The Clone Wars-- will it be as bad as it looks?

[FoieGrasIsEvil]

I saw it las night with my three year old son, and we generally liked it, and I agree with the criticisms of it as well as what **Johnathon Chance ** and Bosstone said.

It was pretty much eye-candy and a lot of battles, but if you are a fan of Star Wars, you should at least kinda-sorta like it.

[Sweetums]

@ArchiveGuy

Here you go. Best bit: “From the first frame, all but the learned geeks in the audience won’t know what the heck is going on. Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker (celebrity voices impersonated) are in the midst of the legendary and pointless Clone Wars, the battles of which seem to transpire on either Planet Marriott Airport or Planet Phallic Symbol.”

Oh, and Entertainment Weekly gave the film an **F**.

Great review, since I can never remember the new character’s name, from now on, thanks to that review, I will now simply think of her as “inappropriately dressed teenage Jedi summer intern.” Much better!

[cactus_waltz]

@Koxinga

Remember, this year will see the 30th anniversary of Life Day. You got something against slugs celebrating Life Day?

What do you get if you combine Chewbacca’s Life Day with the Hutt family re-union?

Well I dunno, but probably someting funny involving Jefferson Starship.

[appleciders]

@Half Man Half Wit

Am I alone in thinking that a lot of the difference in the perceived quality between the originals and the prequels (and this, um, mid-quel?) lies with the characters?

The originals gave us Vader as one of the archetypical movie-villains, the Emperor’s grey eminence, Yoda, diminutive in structure, even somewhat laughable in presentation, yet almost unrivalled in wisdom and power, a theme also somewhat present in R2 (the ‘unassuming hero’ type), the lovable rogue Han Solo, and hell, even C-3PO’s comic relief and the Leia/Luke/Han love-triangle/mildly incestuous relationship at least provided some form of character dynamics – granted, most of it was stereotypical, but the characters fit their stereotypes, it’s a basic good vs. bad/adventure tale which is naturally a bit black and white, and there’s something to be said for aptly fulfilling the expectations that go with a genre, and translating them appropriately into a certain framework, I think.

And what do we get now? That tattooed double-saber wielding dude whose name I keep forgetting, Count Dooku and General Grievous on the side of the baddies, who in toto didn’t really do anything but prove that more lightsabers doesn’t mean better, and on the good guys’ side… I’m not sure I even want to go there. Even what used to be good there was turned into a laughable pastiche, think R2 The Uber-Droid.

It’s the originals’ simplicity that’s to a large part responsible for their lasting appeal – good vs. bad, use the force, you can do anything if you believe in yourself, outward appearance does not the hero make, stuff like that. They weren’t deep movies, surely, but that doesn’t mean they weren’t good movies, apart from any nostalgia (which of course plays a role, too). But their simplicity has turned into simple-mindedness with the prequels – more CGI, more lasers, bland pastiches of characters. The new ones may have as little depth as the originals, but they’re also simply bad movies.

The originals were trying to be an homage to the 1930s campy movies and wild science fiction that Lucas grew up on. The prequels were trying to be great space opera. One is trying to be fun, the other is trying to be epic. And epic space opera rarely pans out.

Upon Edit: I’m not disagreeing with you, just reacting to a different facet of what you were saying.

[ArizonaTeach]

I didn’t think it was awful…it definitely felt like the first three episodes of the television show, yeah. What surprised the heck out of me was that, when I saw it this morning (Sunday), the theater was almost full…maybe the first three front rows were empty. And it was easily 60-70% kids…it seemed like every thirty-something year old guy within five square miles took their kids to see this, and swear to God, the kids were walking out psyched - lightsaber battling, singing the theme song, talking like Truman Capote (OK, maybe not that last one). Hell, it cost less than 20 million to make, so it’s almost already in the black. Someone knows what he’s doing.

[Elendil_s_Heir]

@FoieGrasIsEvil

I saw it las[t] night with my three year old son, and we generally liked it, and I agree with the criticisms of it as well as what **Johnathon Chance ** and Bosstone said.

It was pretty much eye-candy and a lot of battles, but if you are a fan of Star Wars, you should at least kinda-sorta like it.

I’d go along with this. I saw it last night with my two oldest boys, ages 11 and 8 (the theater was about one-sixth full), and we all thought it was better than expected. Not as good as Tartakovsky, not by a long shot, but not awful either, all in all. Some excitement, some laughs, some great action sequences, even a little galactic political intrigue. The young female alien padawan is cute but also able to fend for herself, with an interesting backhanded lightsaber style - an appealing character, I’d say.

The movie could have been much better, though (jeez, that phrase could be the epitaph for George Lucas’s career since 1977).

[lissener]

Check out this awesome review by my new favorite critic. (And check out her column on the new Clive Barker movie.)