising director David Filoni that maybe it would be nice to kick off the series with a made-for-theaters feature length movie.
Star Wars: The Clone Wars is set somewhere between the first and second season of the 2-D animated series Clone Wars and continues bridging the three-year gap between Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith.
It is a dark time for the Republic. Count Dooku and the Separatists are mounting a campaign to overthrow the overextended and increasingly debilitated Republic. Supreme Chancellor Palpatine, once democracy's great hope and seemingly above the corruption and petty ambitions that have been poisoning politics in the galaxy, has become more determined to crush the Separatists and keep the galaxy united even if it means having to assume almost dictatorial powers. And to fend off the attacks from Count Dooku's massive droid armies, Palpatine is leaning more and more on the overextended Jedi Order and the new - and growing - Republic military.
The film opens with the spectacular kidnapping of Rotta the Hutt, Jabba the Hutt's young son, by secret operatives using an octopus-like starship which literally snatches a Sail Barge from the desert wastes of Tatooine and heads off into deep space.
The story then centers on Anakin Skywalker (Matt Lanter) and Obi-Wan Kenobi (James Arnold Taylor) as they lead elements of the Republic's army of clones against the Retail Clan's General Loathsom (Corey Burton) and his battle droids on the planet Christophsis.
Although the Jedi and the clones seem to be winning the battle at first and the Republic's fleet is sent off on another assignment, Loathsom unleashes a secret weapon - a mobile deflector shield - and leaves Anakin, Obi-Wan, Capt. Rex (Dee Bradley Baker) and the clones deep within Separatist space, unsupported, unsupplied, and vastly outnumbered.
A Republic shuttle somehow lands on Christophsis, but it doesn't carry supplies or reinforcements. Instead, Generals Skywalker and Kenobi are joined by 14-year-old Ahsoka Tano (Ashley Eckstein), who has been promoted to Padawan to serve as a Jedi Apprentice.
It's assumed that Obi-Wan will be Ahsoka's new master, but Yoda has assigned her to be Anakin's apprentice; having a Padawan, it is hoped, will help young Skywalker to rein in his impulsive nature while helping to train the next generation of the Jedi Order.
Eventually, the Jedi and the clones defeat Loathsom, but soon Anakin, Ahsoka, and Obi-Wan are drawn into a complex web of plots and counterplots as the evil Sith manipulate the abduction of Jabba's son to set up a war between the Hutt clans that control the space lanes in the Outer Rim and the Republic, which needs to use those lanes in order to move to and fro across the galaxy.....
Produced by George Lucas and Catherine Winder, the first season will consist of 22 episodes dealing with the conflict between Count Dooku's Confederacy of Independent System (or Separatists) and the Galactic Republic led by Supreme Chancellor Palpatine and protected by the Jedi-led clone army. (A second TV live-action series, set between Revenge of the Sith and A New Hope will air on TNT, which is also owned by Time-Warner; it's supposed to air in 2009.)
Although Lucas had said that after Revenge of the Sith there wouldn't be any more Star Wars theatrical films, he apparently liked some of the footage being done for The Clone Wars that he suggested to supervising director David Filoni that maybe it would be nice to kick off the series with a made-for-theaters feature length movie.
Star Wars: The Clone Wars is set somewhere between the first and second season of the 2-D animated series Clone Wars and continues bridging the three-year gap between Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith.
It is a dark time for the Republic. Count Dooku and the Separatists are mounting a campaign to overthrow the overextended and increasingly debilitated Republic. Supreme Chancellor Palpatine, once democracy's great hope and seemingly above the corruption and petty ambitions that have been poisoning politics in the galaxy, has become more determined to crush the Separatists and keep the galaxy united even if it means having to assume almost dictatorial powers. And to fend off the attacks from Count Dooku's massive droid armies, Palpatine is leaning more and more on the overextended Jedi Order and the new - and growing - Republic military.
The film opens with the spectacular kidnapping of Rotta the Hutt, Jabba the Hutt's young son, by secret operatives using an octopus-like starship which literally snatches a Sail Barge from the desert wastes of Tatooine and heads off into deep space.
The story then centers on Anakin Skywalker (Matt Lanter) and Obi-Wan Kenobi (James Arnold Taylor) as they lead elements of the Republic's army of clones against the Retail Clan's General Loathsom (Corey Burton) and his battle droids on the planet Christophsis.
Although the Jedi and the clones seem to be winning the battle at first and the Republic's fleet is sent off on another assignment, Loathsom unleashes a secret weapon - a mobile deflector shield - and leaves Anakin, Obi-Wan, Capt. Rex (Dee Bradley Baker) and the clones deep within Separatist space, unsupported, unsupplied, and vastly outnumbered.
A Republic shuttle somehow lands on Christophsis, but it doesn't carry supplies or reinforcements. Instead, Generals Skywalker and Kenobi are joined by 14-year-old Ahsoka Tano (Ashley Eckstein), who has been promoted to Padawan to serve as a Jedi Apprentice.
It's assumed that Obi-Wan will be Ahsoka's new master, but Yoda has assigned her to be Anakin's apprentice; having a Padawan, it is hoped, will help young Skywalker to rein in his impulsive nature while helping to train the next generation of the Jedi Order.
Eventually, the Jedi and the clones defeat Loathsom, but soon Anakin, Ahsoka, and Obi-Wan are drawn into a complex web of plots and counterplots as the evil Sith manipulate the abduction of Jabba's son to set up a war between the Hutt clans that control the space lanes in the Outer Rim and the Republic, which needs to use those lanes in order to move to and fro across the galaxy.....
My Take
Although Star Wars: The Clone Wars is perhaps the only of the seven
films in the series that I could have skipped and not felt like I missed
anything important, I don't think it's an unwatchable mess along the lines of
the infamous Star Wars Holiday Special of the late 1970s.
Yes, I will admit that it was very strange to go see the first Star Wars film that (a) doesn't have a score by John Williams, (b) is all animated, and (c) wasn't released by 20th Century Fox, a studio whose association with the franchise is so burned into fans' memories that the last four re-releases of the Classic Trilogy soundtrack albums include the Alfred Newman Fox fanfare as the first track.
And yes, I'll also admit that the animation style, which Lucas deliberately decreed should not be realistic nor too Pixar-like, does look odd at first. It's got elements borrowed from the 2-D Clone Wars series of several years ago and bears strong Japanese anime influences, but once the viewer gets into the story, it works well.
The voice acting was pretty good, considering that Hayden Christensen, Ewan McGregor, and Frank Oz didn't reprise their roles as Anakin, Obi-Wan, and Yoda. Instead, we have Matt Lanter from CSI, James Arnold Taylor, and Tom Kane as those major Jedi characters, but their performances are so good that the viewer doesn't really notice any difference.
The story was all right, perhaps a bit heavy on the action to the detriment of plot and character development; I think the whole thing with Jabba's kid was intended to appeal more to kids than to adults, but that's all right; the movie doesn't deviate much from the live action Episodes' more substantial mix of action, adventure, and the struggle Anakin Skywalker must wage within himself to be a good Jedi while resisting the lure of the dark side of the Force.
Indeed, one interesting aspect is that we see Anakin's strong emotional reaction to returning to his home planet of Tatooine, a place he isn't too fond of because he'd spent most of his childhood as a slave there and his mother Shmi died there at the hands of the Tusken Raiders.
All in all, Star Wars: The Clone Wars is neither an epic Episode along the lines of The Empire Strikes Back nor a disaster like the Holiday Special I mentioned earlier. It's Star Wars, a bit watered down perhaps, and perhaps a bit too kid-friendly for some die-hard fans, but it's entertaining, fun to watch, and a good introduction to the upcoming TV series.
Yes, I will admit that it was very strange to go see the first Star Wars film that (a) doesn't have a score by John Williams, (b) is all animated, and (c) wasn't released by 20th Century Fox, a studio whose association with the franchise is so burned into fans' memories that the last four re-releases of the Classic Trilogy soundtrack albums include the Alfred Newman Fox fanfare as the first track.
And yes, I'll also admit that the animation style, which Lucas deliberately decreed should not be realistic nor too Pixar-like, does look odd at first. It's got elements borrowed from the 2-D Clone Wars series of several years ago and bears strong Japanese anime influences, but once the viewer gets into the story, it works well.
The voice acting was pretty good, considering that Hayden Christensen, Ewan McGregor, and Frank Oz didn't reprise their roles as Anakin, Obi-Wan, and Yoda. Instead, we have Matt Lanter from CSI, James Arnold Taylor, and Tom Kane as those major Jedi characters, but their performances are so good that the viewer doesn't really notice any difference.
The story was all right, perhaps a bit heavy on the action to the detriment of plot and character development; I think the whole thing with Jabba's kid was intended to appeal more to kids than to adults, but that's all right; the movie doesn't deviate much from the live action Episodes' more substantial mix of action, adventure, and the struggle Anakin Skywalker must wage within himself to be a good Jedi while resisting the lure of the dark side of the Force.
Indeed, one interesting aspect is that we see Anakin's strong emotional reaction to returning to his home planet of Tatooine, a place he isn't too fond of because he'd spent most of his childhood as a slave there and his mother Shmi died there at the hands of the Tusken Raiders.
All in all, Star Wars: The Clone Wars is neither an epic Episode along the lines of The Empire Strikes Back nor a disaster like the Holiday Special I mentioned earlier. It's Star Wars, a bit watered down perhaps, and perhaps a bit too kid-friendly for some die-hard fans, but it's entertaining, fun to watch, and a good introduction to the upcoming TV series.
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