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Directed By
Dave Filoni
Written By:
George Lucas, Henry Gilroy, Steven Melching, Scott Murphy
Cast:
Ian Abercrombie, Corey Burton, Anthony Daniels, Samuel L. Jackson, Tom Kane, Christopher Lee, James Arnold Taylor, Matthew Wood, Matt Lanter, Dee Bradley Baker, Ashley Eckstein, Nika Futterman, Catherine Taber
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Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008)
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Movie Review by Thom
August 23rd, 2008
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Now I Know Not To Watch The Show
Star Wars is, for me, a genre unto itself - it's the reason I keep going back to the well even though I've found fresher water in Firefly and Battlestar Galactica. Star Wars has a mix of fantasy and science fiction that, when tapped just right, is special in a special way. It's unique.
Star Wars: The Clone Wars is not unique nor is it special, and I won't even bore you with recapping the story as it were. There are so many things that piss me off about this I don't even know where to begin; I guess I'll start with the technical and move into the more opinionated fields as I progress.
The animation is pretty crappy. Forget that they decided to go with a polygon-type animation style designed to make weekly production easier for the eventual television show; Genndy Tartakovsky's animation doesn't look good as a still life either, but his characters have life and texture with fluid action. Toy Story's animation - from 10 years ago - was better than this iteration of Clone Wars, what with its stiff faces and over-exaggerated movements (one of the red flags of amateur animators). Add to that a lack of scale; in most action scenes there are so few clone troopers, battledroids, or starships that you could name them.
The writing is pretty crappy, matched only by its uninspired delivery and poorly edited conversations (characters argue with what seems like 5 second gaps between retorts and spend most of the movie over-explaining everything). I could have written better dialog, story, and character development when I was twelve. The quips between characters are memorable only in their level of lameness, the story is basic and direct, with any potential surprises cleverly eradicated with superfluous scenes and dialog, and the only character development attempted is Ahsoka and she comes out as a slightly younger female version of Anakin from Episode II, which isn't a good thing.
This iteration of Clone Wars also muddies the timeline between Episode II and III covered by Tartakovsky's Clone Wars webisodes (the best thing that came out of the new trilogy). In Tartakovsky's Clone Wars, Anakin did not know of Asajj Ventress until his first encounter with her on the fourth moon of Yavin, at which time he killed her (sporting his Padawan locks); Obi-wan never knew her. If we are to believe that Ventress survived her beating and fall at Anakin's hand - which would be very lame - could we at least have some explanation as to how? If she's alive with no explanation doesn't it call into question every character's death throughout the entire saga?
The other thing that pisses me off is the same thing that's pissing me off about Star Trek. As with Trek, they've dragged old characters out like old Halloween costumes that no longer fit; I mean, sure, you could go as a pirate again, but aren't there other things you could go as? Both 'Star' series act as if the universe is about as big as a public toilet stall (with a similar odor). With a whole universe at their respective disposal, they keep rolling out the same characters, facing the same challenges. When there are new characters, they're shadows of the same old ones with nothing new to bring to the table.
Star Wars had a really interesting opportunity with the new trilogy to play in a gray sandbox. Cloning, in particular, I felt was an issue that raised no end of ethical and moral questions for our do-right Jedi. Untouched. Other issues would include the Jedi allowing themselves to be the militant arm against a (at first) peaceful secession and a never-had debate on the value of love and friendship (versus the Jedi Code of "be a robot").
All I can hope for now is to live long enough to see a Ronald Moore or Chris Nolan type come along in twenty years and remake Star Wars the way it should've been; to see Star War evolve as opposed to regress. I don't know how he got to direct a Star War animated film, but Dave Filoni wasn't really a director before he got this gig.
Come to think of it, he still isn't a director.
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