Starring: Mat Lucas, James Arnold Taylor, Tom Kane, Grey DeLisle, Anthony Daniels, Corey Burton, André Sogliuzzo, Daran Norris, Nick Jameson
Creator: Genndy Tartakovsky and George Lucas
Genre: Serial, Sci-Fi, Action, Adventure
Rating: C
This is not the way that Star
Wars should be depicted. While a serialized
animated TV series is possible for the story that is Star Wars, the way that this rendition of Clone Wars was done was
just wrong. And bad. And wrong.
Really, really, really wrong. Star Wars: Clone Wars is a series of 20
three-minute and 5 twelve to fifteen minute instalments, aired over a course of
three seasons; the entire thing can be viewed in about two hours. At the end of the two hours you’ll not quite
feel as though you’ve wasted your time in watching this movie, but you won’t
exactly feel good about it.
The first two seasons focus on Obi-Wan Kenobi (Taylor) and Anakin
Skywalker (Lucas) in the assault against the planet Muunilist, with Obi-Wan on
the planet and Anakin in the space battle above it. Count Doku (Burton) has taken in a new
apprentice, Asajji Ventress (DeLisle), who he assigns to assassinate
Anakin. In the third season, following
his promotion to Jedi Knight, Anakin and Obi-Wan are assigned to find General
Grievous (DiMaggio) on Nelvaan, while Grievous assaults Coruscant and tries to
kidnap Supreme Chancellor Palpatine (Jameson).
There are several problems that I have with this rendition of Star Wars. First, let's start with the characters. I'm not going to say that they're poorly drawn or anything, but I will put it out there that a good number of the characters don't exactly look like their motion picture counterpart. Call it nitpicking if you want, but when I see Anakin Skywalker, I expect to be able to identify him as Anakin Skywalker. The same goes for Obi-Wan Kenobi, Padmé, General Grievous, and so on. There was actually a moment when I was watching Grevious and thought "it's weird that they would introduce another droid Sith" before realizing that he wasn't just another droid Sith but the droid Sith. When watching something like this, especially as short as this is, I don't want to have to spend my time re-figuring out who all the characters are. Oh, also, the voice work sucked. Seriously. Mat Lucas succeeded in making Anakin Fucking Skywalker more annoying. That's not an easy feat.
Beyond the characters, whoever, there's the plot. Or rather, the lack of plot. While I will agree that there were a few really nice action sequences, the fact that the entire thing is pretty much one action sequence after another gets old, and fast. Star Wars is awesome not because of the action but because of the story. Sure, we've all made lightsaber noises in our lives, but I doubt as often as we've said "Luke, I am your father," or quoted Yoda. Yoda quotes is what makes Star Wars Star Wars. There aren't any memorable Yoda quotes in this rendition, because there aren't any memorable really anything in it. It's just "here's this action sequence, and oh, here's this action sequence, and plot? what plot?" The one thing I will give Clone Wars - along with its much more successful counterpart, Star Wars: The Clone Wars - is that it does shine more of a light on characters we don't know as well. It isn't just the Obi-Wan and Anakin Chronicles, there are a lot of other lesser character swho gain prominince here. This trend is continued in The Clone Wars, especially as the Clones themselves become major characters.
There are several problems that I have with this rendition of Star Wars. First, let's start with the characters. I'm not going to say that they're poorly drawn or anything, but I will put it out there that a good number of the characters don't exactly look like their motion picture counterpart. Call it nitpicking if you want, but when I see Anakin Skywalker, I expect to be able to identify him as Anakin Skywalker. The same goes for Obi-Wan Kenobi, Padmé, General Grievous, and so on. There was actually a moment when I was watching Grevious and thought "it's weird that they would introduce another droid Sith" before realizing that he wasn't just another droid Sith but the droid Sith. When watching something like this, especially as short as this is, I don't want to have to spend my time re-figuring out who all the characters are. Oh, also, the voice work sucked. Seriously. Mat Lucas succeeded in making Anakin Fucking Skywalker more annoying. That's not an easy feat.
Beyond the characters, whoever, there's the plot. Or rather, the lack of plot. While I will agree that there were a few really nice action sequences, the fact that the entire thing is pretty much one action sequence after another gets old, and fast. Star Wars is awesome not because of the action but because of the story. Sure, we've all made lightsaber noises in our lives, but I doubt as often as we've said "Luke, I am your father," or quoted Yoda. Yoda quotes is what makes Star Wars Star Wars. There aren't any memorable Yoda quotes in this rendition, because there aren't any memorable really anything in it. It's just "here's this action sequence, and oh, here's this action sequence, and plot? what plot?" The one thing I will give Clone Wars - along with its much more successful counterpart, Star Wars: The Clone Wars - is that it does shine more of a light on characters we don't know as well. It isn't just the Obi-Wan and Anakin Chronicles, there are a lot of other lesser character swho gain prominince here. This trend is continued in The Clone Wars, especially as the Clones themselves become major characters.
No comments:
Post a Comment