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'STAR WARS: THE CLONE WARS' MOVIE REVIEW
Category:
Movie Reviews
Posted:
Friday, August 15, 2008
 Director: Dave Filoni
Writers: Henry Gilroy, George Lucas
Starring: Matt Lanter, Ashley Eckstein, James Arnold Taylor, Tom Kane, Nika Futterman, Christopher Lee, Kevin Michael Richardson
Runtime: 98 minutes
MPAA Rating: PG for sci-fi action violence throughout, brief language and momentary smoking.
Genre: Sci-Fi/Animation/Action/Adventure
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 Star Wars: The Clone Wars is the grand opening of the new adventures of the greatest Jedi team ever, which is caught in the middle of the epic battle between the Confederation of Independent Systems and the Galactic Republic. It combines the legendary storytelling of the Star Wars universe with visually spectacular CGI animation that brings dimensional life to Genndy Tartakovsky's 2-D characters from Cartoon Network's 2003 Clone Wars television series. The Clone Wars is the first of 100 episodes of Lucasfilm Animation awesomeness that is about to take off on Cartoon Network and TNT in fall of 2008. Whether you're excited about this new, untold chapter of the epic Clone Wars battle, or it seems way too kiddie for your taste, it doesn't really matter. You know you're going to pay the money to go see it anyway, because it's Star Wars, it's in your blood, and there's no way that you can keep from seeing it for yourself.
 As I'm sure many of you reading have felt while enduring the images and teaser trailers all during the wait, my expectations for The Clone Wars were a mixture of nostalgic geekcitement, and very low expectations. After all, we are living in a post Jar-Jar world, and we all know that for almost the past 10 years, things have never been the same. But I remain fundamentally bound to the Force, and continue to forge forward, taking in as much as I can about new characters and adventures in this ever-expanding galaxy far, far away. From the opening glimpse of the shimmering emerald Lucasfilm logo, to that silent moment of anticipation just before John Williams' perfect iconic masterpiece bursts out with heroic, thundering brass, I noticed something ... was very different. Without dropping the spoils, let's say The Clone Wars starts out like an old-time radio show. Not to say it's a bad choice in opening, but it most definitely strays from what is usually expected from a Star Wars intro. But I digress...
 The story's plot details a deeper look into the family of one of the saga's most notorious villains, Jabba the Hutt (Richardson). His son (you heard me, Jabba has a son), Rotta the Hutt, has been mysteriously kidnapped by someone in an effort to manipulate passage through the shipping routes of the outer rim, which is exclusively under Hutt control. Obi-Wan Kenobi (Taylor) and Anakin Skywalker (Lanter) are assigned to rescue Jabba's son and find out who's behind the kidnapping. As if he didn't have enough on his plate already, Yoda (Kane) has assigned newcomer Ahsoka Tano (Eckstein) as Skywalker's padawan learner. She's a vibrant, quick-witted Togruta youngling who is determined to prove herself as a powerful Jedi. Tano is to Star Wars as Oscar was to The Brady Bunch. Skywalker's nearing the end of his heroic run with the Jedi, and the kids these days don't relate to the droids like they used to. Tano's character doesn't factor significantly into the plot too much, which leads me to believe her character was added in for tween appeal. After all, they still have a couple years left of their parent's money left to spend.
 Count Dooku (Lee) is in his full, deceitful prime in this movie, as the chapter's main villain. Aside from what we already know of his fate-to-come, Dooku plays the shadow-puppet master, pulling the strings all along the way, and creates a three-way war between the Republic, the Separatists and the Hutts. He convinces Jabba that the Jedi are actually the ones behind his son's kidnapping, and unleashes the ferociously sexy (and bald) Asajj Ventress (Futterman) to assassinate Skywalker and keep the team from returning Rotta home safely to Tattooine. Although an unknowing tool of the Sith himself, Count Dooku always manages to have some new trick up his sleeve. Whether its training some new Dark Jedi like Ventress, or playing every character like a pawn on a chessboard, in the Star Wars universe, Dooku is the true prince of lies. And a damn good one at that.
 One thing I feel must be mentioned about Obi-Wan in this chapter, is that his usual clever quips tend to get really annoying throughout the duration of movie. You can almost pinpoint the times when you know he's going to have some sort of giggly elitist smart-ass comment to whatever situation that may come around. Usually, his quirky humor is used as a guide in attempts to keep Anakin grounded when he gets uptight, but in The Clone Wars, he comes off a little more condescending than usual. But then again, maybe it's just me. I always kind of had to fight back that insatiable urge to stand up and yell at the screen, "Obi! Seriously! Shut the f**k up! We have more pressing matters at hand than your damned giggly patronizing!" Although I'm sure that would be followed up with a force kick in the balls and some snide comment about how he's sure I had a bad feeling about that.
 As stated before, the music in The Clone Wars is a stark departure from the original John Williams opus. Emmy-nominated composer Kevin Kiner, a former conductor of the London Philharmonic and The City of Prague Orchestra, creates music for a new generation of padawans by using a whopping 90-piece orchestra for the animated film. Where Williams' Duel of Fates was the first to use human voices in the history of the Star Wars soundtrack, Kiner tries a new direction by stretching his influences toward the Middle East. Each planet has its own indigenous score to represent its own distinct place in the universe. At first, it's a little weird hearing anything departed from what my ears usually expect from a Star Wars movie, but as a passionate fan of all types of music, I ended up growing to enjoy the direction of the music from start to finish. It's easy to get caught off guard with Kiner's new score, but with the expansion of characters and geography, its understandable that while transitioning influences from real life into this brilliant mythology, influence in music will inevitably play a huge part in that transition as well.
 The promotion for The Clone Wars seemed all over the demographic grid. On one hand, I would see trailers depicting the film as all of the films have been promoted: a new action-packed chapter in the ever-expanding Star Wars saga. Many of these typical trailers were generated to gain interest from its already solid fan base. Namely, me. On the other hand, I saw at least one trailer that looked more like a Disney-esque buddy film, depicting Skywalker and Tano as a rag-tag couple of kids and their Jedi shenanigans as they run circles around those pesky droids and their darn Separatist leaders. At first, these kind of rubbed me the wrong way. I didn't know whether to expect The Clone Wars to be an equivalent chapter, or if Lucas had truly okayed a kiddy movie - because honestly, I never know what to expect from Lucas these days. But after seeing the film, I realized Lucas' promotional strategy. The Clone Wars saga, both 2-D and 3-D chapters, is Lucas attempt to find and create a new, younger generation of Star Wars fans. Where we grew up with Luke, only reading details about his once-heroic father turned to the Dark Side, they are growing up with Anakin as the iconic Jedi hero. It's kind of weird that we went through life focused solely on Luke's quest, and they're growing up fixed on Anakin's. The saga, characters and universe may be all over the place, but one thing is certain - the money's all flowing into one pocket.
 All in all, I liked this movie. It was exciting and entertaining to my Jedi soul. Nothing like the originals, but entertaining none the less. But I can already sense that people are definitely going to be on the fence about this one. It's inevitable that geeks around the world will be debating the good with the bad. There will be lots of scrutiny about the animation and even more about some of Jabba's flamboyant extended family. But hey, it's Star Wars. You're either a half-full or half-empty personality when it comes to these movies, but like I said, it doesn't matter. The story's solid and you know you'll see it one way or another. Whether or not you're excited about the upcoming television series that follows, I'm sure most of us can agree on the fact that nothing's going to kick as much ass as seeing where Vader's secret apprentice takes the saga ... damn I can't wait for that.
- Micah E.
Author's note: My official placement in the Star Wars Hierarchy of Awesomeness:
- Empire Strikes Back
- Star Wars
- Return of the Jedi
- Revenge of the Sith
- The Clone Wars (movie)
- Clone Wars (cartoon)
- Attack of the Clones
- Phantom Menace
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