It’s hard to review this movie without at least responding most briefly to the criticism out there:
What Clone Wars is not: The next Star Wars episode, photo-realistic cg (a la Beowulf), a franchise reboot, a stand alone story or intended to be someone’s first exposure to the Star Wars mythology.
What Clone Wars is: A remix of classic Star Wars action in a sleek stylized animation that, while honoring the original Star Wars saga, brings the mythology and fun into a new form of story-telling that will continue this fall in the animated series on Cartoon Network (or TNT for HD).
Make no mistake, Clone Wars is not and was never intended to be, of the same scope and style as the other theatrical Star Wars releases. From the different opening logos (Warner Bros!) to the absent opening crawl, this movie is a different beast all together. A more apt comparison is to the classic stories of war movies. The audience, joining en medias res, is thrown onto the battlefield and experiences the action on a personal level surrounded by the cocky general (a pitch-perfect Obi-Wan), the fiery rogue with unconventional methods (Anakin), the battle-hardened by-the-book soldiers (Commander Cody, Captain Rex and the other clones), and most importantly the fresh-faced just-off-the-boat rookie, wide-eyed and way over his (or her) head (Ahsoka). These archetypes are mainstays of the war movie genre, and though these characters are mostly not new to Star Wars, the roles may have shifted slightly during travel.
Visually, every single frame of this film is impressively eye-catching and even beautiful at times. The teals of Cristophsis melt away nicely to the purples of Teth and the familiar browns and tans of Tatooine. The scenery is clearly of Star Wars pedigree (some even developed from previously unused Ralph McQuarrie concept pieces) and yet pops with a vibrancy that befits the war. The characters, wearing the war garb familiar to fans of the Tartakovsky Cartoon Series are expanded and adjusted to give each character (and especially the clones) a unique and customized look that fits their personality and battle-style. Anakin, Ahsoka and Obi Wan are defined with rounded Jedi appearances while the separatist leaders Dooku and Asajj Ventress have much more angular forms, showing how incompatible these forces are, and hardening the conflict visually (interestingly the starships of each side show a similar, though reversed, visual divide).
At no time do the animators attempt photo-realism in the characters or environments. The hair and beards of the characters doesn’t move, nor does the cloth flow ripple or billow. Instead, the characters take on an almost stop-motion look…the realization of every action figure battle you held in your backyard growing up. Though purportedly anime-inspired, the look is much closer to the other source of inspiration, the marionette show Thunderbirds. This influence is especially clear when looking at the design of Anakin, but also in the movement and physicality of the characters in their environments. The hits in this film are hard, and the audience feels many of the clones cut down in ways never even approached by the prequels.
Like the Prequel trilogy, the Clone Wars presents a tangled political web that is being worked and manipulated from two ends by the soon-to-be Emperor Palpatine. While considerable mental energy would be necessary to understand the full motivations behind the machinations surrounding the kidnapping of Jabba’s son, the movie doesn’t really ask for that level of investment. Instead it gives you a MacGuffin in the shape of a smelly wriggling huttlet and lets you enjoy the chase and action of the characters fighting over it. Like that other Lucasfilm franchise, the heroes and villains fight over the MacGuffin from Act II onward, and in the end it doesn’t matter what that object is or does, but rather what the characters do to control it. What unfolds is a roller coaster ride of action and thrills as the characters duel, chase and backstab each other to be the first to deliver young “Stinky” to his father.
However, gone from the prequels-era Star Wars is the clunky dialog that grates upon every fan (“I hate sand…”) and the sulky love story of Padme and Anakin (their brief encounter is snappy and double-edged subterfuge…like Alias at its finest). Perhaps most importantly though, Padme is much closer to her Episode I-II personality, that is, she doesn’t just sit around a cry, but is pro-active in her attempts to rescue Anakin, and resembles, in both her dialog and acts, the verve that we know will come in the next generation of Skywalker women (and the one after that, Jaina).
In its essence, this film is a love letter to fans...the casual theater-going fan but more importantly the action figure buying, novel reading, card game playing, Forcecast listening fans who have stuck by this franchise since its inception, or like me, its renaissance in the early 90s. The film features Easter egg “shout outs” to those fans (Admiral Yuhlaran, R2-KT, the Max Rebo Band logo) and in doing so welcomes the older fans to the new, perhaps a bit more kid-friendly Star Wars. As one of those fans, I adored the gift they gave us by releasing this film theatrically, and letting us experience it initially on the theatrical scale.
The absolute best part of this movie is that, at its core, it is simply the Pilot episode for the new series. Like all Pilots, it will display the first shapes of the great series that I’m sure is to come, but not represent the level to which the series can progress. This is the starting line for this series and it can only improve from here. If rumors are to believed (and I sincerely hope they are), the series will have a strong emphasis on character development, taking aim at fleshing out Jedi, Troopers and Seperatists that, while existing only in the periphery of the Skywalker story, can take center stage here. Kit Fisto hunting down Seperatists with a Mon Calamari padawan? The origins and evolution of General Grievous’s robotics? Prototype Y-wings? The fate of Ahsoka? I’m in.
Clone Wars continues this fall with the same level of quality and perhaps a greater level of plot. I honestly believe that fans who have skipped this movie are going to regret not getting in on the ground floor of this endeavor. Director and show-runner Dave Filoni is, above all else, a fan, and we could not ask for a better guide to take us through this new series. Anecdotes from cast and crew suggest that even while working on Clone Wars, Filoni spent his lunch breaks making a peg check at the local Toys R Us.While admittedly I am feeling a bit of Star Wars fatigue (Clone Wars, Force Unleashed plus all the tie-ins give me wallet-ache!), this is the most excited I have been in my history of Star Wars fandom (including pre-Episode I). The cynics will continually deride George Lucas and point to the whole endeavor as being nothing more than a means to sell more toys (animated-style action figures=awesome, btw) however, true fans know that this is a movie for them, and that, as always, the force is forever.
Your Servant, Bongo
What Clone Wars is not: The next Star Wars episode, photo-realistic cg (a la Beowulf), a franchise reboot, a stand alone story or intended to be someone’s first exposure to the Star Wars mythology.
What Clone Wars is: A remix of classic Star Wars action in a sleek stylized animation that, while honoring the original Star Wars saga, brings the mythology and fun into a new form of story-telling that will continue this fall in the animated series on Cartoon Network (or TNT for HD).
Make no mistake, Clone Wars is not and was never intended to be, of the same scope and style as the other theatrical Star Wars releases. From the different opening logos (Warner Bros!) to the absent opening crawl, this movie is a different beast all together. A more apt comparison is to the classic stories of war movies. The audience, joining en medias res, is thrown onto the battlefield and experiences the action on a personal level surrounded by the cocky general (a pitch-perfect Obi-Wan), the fiery rogue with unconventional methods (Anakin), the battle-hardened by-the-book soldiers (Commander Cody, Captain Rex and the other clones), and most importantly the fresh-faced just-off-the-boat rookie, wide-eyed and way over his (or her) head (Ahsoka). These archetypes are mainstays of the war movie genre, and though these characters are mostly not new to Star Wars, the roles may have shifted slightly during travel.
Visually, every single frame of this film is impressively eye-catching and even beautiful at times. The teals of Cristophsis melt away nicely to the purples of Teth and the familiar browns and tans of Tatooine. The scenery is clearly of Star Wars pedigree (some even developed from previously unused Ralph McQuarrie concept pieces) and yet pops with a vibrancy that befits the war. The characters, wearing the war garb familiar to fans of the Tartakovsky Cartoon Series are expanded and adjusted to give each character (and especially the clones) a unique and customized look that fits their personality and battle-style. Anakin, Ahsoka and Obi Wan are defined with rounded Jedi appearances while the separatist leaders Dooku and Asajj Ventress have much more angular forms, showing how incompatible these forces are, and hardening the conflict visually (interestingly the starships of each side show a similar, though reversed, visual divide).
At no time do the animators attempt photo-realism in the characters or environments. The hair and beards of the characters doesn’t move, nor does the cloth flow ripple or billow. Instead, the characters take on an almost stop-motion look…the realization of every action figure battle you held in your backyard growing up. Though purportedly anime-inspired, the look is much closer to the other source of inspiration, the marionette show Thunderbirds. This influence is especially clear when looking at the design of Anakin, but also in the movement and physicality of the characters in their environments. The hits in this film are hard, and the audience feels many of the clones cut down in ways never even approached by the prequels.
Like the Prequel trilogy, the Clone Wars presents a tangled political web that is being worked and manipulated from two ends by the soon-to-be Emperor Palpatine. While considerable mental energy would be necessary to understand the full motivations behind the machinations surrounding the kidnapping of Jabba’s son, the movie doesn’t really ask for that level of investment. Instead it gives you a MacGuffin in the shape of a smelly wriggling huttlet and lets you enjoy the chase and action of the characters fighting over it. Like that other Lucasfilm franchise, the heroes and villains fight over the MacGuffin from Act II onward, and in the end it doesn’t matter what that object is or does, but rather what the characters do to control it. What unfolds is a roller coaster ride of action and thrills as the characters duel, chase and backstab each other to be the first to deliver young “Stinky” to his father.
However, gone from the prequels-era Star Wars is the clunky dialog that grates upon every fan (“I hate sand…”) and the sulky love story of Padme and Anakin (their brief encounter is snappy and double-edged subterfuge…like Alias at its finest). Perhaps most importantly though, Padme is much closer to her Episode I-II personality, that is, she doesn’t just sit around a cry, but is pro-active in her attempts to rescue Anakin, and resembles, in both her dialog and acts, the verve that we know will come in the next generation of Skywalker women (and the one after that, Jaina).
In its essence, this film is a love letter to fans...the casual theater-going fan but more importantly the action figure buying, novel reading, card game playing, Forcecast listening fans who have stuck by this franchise since its inception, or like me, its renaissance in the early 90s. The film features Easter egg “shout outs” to those fans (Admiral Yuhlaran, R2-KT, the Max Rebo Band logo) and in doing so welcomes the older fans to the new, perhaps a bit more kid-friendly Star Wars. As one of those fans, I adored the gift they gave us by releasing this film theatrically, and letting us experience it initially on the theatrical scale.
The absolute best part of this movie is that, at its core, it is simply the Pilot episode for the new series. Like all Pilots, it will display the first shapes of the great series that I’m sure is to come, but not represent the level to which the series can progress. This is the starting line for this series and it can only improve from here. If rumors are to believed (and I sincerely hope they are), the series will have a strong emphasis on character development, taking aim at fleshing out Jedi, Troopers and Seperatists that, while existing only in the periphery of the Skywalker story, can take center stage here. Kit Fisto hunting down Seperatists with a Mon Calamari padawan? The origins and evolution of General Grievous’s robotics? Prototype Y-wings? The fate of Ahsoka? I’m in.
Clone Wars continues this fall with the same level of quality and perhaps a greater level of plot. I honestly believe that fans who have skipped this movie are going to regret not getting in on the ground floor of this endeavor. Director and show-runner Dave Filoni is, above all else, a fan, and we could not ask for a better guide to take us through this new series. Anecdotes from cast and crew suggest that even while working on Clone Wars, Filoni spent his lunch breaks making a peg check at the local Toys R Us.While admittedly I am feeling a bit of Star Wars fatigue (Clone Wars, Force Unleashed plus all the tie-ins give me wallet-ache!), this is the most excited I have been in my history of Star Wars fandom (including pre-Episode I). The cynics will continually deride George Lucas and point to the whole endeavor as being nothing more than a means to sell more toys (animated-style action figures=awesome, btw) however, true fans know that this is a movie for them, and that, as always, the force is forever.
Your Servant, Bongo
P.S.- Obi Wan Kenobi is still the man.
1 comment:
Bongo, you said everything I forgot to say in my review. Well played, sir!
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