Star Wars: The Clone Wars
At the very least, “Star Wars: The Clone Wars”- the seventh film in the “Star Wars” saga- is validation for my long-held belief that “Episode II” of the prequel trilogy should have been a movie about the Clone Wars, the iconic battle in the “Star Wars” universe that was first heard about in the 1977 original. Though “Episode III” was fine the way it was, “The Phantom Menace” and “Attack of the Clones” could have been condensed and combined to end “Episode I” of the prequel trilogy with the beginning of the Clone Wars (and leave out the idea of Anakin as a little rugrat who built C-3PO 🙂 ), giving George Lucas the chance to give fans a true chance to see this major event in the saga on the big-screen where it belongs.
But that’s not what happened. Instead, Lucas- in a blatant money-grab and creative funk as a writer- left much of the Clone Wars out of his live-action saga, and a void to be filled…on television. Between “Episode II” and “III’s” releases we got a taste of that idea in the form of Cartoon Network’s micro-series “Clone Wars,” a ploy that worked so well with fans that an animated series delving further into the battles was announced not lot after “Revenge of the Sith” hit screens. Count me as one of the fans that it worked for (in many ways, even better than “Episode I” and “II” did). But in a surprise move- and I use the word “surprise” rather liberally- Lucas decided to treat fans to a big-screen version of “The Clone Wars” to build up anticipation for the TV show.
Now, I didn’t say that “Clone Wars” was GOOD validation of my belief that “Episode II” should’ve been a Clone Wars movie. The voice acting is fairly stilted, the dialogue is down-right terrible, the story is only marginally compelling, and some of the character animation is pretty jerky, while some of it is more fluid. That said, as a prelude to the television show, it did work in getting me interested in watching said show with the exciting action sequences, even though the voices of movie actors Hayden Christensen (or at least his micro-series counterpart), Ewan McGregor, Natalie Portman, Ian McDiarmid, and- for the love of muppets- Frank Oz were sorely missing in their respective roles (so was the venerable John Williams in his role of composer, but for my money, Kevin Kiner did admirably is most instances when it came to the film’s music, although the variations on the main theme are, well, unacceptable, and the use of any other themes are simply not there).
The story is more interesting than it was made out to be in the trailer. With battle raging about the galaxy, clone forces are stretched thin the opening narration- in place of the traditional crawl- tells us. The Jedi forces leading the Clone army against the Separatist Droid army is doing what they can to win battles throughout the galaxy. But as typically in war, other avenues need to explored if victory is to be had. Separatist forces- led by the Sith Lord Count Dooku (voiced by Christopher Lee)- have kidnapped Jabba the Hutt’s son (a small little tyke that is called, I kid you not, Stinky in the film). Why is this important? The Hutt’s control trade routes along the outer rim planets; whichever side gains their favor will have the advantage in that part of the galaxy. So if it doesn’t make sense that the Separatists would kidnap the kid themselves, don’t worry- they have a trick up their sleeve. At the insistence of Chancellor Palpatine, the Jedi Council sends Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker on the mission to rescue Jabba’s kid, and restore negotiations with the gangster. To say that Kenobi and Skywalker- who’s been given his own Padawan learner despite not being a true Jedi Master yet in the brash Ahsoka Tano (who, truth told, I could live with never really hearing from again- she’s pretty annoying, as is the character of Ziro the Hutt, who, just, no; let’s just say about Ziro- he/she/it makes Jar Jar seem downright acceptable)- have difficulties in the task is to put it lightly.
Anyone expecting the CG-animated polish of Pixar or PDI (Dreamworks’s animation house) will be sorely disappointed; this is a TV-budget production and doesn’t have the luster of a big-screen epic. For me, that wasn’t too bad of a thing, even though- as previously mentioned- the character animation felt stilted and stiff in some cases and more fluid in others. You quickly get used to the exaggerated animated style of the characters, but their movements aren’t always the smoothest. The action is more where this film hit the mark, and that’s where the film really succeeds. True, it’s like watching a big-screen video game where you can’t control any of the characters, but isn’t that why people really want to watch the series anyway? They’re finally getting to see the Clone Wars. True, it’s a more modern culture-inspired version than maybe we’d like, but under the direction of Dave Filoni (who will direct on the series, as well as directed on the Anime series “Avatar: The Last Airbender”), we genuinely get into the action, even though the script doesn’t give us anything worth listening to.
I could rail on as other critics have about the film’s (sometimes considerable) shortcomings, but let’s take the film for what it is- a mildly promising trailer for what could be a pretty damn fun series. True, the storytelling risks that brought the live-action series to life in its best films (“A New Hope,” “The Empire Strikes Back,” “Revenge of the Sith”) are gone, but maybe Lucas has found a way to make a family-friendly “Star Wars” that life-long fans like yours truly might actually get behind as well. I’m going to at least check it out for myself. If I don’t like it, I don’t have to watch it.
