Star Wars: The Clone Wars
Synopsis
The Clone Wars are raging between the Separatists and the Galactic Republic. When Jabba the Hutt's son is taken by a group of renegades, two Jedi are summoned to investigate. Anakin Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi depart in search of answers: where is the Hutt's son, and who is controlling this mysterious renegade group? Yoda sends Ahsoka Tano along as Anakin's apprentice, Obi-Wan duels Asajj Ventress, and Anakin finds himself dueling Count Dooku once more. Meanwhile, the Sith plan to instigate a three-way war, including the Hutts.
Written by Henry Gilroy, Steve Melching, and Scott Murphy
Directed by Dave Filoni
Running Time: 98 Minutes
Review by The Claw (*****Spoilers Herein*****)
Star Wars: The Clone Wars Review
George Lucas is at it once again, creating yet another Star Wars movie. Notice the pattern on release dates here? It seems like every 3 years since 1999, he has created one. 1999 had Episode I, 2002 had Episode II, 2005 had Episode III, and now in 2008 he has created the Clone Wars. I wonder now what would it be like in 2011 if Lucas has decided to create yet another Star Wars flick?
I’m not sure exactly where Lucas is going with this movie. Didn’t the TV show aired in 2004 with the same name as a series of animated shorts in the Cartoon Network? Is Lucas trying to pull a Terminator in which the writers of The Sarah Connor Chronicles are pretending that Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines did not exist? The official Star Wars website doesn’t seem to tie the 2004 version to the Anakin Skywalker storyline.
With that being said, this version of the Clone Wars starts out with Anakin and Obi-Wan Kenobi battling the Separatists in a planet (does the name really matter?), trying to take down the enemy’s energy shield. A young Padawan, Ahsoka Tano, eagerly joins as Anakin’s student (much to his initial reluctance to take her as a pupil) to take down the shield. Ahsoka is probably someone you want as a student, as opposed to Anakin, who was a whinny little b—ch in Attack of the Clones. Predictably for every headstrong move she makes, Anakin, like his mentor before him, sternly lectures her to be patient (how ironic, no?)
After that seemingly long intro, Anakin and Ahsoka’s new assignment is to rescue Jabba the Hutt’s son (whom Ahsoka calls him “Stinky”) to ensure a vital trade route in Tattoine, where Jabba resides, to aid the Republic in the Clone Wars. Anakin and Ahsoka’s relationship develops pretty well here, trading witty exchanges, with Anakin calling Ahsoka “Snips”, and Ahsoka calling Anakin “Skyguy”. There’s even some friendly competition of climbing up a cliff during a battle on who can keep up with whom.
The bad guys in this film are Count Dooku (Christopher Lee reprises his role as a voice over) and his apprentice Asajj Ventress, both who convinced Jabba the Hutt that the Jedi killed his son in order to work in the Separatists favor.
While the action and even the lightsaber duels were nothing special, it is a surprisingly entertaining movie, in which the movie continues as a TV series for the Cartoon Network this fall. I can forgive the movie for not using the 20th Century Fox fanfare since the movie is distributed by Warner Bros, but what is inexcusable is not using the classic Star Wars opener, using John Williams’s classic theme, and no slanted text that we’re all familiar with. Instead, it was a modified theme with a narrating voice over that sounded like a 1950s serial. If Bryan Singer can recreate Richard Donner’s opening intro for Superman Returns (as well as using John Williams’s theme, why couldn’t this one?
Samuel L. Jackson and Anthony Daniels also both reprise their roles as Mace Windu and C-3P0 respectively, although Daniels’s voice-over was much livelier than Jackson’s. James Arnold Taylor sounded a bit stiff as Obi-Wan Kenobi, a bit of a contrast to the 2004 version in which Kenobi was portrayed well.
Perhaps because the movie wasn’t as hyped as the live-action versions, it’s only a bit natural to not have such high expectations of this movie. I’m not sure exactly on why this movie at a 19% on the Tomatometer, except for the fact that this movie at best works as a Saturday matinee. At worst, as Roger Ebert (who disliked the film) would say, it looks like a 98-minute TV trailer for the upcoming show this fall. I, for one, am glad that this movie wasn’t as hyped as the live-action ones because I would be really disappointed if it was.
Overall: *** out of ****.
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