Love 'em or hate 'em (or even if you're neutral on the subject), there's no denying that George Lucas knows how to milk a franchise for everything it's worth and wring every last dime, nickel and penny from it, as well as diehard fans who started their adoration way back in 1977.
Since then, there have been six live-action movies (that have grossed a gazillion dollars or so worldwide -- intergalactic box office figures were not available at press time -- no doubt thanks to re-releases in the theaters and a multitude of versions on home video), a bazillion toys and other pieces of merchandise, novels, comic books, TV movies and shows, and, not surprisingly, video games. All of which have made Mr. Lucas a very rich man.
Not content with thirty-years of money-making (who can blame him?), we now have the first full-length animated "Star Wars" film to hit the big screen, "Star Wars: The Clone Wars," a fully computer-generated theatrical precursor to the animated TV series of the same name that will be debuting shortly.
Aside from "American Graffiti" and some moments in the original first three "Star Wars" films, Lucas has never been known as an actor's director, as he was more interested in using technology to tell his tales. As a result, the later films pretty much reduced the flesh and blood components to necessary evils, while special effects created the worlds and settings in which they appeared, as well as an increasing amount of the characters with which they interacted.
While Lucas isn't directing here, this offering is a natural progression of that mindset, where the humans have now been reduced to just voices, and I'm sure it won't be long before even they're computer-generated as well. That aside, the question at hand is whether this nearly 100 minute film is any good as a standalone piece of entertainment, or whether it's just a big ad for the upcoming TV series.
Considering that it takes place between movie Episodes I and II (those being 1999's "The Phantom Menace" and 2002's "Attack of the Clones) and thus continues characters and storylines regarding both, one obviously needs to have some knowledge of both going in or none of what's seen and transpires will make much sense.
Director Dave Filoni -- working from a script by Henry Gilroy, apparent graduate of the George Lucas school of screenwriting -- certainly keeps things moving at a good clip. There are lots of battles both on the ground and in the sky (of the kinds with and without atmospheres), close-calls, moments of peril, evil plotting characters and all of the rest that we've come to expect from the series.
Yet, this one -- I guess appropriately enough -- feels just like an extended episode of the upcoming series. The plot quickly boils down to Count Dooku (Christopher Lee reprising his character from the films) kidnapping the son of Jabba the Hut (who knew the big guy had it in him) in hopes of affecting the shipping lanes of the outer rim or some such nonsense (that's repeated via spoken exchanges ad nauseam in case we didn't catch it the first time in passing).
The good guys -- those being the Jedi knights Obi-Wan Kenobi (voice of James Arnold Taylor) and Anakin Skywalker (voice of Matt Lanter) -- then have to rescue and return the little slug, all while constantly battling any number of 'droids working for Dooku. Yoda, R2-D2, C-3PO and various other familiar characters also show up for good measure.
That's about it, save for Jabba the Hutt's uncle, Ziro the Hutt, who hilariously sounds and somewhat acts like Truman Capote. Oh yeah, except that the overriding subplot features the moody, "I'd rather work alone" Anakin being paired with his first protégé, an "I can do anything" Jedi-in-training by the name of Ahsoka Tano (voiced by Ashley Eckstein).
Theirs is the classic pairing of a grumpy old man and young upstart characters, but the constant banter and shtick wears thin fairly quickly. As does the awful dialogue that, true to form, sounds like the dreck Lucas wrote for his characters in the most recent three pics and made viewers thrust hands over their ears to protect the latter from the equivalent of nails down the chalkboard.
And then there's the computer animation. Whereas that was always the one thing you could count on in a "Star Wars" pic, it's substandard here (which actually makes sense considering it's tied to the upcoming TV series that obviously doesn't have the sort of cash -- or time -- to create photorealistic effects week in and week out. Even so, the humans are particularly clunky-looking, maybe even a step down from what the best of computer games can now offer. The spaceships, battles and such clearly fare better, continuing the hardware over "software" philosophy.
So, you may ask, is it watchable? Sure, if you're a diehard fan or a fairly young kid who might not care that the graphics aren't up to snuff. The action scenes are competently handled, and those fans will likely enjoy yet another return of their characters, even if they look and in most cases sound different. More successful at introducing the TV series than truly standing on its own, "Star Wars: The Clone Wars" rates as a 4.5 out of 10.
![[Logo]](/images/screenit_logo2.jpg){kind=logo}
