Star Wars: The Clone Wars Review

Star Wars: The Clone Wars, the seventh theatrical film set "a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away," is going to go down in cinema history for its many firsts.

It is the first Star Wars film without a John Williams score.

It is the first Star Wars theatrical film without live action.

It is the first Star Wars film to not be released by 20th Century Fox.

It is the first Star Wars film intended to be, for all intents and purposes, the pilot episode for a TV series.

 And, if from what I saw yesterday at Cobb's Dolphin 19 Theater is any indication, it's the first Star Wars film that will not set box-office records, except those for non-attendance.

 "Begun, the Clone War has..."

Although George Lucas had said that there would be no more Star Wars feature films after 2005's Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, his production company, Lucasfilm Limited, has developed two television series that will air on two Time-Warner cable networks - Cartoon Network and TNT.  One, a live-action series which is still in pre-production and will be set during the early days of the Empire, won't air until 2009.

Another series, Star Wars: The Clone Wars, a CGI animated anthology set between Attack of the Clones  and  Revenge of the Sith,  will premiere on October 3, 2008.  It will chronicle the infamous Clone Wars, a series of conflicts between Count Dooku's Confederacy of Independent Systems and the Galactic Republic led by Chancellor Palpatine.

Though Lucas did not originally intend to produce a made-for-theaters movie, he was so impressed with the work done by Dave Filoni and The Clone Wars' creative team that he decided to approach Warner Bros. with the notion of launching the series with a separate and self-contained story for the big screen.

"You fought in the Clone Wars?"

Set sometime after the first batch of Cartoon Network Clone Wars 2-D animated micro-series, The Clone Wars starts out with the abduction of Jabba the Hutt's son by a mysterious enemy on a ship with tentacles, then focuses on Anakin Skywalker (Matt Lanter) and Obi-Wan Kenobi (James Arnold Taylor) as they lead elements of the Republic's army of clones against the Retail Clan's General Loathsom (Corey Burton) and his battle droids on the planet Christophsis. 

Although the Jedi and the clones seem to be winning the battle at first and the Republic's fleet is sent off on another assignment, Loathsom unleashes a secret weapon - a mobile deflector shield - and leaves Anakin, Obi-Wan, Capt. Rex (Dee Bradley Baker) and the clones deep within Separatist space, unsupported, unsupplied, and vastly outnumbered.

A Republic shuttle somehow lands on Christophsis, but it doesn't carry supplies or reinforcements. Instead, Generals Skywalker and Kenobi are joined by 14-year-old Ahsoka Tano (Ashley Eckstein), who has been promoted to Padawan to serve as a Jedi Apprentice.

It's assumed that Obi-Wan will be Ahsoka's new master, but Yoda has assigned her to be Anakin's apprentice; having a Padawan, it is hoped, will help young Skywalker to rein in his impulsive nature while helping to train the next generation of the Jedi Order.

Eventually, the Jedi and the clones defeat Loathsom, but soon Anakin, Ahsoka, and Obi-Wan are drawn into a complex web of plots and counterplots as the evil Sith manipulate the abduction of Jabba's son to set up a war between the Hutt clans that control the space lanes in the Outer Rim and the Republic, which needs to use those lanes in order to move to and fro across the galaxy.....

 My Viewpoint: Of the seven Star Wars movies I've seen in theaters, The Clone Wars is the least important and - by extension - the only one that I could have skipped out on and not missed anything.

Now, considering that this film, by Lucas's own admission, was an afterthought, Star Wars:The Clone Wars is not terrible, no matter how bad most of the reviews in the media have been.  Its story fits somewhat logically into the Star Wars mythology, though at first I had trouble figuring out where, exactly, and although the 3D CGI animation looks a bit odd at first - think of it as a cross between the Samurai Jack-like 2003-2004 Clone Wars cartoons and not-quite-Pixar 3D - the look and overall feel is Star Wars....Star Wars Lite.

The voice acting was pretty good, considering that Hayden Christensen, Ewan MacGregor, and Frank Oz aren't on hand to reprise their roles as Anakin, Obi-Wan, and Yoda. Instead, we have Matt Lanter from CSI, James Arnold Taylor, and Tom Kane as those major Jedi characters, but their performances are so good that the viewer doesn't really notice any difference. 

The story was all right, perhaps a bit heavy on the action to the detriment of plot and character development; I think the whole thing with Jabba's kid was intended to appeal more for kids than to Star Wars fans from the '77 Generation, but that's all right; the movie doesn't deviate much from the live action Episodes' more substantial mix of action, adventure, and the struggle Anakin Skywalker must wage within himself to be a good Jedi while resisting the lure of the dark side of the Force.

Indeed, one interesting aspect is that we see Anakin's strong emotional reaction to returning to his home planet of Tatooine, a place he isn't too fond of because he'd spent most of his childhood as a slave in Mos Espa and because his beloved mother Shmi died there at the hands of the Sand People.

"You're reckless, little one. You never would have made it as Obi-Wan's Padawan... but you might make it as mine."  

As I said before, this movie is also worth watching because we get to see Anakin as a full Jedi Knight, not only leading clone troopers as a very young General, but being responsible for his young Padawan Ahsoka. The young Togruta was obviously created to appeal to female viewers, but I found her to be a charming counterpart to the rougher-edged Anakin; their relationship as Master and apprentice will be explored in the TV series, of course, but it looks as though it will be an interesting one, since Ahsoka is impulsive, inquisitive, and eager to prove her worthiness as Anakin's Padawan learner.

And although the animation and pacing are intended to allow kids to enjoy Star Wars: The Clone Wars, this film is still full of large-scale battles, lightsaber duels, and the classic themes of good-versus-evil that are a trademark of the franchise.

There are, of course, some things that, even a day after I watched it, still feel somewhat out of place. It is very strange not to see the familiar 20th Century Fox logo (with its accompanying Alfred Newman-composed fanfare), and though new composer Kevin Kiner's score uses some of John Wiiliams' themes, the music - though very good indeed - is mostly all-new material. 

My Final Point:  Star Wars: The Clone Wars is neither as good as the six "real" films it is joining nor is it as awful as most of the critics and lots of "fan boys" are saying,  it's not going to be a big hit in theaters, but it might be a sleeper hit when it becomes available on DVD and Blu-ray.   It is, as a friend of mine said, good for what it is...a 98-minute-long introduction to an animated TV show, and if you go see it with that in mind, chances are that you'll enjoy it.