Jedimiller's Clone Wars Review: 3 years in the making!, page 1

When I was at the Comic Con director Dave Filoni spoke about this film. He said that when George Lucas came into the room and saw the animated TV show's first episode, he found it cute. He suggested they contact Warner Brother's and distribute the film in theaters on August 15. Filoni agreed.

The concept of the Clone Wars came from many books, comic books and even the Clone Wars video games for Nintendo and Xbox. We have always known about the CLONE WARS and after AOTC it was accepted as canon. Lucas left this large gap open in purpose, of course to promote Star Wars and sell more toys. And this makes him a marketing genius.
At the end of Attack of the Clones we get to see the beginning of the CLONE WARS and at the beginning of Revenge of the Sith, it's already over. Many fans disliked the idea of Skipping the CLONE WARS Altogether. but this is where this movie begins.

The Animation in the film is mediocre. It's wooden and puppet-like. I don't know if this was intentional, but at times the characters look like Pinocchio's, as if someone is pulling them up from strings. The cinematography is spectacular, with green crystal planets and gigantic machines with beautiful backgrounds. Most won't realize that many of the design elements actually come from Ralph McQuarries concept drawings and paintings from the 1970's.

The script is weak and the dialogue is simple and distorted. The film's main story deals with the kidnapping of Jabba the Hutt's baby. Count Dooku and the separatists take the baby; tell Jabba that it was the Jedi who took the baby. Dooku's master plan is to stop the republic from gaining the outer rim's trade routes, which only the Hutt's control.

The battle for the trade route's begin. Sounds very much like the happenings in The Phantom Menace when the Trade federation blocked the planet Naboo trades. Complicated premise to begin with.

We are introduced to a new character, less annoying than Jar Jar; Ahsoka Tano. A 13 year old preteen padawan who looks up to the Jedi. For some unknown reason, I could never figure out, Yoda assigns her to Anakin Skywalker during the middle of the great clone battle. She is abusive, annoying and overactive. But Anakin has no choice but to take her with him into battle. They get to know eachother and become cute friends.

The best part of the film is in the Mise-En-Scene. The overall backgrounds of the of the film is majestic. The backgrounds are fantastic, but the characters on it do not seem to fit in. It's Star Wars when it comes to the spaceships, Walkers, Droids, Planets, jedi & Clones. And one of the best characters in the film is Captain Rex. The clone commander of sorts.
Commander cody is somewhere in the film, but he makes Rex look like a General. There are thousands of Trade Federation droids and as seen in episode 1, they are useless. The clones have great technology on their side, like ray guns, Republic Gunship and the AT-TE which in this film, can walk up walls! That was amazing to watch.

The Trade federation has the tanks and the Tri Droids and shields. It's no Death Star, But Dooku and the separatists have better machines and Destroyer droids on their side and at one time get very clone to taking over the Jedi ground and their troops.

What lacked in the film was the appearance of interesting characters from the prequels. there is no Ki Adi Mundi, Plo Koon, Kit Fisto or any of the other jedi's in the council, only Mace, Yoda and Ben. It had potential to explore more in this first episode, but I understand it will be explored in upcoming episodes.

Making it worse for me; no General Grievous! This was dissapointing. but I dealt with it. Grievous had an extensive role during the CLONE WARS and he killed many Jedi during this time. This was explored at the end of the CLONE WARS cartoon and was the height of that show. Grievous was a ruthless Jedi Killer who would turn worlds over and destroy the jedi. But we see none of this in this film. We get to see a story dealing with Jabba's slimer lookalike baby. Anakin and Ahsoka have to race to Tattoine to deliver Jabba's baby. While the clones fight the battle.

Reaction to the film has been negative. I agree with most of the reviews on the net, but I can tell you as a dedicated fan that the story lacked imagination and excitement. Perhaps Dave is a great Jabba fan and he wanted to explore that part of the expanded universe. We even get to meet, for the first time Jabba's transexual uncle!

This film was meant for television. But so far it has made 20 million and for a television episode, just one episode to do that much money, it's a HUGE success. The film adds nothing to the already wonderful expanded universe. We already knew about Ventress, Dooku, Obi-Wan and Anakin. What we need here is a better introduction of a new character and I don't see how Tano can take over this important role. In any case, if she is important to the success of the CLONE WARS, well that's another story. But we really don't see that in this film, sure she takes out a few droids and delivers the baby safely, but that makes her no hero. We need characters like Boba Fett, Plo Koon, Adi Mundi, Yoda, And more Mace Windu.

The CLONE WARS is an interesting addition to the world of Star Wars, but those who know nothing about the expanded universe will most likely be confused or disgrunted. It's not for the general public and it's not for those moviegoers who expect Pixar animation. In the end, The CLONE WARS should have stayed on television, where it belongs, and Dave Filoni fired for refusing to include General Grievous.

jedimiller.