High on the list of movies-we-probably-could-have-done-without would be "Star Wars: The Clone Wars," an animated installment in the sci-fi series that serves mainly as the big-screen warm-up act for the upcoming TV series of the same name. Since it falls somewhere between "Attack of the Clones" and "Revenge of the Sith" in the narrative sequence (think of it as Episode 2 ½ ), virtually none of the really interesting characters in the saga make an appearance in this movie - no Luke Skywalker, no Han Solo, no Princess Leia, no Darth Vader. Instead, we're left with a young pre-Vader Anakin Skywalker and a pre-Alec Guinness Obi-wan Kenobi off on a mission to rescue the son of Jaba the Hutt, who's been kidnapped by the Empire's evil Count Dooku in a convoluted scheme to turn the Hutts against the Republic, thereby denying them use of the trading routes that the Hutts control.
Considering the fact that the last time we saw Anakin he had already completed his journey to the Dark Side and taken on the mantle of Darth Vader, it seems a trifle incongruous to still be cheering him on as a hero in this film. It also doesn't help that, in animated form, Anakin (voiced by Matt Lanter) is an even more shallow and wooden character than he was in the first two episodes of the series, and that the playful bantering between him and his sassy, Jedi-in-training sidekick, Ahsoka Tano (Ashley Drane), is a pale echo indeed of the kind of verbal jousting that Han and Leia regularly engaged in in those earlier films. And what's with turning Jaba the Hut's uncle into a purple, painted-up drag queen with the vocal stylings and facial expressions of Truman Capote?
On a technical level, the animation is no more than passable even in its best moments, with the backdrops and special effects far less impressive than they are in the live-action episodes - or in any Pixar movie released in the past ten years for that matter. The fight scenes are relatively fast-paced, but they do go on and on to the point where, after awhile, the audience is just passively staring at things occurring on the screen, not becoming actively engaged in any kind of character conflict or compelling storyline.
"Star Wars: The Clone Wars" feels like a cynical, on-the-cheap attempt to bilk still more money out of the legions of die-hard "Star Wars" fans who have been so instrumental in helping George Lucas build a pretty impressive empire of his own. And those devotees certainly deserve something better than this halfhearted, intergalactic version of "Adventures in Babysitting." Don't get me wrong, I love "Star Wars" as much as the next person, but "The Clone Wars" is unworthy of the Lucasfilm trademark.
Considering the fact that the last time we saw Anakin he had already completed his journey to the Dark Side and taken on the mantle of Darth Vader, it seems a trifle incongruous to still be cheering him on as a hero in this film. It also doesn't help that, in animated form, Anakin (voiced by Matt Lanter) is an even more shallow and wooden character than he was in the first two episodes of the series, and that the playful bantering between him and his sassy, Jedi-in-training sidekick, Ahsoka Tano (Ashley Drane), is a pale echo indeed of the kind of verbal jousting that Han and Leia regularly engaged in in those earlier films. And what's with turning Jaba the Hut's uncle into a purple, painted-up drag queen with the vocal stylings and facial expressions of Truman Capote?
On a technical level, the animation is no more than passable even in its best moments, with the backdrops and special effects far less impressive than they are in the live-action episodes - or in any Pixar movie released in the past ten years for that matter. The fight scenes are relatively fast-paced, but they do go on and on to the point where, after awhile, the audience is just passively staring at things occurring on the screen, not becoming actively engaged in any kind of character conflict or compelling storyline.
"Star Wars: The Clone Wars" feels like a cynical, on-the-cheap attempt to bilk still more money out of the legions of die-hard "Star Wars" fans who have been so instrumental in helping George Lucas build a pretty impressive empire of his own. And those devotees certainly deserve something better than this halfhearted, intergalactic version of "Adventures in Babysitting." Don't get me wrong, I love "Star Wars" as much as the next person, but "The Clone Wars" is unworthy of the Lucasfilm trademark.