What a Star Wars junkie learned from 'The Clone Wars'
I saw 'The Clone Wars' this weekend. For those who have a life, here's the skinny: computer-animated, set between Episodes II and III (the eponymous Clone Wars), will primarily be a weekly half-hour show on the Cartoon Network, but the first four episodes were released in feature format in theaters on August 15.
I usually hate the movie trailers that are played before (nominally) kids' movies. 'Wall-E' was an amazing flick, but after the movie trailers I wanted to kill myself and / or get a vasectomy. Were we so freaking dumb as kids that those kinds of movies ('Fly Me To the Moon' comes to mind) would have looked good? I know that's an old man question but I think it's valid. Fortunately the trailers before 'The Clone Wars' weren't terrible. 'Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince' looks awesome... except the trailer still said November, when the movie has been pushed out to next July. Urgh. I'm not happy about that one.
So, on to the movie... I suppose a spoiler alert is in order. Although I'll try not to ruin any major plot points that you won't get from the previews. For a Star Wars junkie like me, there was a lot of interesting stuff in the movie:
1. Baby Hutts are adorable.
2. Anakin gets his own Padawan (Jedi apprentice). And she's a cute alien chick. Stay strong and remember your secret vows to Natalie Portman, Anakin!
3. When Star Wars dialog is great, it's great, and when it's bad, it's awful. This was firmly in the middle. No real highs, no real lows.
4. Jabba the Hutt has an uncle who sounds like Truman Capote and dresses like Elton John. Basically he's Elton Capote the Hutt.
As with the previous animated 'Clone Wars' mini-series, the creators chose a unique visual style an went with it. Actually, the vehicles, settings, and landscapes corresponded with the movies pretty closely. It was just the characters that were ... unique. Once you get used to the style, it works.
Voice acting was pretty good. The replacement for Obi-Wan was good, and the replacement for Anakin actually sounded better than Hayden Christensen. Not that that would take much. Sam Jackson was back as Mace "Grape-flavored Lightsaber" Windu, and they got Christopher Lee's voice for Dooku. Which is good, because almost any substitute for his voice would be inferior.
We didn't get to see much from the Separatists (General Grievous & Co.). I guess we'll see more of them in the series. Ah, the series... yet another reason for me to pony up for cable.
Final word: go and see the movie for some good, pulpy fun. This is probably as close to Lucas' dream of a Saturday matinee serial as Star Wars is ever going to get. Let's just hope it doesn't descend to the level of the 'Droids' or 'Ewoks' cartoons.
Check out the rest of my blog!
I usually hate the movie trailers that are played before (nominally) kids' movies. 'Wall-E' was an amazing flick, but after the movie trailers I wanted to kill myself and / or get a vasectomy. Were we so freaking dumb as kids that those kinds of movies ('Fly Me To the Moon' comes to mind) would have looked good? I know that's an old man question but I think it's valid. Fortunately the trailers before 'The Clone Wars' weren't terrible. 'Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince' looks awesome... except the trailer still said November, when the movie has been pushed out to next July. Urgh. I'm not happy about that one.
So, on to the movie... I suppose a spoiler alert is in order. Although I'll try not to ruin any major plot points that you won't get from the previews. For a Star Wars junkie like me, there was a lot of interesting stuff in the movie:
1. Baby Hutts are adorable.
2. Anakin gets his own Padawan (Jedi apprentice). And she's a cute alien chick. Stay strong and remember your secret vows to Natalie Portman, Anakin!
3. When Star Wars dialog is great, it's great, and when it's bad, it's awful. This was firmly in the middle. No real highs, no real lows.
4. Jabba the Hutt has an uncle who sounds like Truman Capote and dresses like Elton John. Basically he's Elton Capote the Hutt.
As with the previous animated 'Clone Wars' mini-series, the creators chose a unique visual style an went with it. Actually, the vehicles, settings, and landscapes corresponded with the movies pretty closely. It was just the characters that were ... unique. Once you get used to the style, it works.
Voice acting was pretty good. The replacement for Obi-Wan was good, and the replacement for Anakin actually sounded better than Hayden Christensen. Not that that would take much. Sam Jackson was back as Mace "Grape-flavored Lightsaber" Windu, and they got Christopher Lee's voice for Dooku. Which is good, because almost any substitute for his voice would be inferior.
We didn't get to see much from the Separatists (General Grievous & Co.). I guess we'll see more of them in the series. Ah, the series... yet another reason for me to pony up for cable.
Final word: go and see the movie for some good, pulpy fun. This is probably as close to Lucas' dream of a Saturday matinee serial as Star Wars is ever going to get. Let's just hope it doesn't descend to the level of the 'Droids' or 'Ewoks' cartoons.
Check out the rest of my blog!
3 comments:
from what I could see on rottentomatoes, they should've just released them straight to TV.
I agree with Phi. I had the 'opportunity' to see the 'film' and decided not to go based on the sub-20% approval rating on rotten tomatoes.
Do you haters ever get tired of hating?
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