posted
The new 3D cartoon offering of the Clone Wars "semi branch-off" franchise has a few things going for it, actually, as well as drawbacks.
I'll go through some sweet stuff first and then switch over to gripes, then weave back and forth.
I have a bit more understanding of the fact that the producers let the movie be set in a time-frame we've technically already passed: there is an established frameset of lore, environments, people and factions (from both the prequels and the previous Clone Wars-miniseries) that, after the rise of the empire, simply ceased to exist or became moot. Also, there is the fact that neither Kenobi nor Yoda could partake in any spectacular "swashbuckling" adventures while being in exile and hiding, for obvious reasons.
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The choice of a 3D movie had the same pros and cons as other 3D-products: ships, vehicles and weapons look great, but facial expressions, emotions and lip-sync can't beat Tartakovsky's more organic, hand-made accuracy. Weirdly enough though, certain aliens like Kit Fisto and others look even better in this simplified drawing style.
The Clone Troopers in this movie didn't use the ugly Phase II Clone helmets (pseudo-stormtrooper) seen in Episode 3, they still had the good old Boba Fett-based ones, and Anakin's special commandos, the ARC Troopers, are sharper than ever. Also, there is none of the boring, lukewarm voice-work of Temuera Morrison in this movie, the ARC Troopers seem to be voiced by Blackwater operatives on crack. They have much more energy and diversity, some clones have different haircuts, and I think I even saw naval officer clones, sans helmets, in the Venator-class star cruiser transporting the jedi knights to Tattooine.
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There where quite a few vehicles and ships shown that weren't used (or used much) in the movies, such as the tri-wing V-19 Torrents, only seen in the beginning of the Clone Wars cartoon, and the AT-TE. Of special note was a new Republic ship never seen before, a wicked cross between a classic Lambda Class personnel shuttle and the LAAT gunship, resulting in the most heavily-armed and flexible attack shuttle I've ever seen in SW. It's definitely not the smallish "Theta class" shuttle Palpatine uses when rescuing crispy-Vader, this new thing is a pure war machine. I guess its name will be spread around once the SW book-writers and schematic-crunchers come out of hibernation again.
There is more screentime for the funny little nemoidian battle droids, and their suddenly-increased AI rather make it worth it. Apparently some of them have learned sarcasm.
There was no General Grievous, except very briefly during the narration in the beginning of the movie (yes, no yellow text crawl this time, kids. Instead they opted for voiceover for some reason, maybe to make the info stick more, since there was a lot of it).
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The main focus of the film was of course the master/padawan relationship between Anakin and Ashoka, the Togrutan jedi apprentice sent from Coruscant. Her demeanor can be confusing at times, because her slight frame and size suggests an awkward ten-year old, her voice is that of a plucky 20-year old and her face can sometimes look like a 35-year old woman's. Also, her maturity and level of experience shifts up and down a few times in the film, but mostly she's just a cocky sidekick testing her limits with Anakin. It's less of a Sensei/student relationship and more of a "Maverick cop gets fresh and cocky rookie partner" deal, which I first found a bit sad. It seemed to take away a bit of the holy mystique from the very serious and deeply-committed relationship between previous masters and students in the franchise.
Ashoka wasn't even close to being as annoying as Jar-Jar though, and she definitely proved herself more useful than Luke Skywalker during about, oh, 95% of "Ep4: A New Hope" (up until he incinerates millions of people on that grey blob-thing in space everyone's so worried about).
What surprised me regarding dialogue in this movie was that, compared to the relatively brief exchanges in the previous CW-miniseries, there's almost too much of it. Almost more than in the live-action movies and most of it is bickering between Anakin and Ashoka.
Kenobi's, Dooku's and Yoda's voices where top-notch (as expected from Lee, Daniels and the other originals), Anakin sounded nothing like Hayden, but that wasn't necessarily bad. C-3P0 was good as ever but got absurdly little screentime.
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R2D2 uses his leg-jets like crazy in this movie and the more they have him use them the harder it gets for them to explain away why he didn't use them in the old trilogy. I don't think Uncle Owen had time to steal them and sell them during those two days of ownership in ANH.
One of the problems with the whole film, something I still have trouble putting into perspective, is the whole premise of the film. It is explained that the various Hutt clans in the Outer Rim control the trade routes outside of the core worlds, and for some reason the bad guys get the weird idea to kidnap Jabba The Hutt's son! Thus do Anakin and Obi-Wan get assigned to rescue the son and allow the Republic to use the trade routes for war purposes, and this is where things start getting dicy.
We know that Palpatine controls both sides of the galactic conflict, and the only point of the whole thing was to get the Republic to mobilize and allow him executive powers. That's it. As soon as he has leverage against the Jedi, it's in his interest to stop the war immediately. Which is why it's very strange to see him both help Anakin, Obi-Wan and Yoda with the Hutt-problem while at the same time instructing Count Dooku to keep the kidnap-victim at all costs in order to acquire the trade routes for the Separatists. It doesn't really make sense, and has nothing to do with the Sith plot line, so a bit weird.
My biggest gripe would be that the Jedi-Sith lightsaber duels (which had grown from okay to quite well-made between season one and season four of the Clone Wars-miniseries) has some real problems in this movie. The limbs and sabers of the characters lack any momentum or mass whatsoever, resulting in very choppy and unconvincing moves, and there's no sense of urgency or desperation to spur the fighters on, something I actually appreciated in the end-fights of AOTC (slip up once against a Master and you lose an arm, as should be). Bonus point for Ventress, who finally uses that old speculated pair of dual sabers which attach into an S.
I do also want to point out that "Star Wars: The Clone Wars" was not overly PG and sissy-like; many clones met very harsh and cruel ends, and there where a few rather insensitive decapitations of characters, one of which was proudly performed by Ahsoka, no less.
So... scenery and effects 8/10,
narrative and immersion 5/10,
Saber-vs-environment 10/10,
saber-vs-saber 4/10 (moves sucked but the different stances where cool and good imitations of the live-action originals, since the animators could handle things that stood still),
Ships, Technology and general Nerd-fuel 9/10
I would give an Extra Penalty for the omission of the classic yellow text crawl and for butchering John Williams' Star Wars theme. You simply got to have that first big horn blast, there is no substitute. However, the cartoon Miniseries didn't have those things either, so I think they slimmed down the opening of this movie so that everyone would get that this isn't an actual feature film on par with the live action ones.
Bottom line: I enjoyed it and thought it worth the ticket price. The heavy focus on action compensate for the lack of plot depth and slave girls. Also the Hutt baby was cute. Oh, and it turns out Jabba's uncle is a transvestite Truman Capote-hutt! Didn't know if I was gonna laugh or tear my eyes out, which was nice.
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Registered: Aug 1999
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Anyway, it seems like I might go see this then. As for R2, considering he was a droid used aboard the Queen's Royal Yacht in Naboo and later as something of an assistant to Padme, perhaps he was extensively modified to undertake these "special" roles. I would think that once the he is in possession of the Rebellion, they probably remove any costly modifications and use him as just another astromech droid.
Registered: Feb 2005
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Daniel Butler
I'm a Singapore where is my boat
Member # 1689
posted
"We know that Palpatine controls both sides of the galactic conflict, and the only point of the whole thing was to get the Republic to mobilize and allow him executive powers. That's it. As soon as he has leverage against the Jedi, it's in his interest to stop the war immediately. Which is why it's very strange to see him both help Anakin, Obi-Wan and Yoda with the Hutt-problem while at the same time instructing Count Dooku to keep the kidnap-victim at all costs in order to acquire the trade routes for the Separatists. It doesn't really make sense, and has nothing to do with the Sith plot line, so a bit weird."
I have a feeling the Sith like to promote conflict for the sake of conflict. They want people fighting amongst themselves instead of uniting against their tyranny. It's always better for an Emperor (or 'Chancellor') to have a conflict going on that he can rally the people against rather than having them all getting along and peaceful. Fear is the tool he used to get into power, and I'd think he'd want to keep people afraid to cement his power. If he ends the war before really transforming the Republic into the full-fledged Empire, people would star talking about revoking his special wartime powers and going back to daily life. As long as there's a war going on, however, Palpatine can justify all kinds of actions in the name of the safety and sovereignty of the people and the Republic.
Registered: Jul 2005
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posted
I saw the movie today, and I was generally impressed. It was definitely a movie geared towards younger fans, but I felt that the plot was developed enough to fit within an hour and a half long movie, and still not interfere with the canon already established by the preceding and following movies. The animation was excellent for the ships, clones, droids aliens and locations, but the "humans" looked slightly weird. Obi-Wan looked like his face was carved from wood, and Dooku had an ungodly large nose. Other than that though, I liked it. For a movie geared towards younger viewers, I agree with Nim, the deaths of some of the clones and droids was pretty greusome. Although, it did fit with the large Clone vs. Droid battle scenes, which reminded me something out of Saving Private Ryan, or Band of Brothers.
So, yeah, I'd recommend seeing it.
-------------------- "Kosh, I'd like to introduce you to our Resident schmuck and his side kick Kick Me."-Ritten
"Fighting for peace is like screwing for virginity". -George Carlin
Registered: Jul 2007
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Daniel Butler
I'm a Singapore where is my boat
Member # 1689
posted
I work at McD's as I've mentioned...we have new toys now. Clone Wars toys. There's a big display of them in the lobby with the caption... wait for it... "BOBBLE, TALK, OR LIGHT UP THEY WILL!" *facepalm*
Registered: Jul 2005
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posted
Here's the V-19 "Torrent" clone fighter, shown in the cartoon but given loftier treatment in the movie. I like the variable positions of the dorsal wing;
And here's the new mystery shuttle. You get a better sense of scale in the movie when land vehicles roll out of the front bay after touchdown;
I saw it Saturday afternoon with my 8 year old son, who loved it, of course. (He had the lifesize Droideka, remember?) It was interesting, half the audience was my age, the other half was his age.
I can't add much to Nim's review, except to say that we didn't see any of Anakin's troubles with slipping towards the dark side. He seemed just like any other fully light Jedi to me. Also, it's a bit odd where this is wedged in. The second cartoon miniseries led directly into Episode III, but at the beginning of it Anakin graduated from Padawan to Knight. So it's somewhere in the middle of that.
The only thing I'm having a hard time digesting is Anakin having a Padawan of his own. He just seemed too young and reckless to be a mentor, but I do believe that was part of the reason Obi Wan and Yoda saddled him with one. And what of Ashoka beyond this? I hear she's supposed to be in the TV series, but what about in Ep III? Can you imagine her reaction when she learns her master is now a Sith? (Assuming she's not already dead, of course.)
Registered: Jul 2002
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posted
I'd assume that she died sometime in and around the events of Ep III, or afterward, because didn't Obi-Wan mention in Ep III that Luke was the last of the Jedi. Of course, I guess he was wrong, because isn't Leia a Jedi too? ( I am no where near as obsessed with SW as I am with Trek, so I am probably very wrong)
Or, maybe she went into hiding and survived. Unlikely though, because I'd assume that she'd be first on Vader's hit list, being his former Padawan and all.
-------------------- "Kosh, I'd like to introduce you to our Resident schmuck and his side kick Kick Me."-Ritten
"Fighting for peace is like screwing for virginity". -George Carlin
Registered: Jul 2007
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quote:Of course, I guess he was wrong, because isn't Leia a Jedi too?
There's a difference between being a Jedi and just being force-sensitive. Leia had latent abilities but was nowhere as powerful as Luke, though in the ever so colorful books of Expanded Universe literature she does get Jedi training eventually.
Becoming a Jedi should really be as demanding as becoming an astronaut, it's a pity TPTB haven't shown more details about time required and phases to be passed. Of course, as long as it isn't specified it's still part of the mystique, and not yet mangled by self-taught Hugo Award wannagets.
Registered: Aug 1999
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posted
I understand we have funky-phresh first-gen Y-Wing starfighters in this one, before we see the literally stripped-down versions in the OT. I've been thinking of avoiding this one due to the generally negative reviews I've been reading, but maybe I'll have a go after all.
posted
I remember seeing the V-19 and the slightly modified Delta 7 fighters, but I don't remember seeing the Y-Wing. I have seen the concept art for it, but completely forgot about it when we saw the movie. If it was in the background somewhere, I missed it, but it was definitely not in the foreground action.
Registered: Jul 2002
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Also that "mystery shuttle" looks like the lambda shuttle from the classic movies, albeit with a different cockpit and no middle "wing".
Registered: Feb 2005
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