To hear George Lucas describe the purpose of his recent Star Wars trilogy and to see it actually play out was not unlike having a relative with multiple personality disorder. The subsequent backlash surrounding the practical joke known as The Phantom Menace was met with Lucas rationalizing that his films are, essentially, created for children. This sort of made sense with the ultra goofy dialogue and Jar Jar, but then two movies later there’s a man getting burned alive next to a river of fire. Still, it was freaking STAR WARS – these films weren’t movies, they were cultural events. Just like your best friend, you have to love them because of what they are, regardless of their identity struggle.
That being said, there are two widely divergent ways in which to evaluate Clone Wars. The cynical Star Wars fan in me was wishing an asteroid would hit the theater by the end of the second act, but the “think of the correct audience, idiot” voice within was reminding me that kids were going probably enjoying everything unfolding on screen. So we have the built-in audience (jaded dorks such as myself) versus intended audience (children), which brings us back to Lucas’ ultimate dilemma; what the hell is Star Wars? Well, it sure wasn’t an exercise in metaphorical philosophy, so I should probably talk about the movie before I continue this reflexive debate of minutia.
Jabba the Hut’s son has been kidnapped. Ordinarily one would assume the prestigious governing body on Courisant wouldn’t concern itself with such pointless and (probably) well deserved matters, but as it turns out, the Hutts control the trade routes in the outer rim territories. Since Han Solo isn’t around the super smuggle the hell out of anything yet, the entire galaxy needs the Hutt’s influence and protection over the trade routes in these remote areas, thus Chancellor Palpatine, along with Yoda and Mace Windu, decide a random selection of Jedi Knights are the best possible candidates to seek out the location of Jabba’s poor son.
Of course this task falls upon Obi-Wan Kenobi and intergalactic hotshot Anakin Skywalker. They’re yanked from some sort of droid vs clones battle of no apparent consequence and dispatched on the case. Joining Anakin as a Padawan is the newly introduced Ahsoka Tano, a young but highly adept female Jedi-in-training. Together they undertake the usual planet hopping, problem solving, Sith fighting mayhem associated with the later (earlier?) Star Wars films.
On the plus side, this side story isn’t burdened by all of the incessantly necessary elements of the main line films. There’s no intro title crawl, no one has a bad feeling about anything, and references are usually done through action and not hammy dialogue (Padme’s subplot with Ziro the Hutt was a nice wink at Return of the Jedi). On the negative side, there’s everything else. Rather than introduce something, anything genuinely new to the series mythos, Clone Wars gets stuck running in circles; when it’s not resting on previously established laurels, it produce nothing but derivative action sequences blanketed by familiar Star Wars context. Not bound the usual Star Wars formula, the film could have seemingly ventured anywhere it wanted (the awesome Clone Wars shorts from 2003 were brilliantly ridiculous in this respect), but instead every action sequence and plot point feels safe and in check.
And the new characters do little but personify everything that is wrong with the series. Ahsoka Tano, though incredibly likable, falls on the archetype of a slightly skilled student in demand of respect. Asajj Ventress, a dark Jedi and certified badass from the expanded universe, has a few cool scenes, but is ultimately reduced to a road block on the way to Count Dooku. And, in a move absolutely reeking of Lucas’ sense of humor, Jabba the Hutt’s son fills the series comic relief slot as a gibberish spouting plot device. He isn’t exactly Jar Jar all over again, but his shtick is played out after his first on screen appearance.
Of particular pointless consequence was a Padme subplot introduced well into the third act. Sure I just praised it for referencing Jedi with finesse, but, regarding the story at hand, it’s almost entirely pointless. I would venture to guess it’s there to give Padme something to and introduce Ziro the Hutt (an english speaking, possibly gay Uncle of Jabba) as character that the narrative didn’t need in the first place, but it ultimately felt like filler.
I’m not entirely sure what they were going for with the animation style (Wikipedia is telling me CG based on anime), but I found it more distracting than aesthetically pleasing. This is most evident in the series’ classic light saber battles, where swipes and strikes are launching into the stratosphere with incredible speed – yet everything slows back down to earth upon normal movement and contact. It’s disjointed to say the least, falling somewhere between early 00’s CG with traces of the style found in the Clone Wars cartoon shorts. Still, these scenes are some of the more entertaining in the feature, regardless of their contrived implementation. If Phantom Menace taught us anything, it was that a good light saber fight can briefly make us forget about the films previous failings. Anyway, for a film it was below par – but if it’s consistent throughout the upcoming television series, it’s entirely passable.
The voice work was surprisingly well done. Amazingly, some of the prequel voice cast returned to reprise a few roles. Sam Jax, Christopher Lee, and Anthony Daniels revisit Mace Windu, Count Dooku, and C3PO, respectively. The rest of the cast is comprised of mostly competent voice actors doing their best to replicate the folks who chose not to return. James Arnold Taylor, aka Ratchet the Lombax and Tidus from Final Fantasy X, does particularly well to ape Ewan Macgregor as Obi-Wan. Ziro the Hutt may upset the folks over at GLAAD, but I suppose kids will find it hilarious.
The DVD reviewed was for the nearly bare bones “Widescreen Edition,” not the allegedly more feature laced two-DVD set. Thus, the extras are limited to a trailer like preview of the upcoming series and a commentary track. The commentary features director Dave Filoni, producer Catherine Winder, writer Henry Gilroy, and editor Jason Tucker. Winder was recorded separately, but her presence is eased into the mix without feeling intrusive. A couple nuggets of truth, such as how/why Ventress cannot be a Sith and who’s idea it was to give Anakin “Sky Guy” Skywalker a nickname (yeah, it was Lucas) are appreciated, but the commentary is also ripe with admiration and back scratching. Still, it’s better than nothing at all.
