August 14, 2008 in GENRES
STAR WARS: THE CLONE WARS
RYAN: I must admit I’m a little bit surprised by the arrival of a new Star Wars movie. Who knew? This one, “Star Wars: The Clone Wars,” is the seventh in the franchise, and it takes place between Episodes 2 and 3. It’s also animated so it’ll draw a younger crowd, and rightly so because it’s got an incredibly simple story. It’s definitely targeting children.
CAROLINE: I reluctantly saw Episode 1, which I almost walked out of, and I haven’t seen Episodes 2 or 3, so the term “Clone Wars” means absolutely nothing to me. Given that this movie was animated to boot, I was pretty much miserable the whole time.
RYAN: There were some good things about it. The animation is incredible and very stylized. George Lucas went out of his way to find a director who wanted to develop this animation that’s inspired by marionettes, and a lot of the characters have that look. My biggest complaint is that the story is very simple, so I don’t think the movie’s going to be enjoyed by the older Star Wars fans or the sci-fi audience. Interestingly, this movie’s intent is to launch a Saturday morning cartoon series with the same title.
CAROLINE: What could be more kid-oriented than that? I’m sure the animation is good but I so didn’t care about this movie. All the voices are done by complete unknowns other than Samuel L. Jackson who shows up to deliver about three lines, thus yet again proving his willingness to do anything for a paycheck.
RYAN: Even though Ewan McGregor doesn’t provide his voice, the Obi-Wan character looks just like him and even sounds like him. They actually hired an actor who’s famous for going in and doing voices of actual actors when they’re not available for their own re-dubbing.
CAROLINE: That might be the coolest job I’ve ever heard of. He basically gets paid what I would imagine is a lot of dough to sound like a bunch of different celebs. Crazy!
RYAN: This movie targeted a female audience more than I expected. Usually these are real boy movies, but this one has a new character, Ahsoka, who’s a young girl. Also it’s more pink than any of the previous six Star Wars movies. There are landscapes that are pink and there’s even a pink female C3PO-type character. I loved the pinkness… and how about the gay-seeming uncle of Jabba the Hutt? He had face paint, talked like Truman Capote and said things like, “Girlfriend!” There is now officially a flamboyant gay Hutt in the Star Wars series.
CAROLINE: Clearly, you were paying a lot closer attention than I was. Mostly I was just thinking, “When oh when is this going to be over?” I don’t really get who the audience is for this movie. I know George Lucas wanted to try his hand at animation, which is fine, but I can’t imagine his adult fans are going to care about this movie at all. The story is not one that his legions of fans will enjoy.
RYAN: It’s totally for the “Space Chimps” crowd. My nephew is six, and this will probably be his favorite movie ever.
CAROLINE: For an hour. Until he watches “Finding Nemo” on DVD again.
RYAN: [laughs’ Exactly. Bottom line?
CAROLINE: I can’t recommend this movie to anyone over the age of ten. If you’re an adult who has the unfortunate duty of accompanying a child to see it, I pity you. This was nothing I’d ever care to see were I not having to review it.
RYAN: It’s definitely not for those over the age of eight, but it will bring some joy to diehard Star Wars fans. Simple and childish though it is, it’s still well done. When the theme music started at the beginning I almost lost it.