Star Wars: The Clone Wars

I saw this movie yesterday at an early preview, and we took our two boys along with us. We found it to be a fun movie, full of action and more than able to keep our kids' attention. The movie itself jumps right into the Star Wars world without any sort of background information, so those who aren't familiar with Star Wars may be a bit lost at first (the movie takes place somewhere in between Episodes II and III). However, the action is immediate and the story moves along well. There were moments of humor with the battle droids, whose vocabulary has been greatly expanded. With a few exceptions, most of the major characters are obviously voiced by different people than in the original movies (though the actor voicing Obiwan was good--we thought it actually was Ewan McGregor), but overall the movie was enjoyable, especially for the younger set.

This film is gonna have two sets of detractors. One set will be of people dying to see George Lucas crash and burn because they didn't like the prequels. The other will be people who, regardless of their feelings about the previous movies will enter with an ill conceived expectation for a great story. The rest of you, like me will have a blast watching this thing.

This movie is basically an extended pilot for a soon to premiere animated series and it plays as such. We are introduced to our characters, some new and some old and watch them set out on missions that take them through hair raising battle after hair raising battle. There is no conclusion, yet no cliff hanger, just a solitary mission, another day in the lives of Anakin Skywalker and Obi Wan Kenobi. In other words, no attempt at any great earth shattering plot, just a lot of good solid action and fun. Whether or not the TV series will develop more complicated story arcs and sub plots is only known by its creators right now, but its the simplicity that works here. I went into this movie expecting nothing but big action, cool characters and a slick look, and that's exactly what I got. The heart of the Star Wars franchise has always been its fun, and this is a cartoon...they're taking advantage of the opportunity to take the explosive larger than life elements of the films and skew them to an altered animated reality...which is what makes cartoons worth watching.

I loved the design of the whole thing too. It is very graphic and unique and I can understand that it may not be everyone's cup of tea but for me it's a great look. In a time when movie theaters are saturated with CG animated fair, many of which are so concerned with out doing one another with their increasingly real skin textures and bump mapping, it's refreshing to see a film that wants to be different. If you want something to look real, you might as well get a camera. For those of you who thought this graphic simplistic look was some kinda time/money saver, give yourself a shake, they wanted it to look this way. And if you're an animator like myself...take note.

Bottom line, you're not gonna walk out of this movie a different person, and its not gonna win any awards...but it's a hell of a lot of fun.

The action in this animated film takes place sometime after that depicted in 'Attack of the Clones'. The war between The Republic and Count Dooku's droid army is still raging and both sides want access to the space controlled by Jabba the Hutt. When Jabba's young son is kidnapped the Jedi decide their cause will be helped if they are the ones to rescue him. Obi-Wan and Anakin are to lead the mission; they will be accompanied by Ahsoka Tano, a Padawan apprentice who Yoda has entrusted to Anakin.

This may not be the greatest addition to the 'Star Wars' franchise but I thought it was rather fun. The action is solid from start to finish meaning one can easily overlook some of the film's flaws. With the exception of Ahsoka Tano there aren't many new characters. No time is wasted reintroducing old characters; it is clear that the makers expect the viewers to have seen the preceding films. Ahsoka is a fun addition to the cast; I liked how her relationship with Anakin developed throughout the film. There are some weak points; the character designs took a little getting used to and I could have done without the 'amusingly' incompetent droid army... of course it is easy to forget that a key part of the 'Star Wars' audience has always been the fairly young. The voice acting is impressive; some characters kept their voice actors from the live action prequels but most didn't and the new cast sound like the originals. Overall I thought this was a decent addition to the franchise although I suspect it will appeal most to younger fans.

The traditional scrolling prologue is replaced by a transatlantic voice that would have been at home in a 1940's serial. From here, we are thrown into episode 2.5 of the Star Wars saga. This is pretty generic Saturday morning cartoon fare with wooden voice acting and two dimensional characters. The dynamic between Anakin Skywalker and his new sidekick, will grate on the nerves of anyone over the age of 8 years old. The stiff animation makes everyone come across as a cross between an action figure and a Thunderbird. For a theatrically released film there is nothing cinematic about it and feels like a feature length pilot for the animated series.

As a spin off from the Star Wars franchise, it's OK but purely for kids only.

I had a feeling this would be a major letdown (as a Star Wars fan the trailer did not impress me), but it wasn't. It is no great movie by all means, but It does not try to be. It could however be the beginning of something very good indeed.

Good things first.

The movie looked good and had some good CGI effects. It had a nice pace, lots of action-scenes and some are actually OK, without ever being incredible though. The movie had nice voice work also, even though Yoda is not voiced by Frank OZ (but you need the ear of a true Star Wars nerd to notice that). The chemistry between Anakin and Asoka was nice and worked well (it will be interesting to watch that evolve).

Not so good things. Well first of all the story is not too exiting (youre never really at the edge of you seat), but then again this is hopefully just the beginning to something far greater. The movie lacks that one extremely cool action scene or character (you never really get surprised or shocked). The droid humor is really not needed, because it's just not funny. It feels too forced from the lack of other comical characters (Star Wars will do just fine without the tacky humor George). Then there is the facial animation. Sometimes it's OK, but at other times you wish the faces would be a little more lively (they are at times too stiff, especially around the mouthes). I still liked the overall design of the movie and characters though.

Overall the movie wasn't a bad a start, and I will definitely watch the coming episodes with great interest.