I'm sure I'll get it on DVD but I don't feel compelled to see it in theaters.
I'm sure I'll get it on DVD but I don't feel compelled to see it in theaters.
Nyeh.
I of course, love battles. That is what it is - Star WARS - not a love story. The human play is ok, dialogue is important, but again - WARS.
That said, I do enjoy some actual acting now and again. And from the trailers I've seen, none of the original voices are present nor is the animation as good as the CGI from Revenge of the Sith.
So, I guess I will see it, but my criticism will be singularly focused on combat and I am VERY hard to please...
Walkers battles while scaling cliff faces.
Star Wars: The Clone Wars (animated)
I saw this movie, midnight showing. I have to be honest, my expectations were not very high. I've heard very little buzz about the movie, and when we arrived at the movie theatre an hour or so before the showing the 'line' consisted of about ten people.
Pretty different from my last Star Wars movie experience, which was eighteen hours in alternating pouring down rain and blistering sun for the chance to see Revenge of the Sith from somewhere near middle middle. (Middle middle or back middle are the prime movie watching spots in the theater. Everyone who is anyone knows this.)
Regardless, the movie was pretty awesome!
As it is put out by Warner Bros. there was no Fox fanfare to start it off, and John Williams did not do the music for the movie. There was no opening scroll of synopsis. There was a narrative voice over in place of the scrolling words, complete with visual aids. It worked really well. I wish they'd done that in all the other movies too. Okay, maybe not, but in this format it was cool.
Despite the lack of John Williams, I did enjoy the soundtrack to the movie. However, if John Williams had composed the score I think it would have felt just a bit more like an authentic Star Wars movie to me.
The voice actors did a decent job. Anakin's voice was pretty different from Hayden Christensen's, but the voice actor for Obi-Wan did a really good job mimicking Ewan McGregor's delivery from the movies. Samuel L. Jackson, Christopher Lee, and Anthony Daniels were the only actors from the Star Wars live action movies that did voice work in The Clone Wars. There was a bit of a... weirdness with one of the Hutt characters, which I alternately loved and hated. I can't explain why without giving away some plot points and looking like a huge nerdy geek, so I'll keep it to myself for now.
The action... was... awesome! There are several huge battle sequences that are really cool, paticularly one involving storming up a giant cliff which was my favorite.
And lastly, the animation was great. Obviously the guys at Lucasfilm have been animating things in CGI for years and years now, so someone over there knew what they were doing. The 'look' of the movie is fairly fresh, although some people may not care for the stylized look of the characters. Its a mix between the Cartoon Network Clone Wars mini-cartoons and life-like. I think it works well, especially with Count Dooku.
Go see The Clone Wars in theatres, especially if you have any little Star Wars fans in the house. There are quite a few clone deaths on screen, however, so if your young kids are sensitive (or you want them to be) to that sort of thing, you may want to hold off. But, on the other hand, its Star Wars!
oh what a tangled web I weave
Nice review. I'm going to see this next week, and I don't have much of a hyped feeling either - which like you say is weird, compared being "OMGOMGOMG!!!" about the other movies.
But yeah... I'm glad to hear it didn't suck.
I can explain it with minimal spoilage. Think Capote.Originally Posted by Lilaena De'Ville
I watched it too today in a pretty nice theater in Copenhagen where I am for a summer school course right now. I was not expecting much from this movie...I have to admit that I even went as far as buying one ticket for the clone wars and one for the dark knight that is running in Denmark for a few weeks now while it has not been released in Germany yet.
The plan was to cheer myself up after this movie with a movie that everyone considers to be a great movie...but in fact this choice was not really necessary since I enjoyed watching both.
so what I liked about this movie was:
The way the clones were treated. I really liked the fact that many clones tried to win back their individualism by defining themselves through their hair.
Characters like Rex and Cody help you a lot to start caring about the clones. I really loved the way how they fought even when they were outnumbered or when they had to use their fists.
The battles were well done and I really liked the choreography of the lightsabre battles.
The "chemistry" between Anakin and his student surprised me since it actually worked for me. I am looking forward to see more of that in the series.
Obiwan's voice was great and he had some nice dialog in the beginning of the film.
I think this movie had more dialog during lightsabre duels than most of the prequels and I think this is very iconic for SW and I often missed this in the prequels. A Jedi should battle more than just his opponents but his inner demons that might lure him to one or the other side of the force. I loved the way Obiwan was playing with the ventress inner struggle.
The small Hutt was cute.
The gay Hutt was funny.
I am a huge fan of aquarel painted textures.
I like the funny droids.
What I did not like was:
The Padme plotline was not really necessary while on the other hand I liked uncle Ziro.
Some of the animation in the slower scenes were pretty wooden.
Some explosions did not look volumenetric.
Somebody should buy the poor aprentice something to wear that has got more style than her top which made her look kind of cheap.
The beginning of the movie looked like the opening of a TV series...they did not hide that we were paying for the pilot of a TV series
So all in all I liked this movie and I think that this movie gave the clone wars a lot of their dignity back by proofing that Anakin really was an incredible pilot and by letting the clone troopers kick some....
I will be seeing it Sunday with my mum...I'm glad to hear that it's not nearly as suckalicious as the critics have made it out to be. I'm not expecting greatness equaling the original trilogy, that's for sure, but as long as I'm entertained and have fun, then it's okay by me.
There is no such thing as a gay hutt. Hutts reproduce asexually and therefore do not use partners to procreate. Over the course of a hutt's life they switch genders to reproduce. I told you it makes me look like a total nerd.
I knew that too. lol, we are awful.There is no such thing as a gay hutt. Hutts reproduce asexually and therefore do not use partners to procreate. Over the course of a hutt's life they switch genders to reproduce. I told you it makes me look like a total nerd.
Still, what?! Gays in Star Wars?? Never thought I'd see the day...
Whether or not he is, that's how the voice acting portrays him.
The hutt in question, Uncle Ziro, has a... well he's all covered in makeup and has a feathery headdress and a feminine New Orleans accent. More like Aunt Ziro, if you ask me. But he's firmly called Jabba's uncle.
He's the first hutt I've ever heard of in Star Wars that spoke Basic too, but I suppose it could happen. From a movie stand point it made sense because all the translation would have added ten minutes to the running time of the movie.
Hey hey now, Dasq. Gays in Star Wars.......really. The Imperial Military - - - exlusively male.......come on, now!
HAHAH
Going to see it now. Will report back.
Ok, I am back.
My entire review I'm afraid cannot be done with spoilers so, here goes.
My review is scathing to say the least. The movie had its ups and downs; unfortunately there were more of the latter than the former. Much has been made about the need for strong dialogue and acting in the movie to make it a good film. Star Wars is however, an action movie. More than that, it is supposed to be epic, grand in every scale. It is a movie that has riveting action - not always necessarily effects - supported by dialogue. This movie was lacking in both areas.
To pick apart action, I speak as a connoisseur of battle scenes and combat of all kinds. Explosions were lacking significantly in realism and during the approach of the Droid army up the promenade, you can see as no less than three of the explosions are copied, cut, and pasted one after the other. The Techno Union Rollertanks were horribly disproportionate from what we came to expect in the last two of the Prequals.
There was action for the sake of action, but it wasnt good action. Attacjking up a cliff was a great idea, and I enjoyed the premise. But droids failing to obey orders and cracking jokes removed the seriousness of the situation. When watching a great movie, you are able to put yourself on the screen from shot to shot, feeling the sneering heat of an explosion or dreading each beat of an advancing army. Here, you merely chuckled at this line or that.
Dialogue. Nyeh. Again, we have too many jokes and slap-stick humor and not enough interaction, seriousness, or purpose. Continual references to the Huttling as 'stinky' were fun once or twice, but throughout the movie? Made it seem more farcical than epic.
Probably the biggest disappointment for me was the beginning. I grew up with three Star Wars movies and then three prequals bolstered my faith in the saga. Every time you were shocked in your chairs by the massive Fox fanfare, to be followed by blaring trumpets as the theme music fills the theater. Here, the was no fanfare, and narration replaced three paragraphs we have come to expect.
Now, music. Sir John Williams is part of Star Wars. Why he didn't do this is beyond me. Whomever re-worked the music to this, especially the theme, raped it and then crossed the border ahead of the vengeful. The way notes were drug out and then jazzified made me think was a spook like Meet the Spartans or Hot Shots part Duh. From the beginning, my hope for epic-ness, ebbed.
Voices. Christopher Lee was the only salvation which made it a watchable movie. However, one can imagine, from seeing the way he played Dooku in live action and the way he spoke in this feature, you can see the Director making him add inflections here and there which, again, took some of the edge off. Dooku was a sinister creature, and here he is more of a comic villain than this aristocratic Republic-hating Dark Jedi we've come to expect.
Animation. We saw in TPM and ROTS just how excellent effects can be. They are damned close to cinematic and also allow the humongous battles we've come to love be fought in any environment. More importantly, they look close to real. you could tell they were effects, but ignored it. This looked more like a Very long intro to a new Lucasfilm game. Pixelation is unavoidable but you can see where they saved money by matching shades, making features plain, and using the same shots over and over again. The stylized way the characters were portrayed were also more game-ish than movie-worthy. Again, Dooku suffered the most, his pointy beard a throw-back to the cackling villians of silent-picture fame who tied damsels to railroad tracks. I expected him at the end to twist a mustache-hair and say 'curses, foiled again!'
The ending. What ending? Here we can see the Director watched Episode IV and decided to create a new spin on it. To play my violin again, we lack the epic-ness expected.
Now, the good points.
The cliff battle was very good, minus the points noted above.
Republic troopers were beginning to individualize, which was a nice touch. Also, most importantly, we see that the Imperial Navy is manend by non-cloned personnel and commanded by actual naval officers. Bravo. We also see the difference between the Venator and the Acclamator-class Cruisers, even though we do not get to see them fight an engagement together.
Whomever did Ewan McGreggor did an excellent job of impersonating his mannerisms. Very well done.
We see artillery, legged versions of the German 88m get their barrels depressed and used as anti-tank weapons. My favorite part.
Altogether, it was quite a let-down as far as Star Wars movies. Something I now regret spending money on seeing, considering the skyrocketing cost of popped corn and carbonated beverages. This will NOT receive a venerated spot in my collection, but it is not bad enough for me to flip the channel if I ever happen to be surfing the tele. But, if TPM is on, I'm afraid even for that, I'll have to click over.
Owch!
Like I said, I didn't have very high expectations, and so I was pleasantly surprised. This is an entertaining kids Star Wars animated movie, not a cinematic masterpiece. Plus, it totally inspired me for future rping, so...
They even raped the B-wing!!! That 'bucket of bolts' transport wasn't even original. It inspired me with the stand-up holo-display on the bridge, but that's about it.
I went into the movie not having any expectations that it would be anywhere near the quality of the feature films. This is basically the pilot of the animated series premiering this fall, shown on the big screen, so that's all I was expecting. And with that being the intention, it mostly worked for me. I enjoyed it enough that there is absolutely no question that I will tune in for the series and continue to follow the adventures as they play out on the small screen.
I think one of the best scenes in the movie was definitely the vertical battle played out on the cliffside...I don't think they could have ever convincingly pulled that off in a live-action movie. Plus I never, ever thought I would live to see the Truman Capote verson of a Hutt, complete with day-glo body paint.
The couple of things that bothered me a little were constant references to Anakin as "Master," since it was clearly established in ROTS that he never attained the rank of master before his fall to the dark side. And I also thought the Padme storyline was somewhat forced and awkward. But like I said, overall, I'm glad I saw it, and my mother had a fun time too. And all the little kids in the audience seemed to enjoy it quite a bit.
Well, its proper for a padawan to refer to their teacher as 'master' regardless of whether they are a Knight or an actual Master in rank. So that doesnt' bother me.
I agree with Vice-Admiral Laran on this one, the padawan would refer to their teacher as Master - its rather Generic, just like all Imperial officers being referred to as "Commander" despite their rank.
I can see it being pulled off - it would be tough and GCI intensive, but do-able.
I do like that the movie, unintentionally perhaps, spells the way for the Jedi Purge. When Anakin 'commands' the Admiral to lower his shields - against all military advice - the exposed area is decimated by fire and numerous soldiers die. Were I a soldier/sailor, the Jedi's careless and self-important behaviors would make me want them eliminated.
I suppose we shall see what the series holds, but I would call for the removal of the 'stylized' faces and such. Too cartoonish, not enough Star Wars
Last edited by Lilaena De'Ville; Aug 17th, 2008 at 04:36:34 PM. Reason: fixed tag
I just saw this tonight and, not going in with any real expectations, I thought it was fun. I did feel like movie was 90% action, but then for a film with 'Wars' in the title twice, I guess that's to be expected.
I found myself laughing a lot - especially at the droids, jawas and the little Hutt. Obi-Wan also had some pretty funny lines.
It didn't give me the same chills as the live-action Star Wars movies did, which I think was in part down to the lack of Williams soundtrack. During the cliff-side battle, I'm sure I heard some electric guitars which was a little bit bizarre and jarring at first, but it didn't detract from the scene.
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