Star Wars: The Clone Wars

 

A padawan should not have a padawan! That was made clear in Episode I, and in Episodes II and III Anakin is still a padawan, yet for this chapter, he’s a Jedi Master? WTF?!?

PLOT:

The film begins with a narrator explaining the state of the war. An octopus-like craft heads for Tatooine to capture Jabba the Hutt’s son Rotta as part of a plan to make the Hutts join the Clone Wars. Meanwhile, a fierce battle is taking place on the crystalline planet of Christophsis against the Republic’s very limited clone army and the Banking Clan forces.

With the help of Obi-Wan Kenobi, Anakin Skywalker, Captain Rex and Commander Cody, the clones steadily advance on the Separatists’ forces, gaining the Republic an early victory. It doesn’t last long, though, as the Banking Clan soon returns for more bloodshed, and with no communications or the ability to fly in reinforcements, the fate of the few remaining clone soldiers are in the hands of Obi-Wan and Anakin. General Loathsomsoon arrives and ordered a retreat under the city’s Deflector Shield. A shuttle soon comes with an important delivery; thinking it’s reinforcements, the Jedi go to investigate – only to find a young Padawan named Ahsoka Tano, who insists that she has been sent by Master Yoda to serve as Anakin’s Padawan. The battle soon commences yet again, and Anakin and Ahsoka succeed in taking down the deflector shield, using all their stealth, cunning and ability to improvise.

Soon after the third and final victory for the Republic on Christophsis, Master Yoda arrives with the urgent message that a mysterious group of renegades has kidnapped Jabba’s son, and it’s up to Anakin, Ahsoka, Rex and the clones to rescue him and bring him back home safely. Obi-Wan flies to Tatooine to assure Jabba that Rotta will be returned safely and to secure a promise by the Hutts to use their trading routes for safe passage within the Outer Rim.

After a briefing in a Republic flagship, Anakin’s forces descend through the clouds of the jungle planet of Teth heading for one of the many natural stone pillars which litter the landscape. Under heavy fire, Anakin, Ahsoka and Rex storm the monastery atop the pillar and find Rotta – only to be caught in an elaborate trap: Count Dooku has staged the kidnapping himself in order to blacklist the Jedi among the Hutts. First he has the Jedi retrieve the young Hutt to secure fake evidence, then Asajj Ventress, as the overseer of the operation, is charged with either retrieving or killing the young Huttling.

Whilst quarreling all the while about the proper procedure, yet slowly gaining respect of one another, Anakin and Ahsokamanage to escape the trap along with R2-D2 and hijack a derelict transport, which they use to travel to Tatooine. Obi-Wan, alerted by Anakin, arrives just in time to relieve Rex and the rest of his forces and engages Ventress in combat; the latter is beaten and narrowly escapes capture.

In the mean time, Senator Amidala learns of Anakin’s mission. Worried about him, she decides to contact Jabba’s uncle, Ziro the Hutt, who lives in a shady part of Coruscant. The Huttstrangely refuses to cooperate, and soon Padme finds out why: Zirohas actually conspired with Dooku to engineer the downfall of his nephew to seize the power over the Hutt clans for himself. Padme is discovered and detained, but a chance call by C-3PO enables her to summon help, and Ziro is soon arrested.

Upon their arrival on Tatooine, Anakin and Ahsoka are attacked by Magnaguarddroids and shot down. Faced with a long way across desert sands and relentless opponents, Anakin devises a ruse. When Dooku corners Anakin, the pack he is carrying is revealed to contain merely a decoy; Ahsokaand R2 travel with Rotta to Jabba’s palace unmolested. But just as they near it, Ahsoka is ambushed by three Magnaguards, whom she narrowly defeats. But as Anakin and Ahsokaenter the palace one after another, they are threatened with execution by Jabba’s men even though Rotta is safely returned. Padme calls just in time to convince Jabba of his uncle’s duplicity, and Anakin and Ahsoka are triumphantly retrieved by Obi-Wan and Yoda.

REVIEW:

Let me preface this review by saying that I am a Star Wars freak and am very well versed in most things regarding said universe. Taking that into consideration, I will give a final rating for those non-Satr Wars freaks.

So, let’s start with the pros. I actually like the wooden look. Reminds me of Rudolph the Red Nosed Regndeer and Frosty from back in the day. This is actually a fun movie. The droids have some of the best lines, and in my opinion, steal the show. Granted, this is after anakin goes psycho and wipes out a whole mess of TuskenRaiders for killing his mother, they only graze that topic (without even mentioning it), and as with Episode I, we get Anakin without the dark cloud hanging over him (except the one we all know is already there). It’s  good to see the clones have their own personalities. No real time is devoted to them in Episodes II & III. There are no real character changes in terms of personality, except for Anakin taking a more commanding role, which may be directly correlated to the forthcoming cartoon (which will be addressed later).

Now, the cons…I got the feeling watching this, that George Lucas is just trying to milk the Star Wars franchise for all its worth. This seemed more like a TV movie or direct to DVD film, rather than a feature length film.  Ahsoka is just another in a long line of annoying third wheel sidekicks that appear out of nowhere just to make someone happy. I would have rather Jar Jar have become a padwan, he’d have been less annoying! We could have seen more of Mace Windu, especially since they went to all the trouble of actually getting Samuel L. Jackson to reprise his role.

So, this is supposed to be a launching pad for the upcoming cartoon series. I have two issues with that. first, there has already been a cartoon series based on the Clone Wars, why bring us another one? Second, it was made clear after Episode III, that there would be no more Star Wars films, but I can’t help but wonder what this would have looked like in live action. On top of that, enough of this Anakin back story, personally, I would like to go back and get to know some of the other Jedi better, or even better, how about giving Han some more screen time?

As a Star Wars fan watching this, I was torn. I wanted  to love this. The fact that when I first heard about it and didn’t get exited about it should have been a red flag. Then when it started and there was no 20th century Fox fanfare, just made it feel even more out of place. Then the final straws. The music was like some sort of weird remixed version of John Williams brilliant scoring and rather than the traditional scrolling intro, we get a narrator telling us what happened. All these kept me from truly enjoying this film.

Do I recommend it? Yes, but if you’re a Star Wars fan, beware. If you’re not, chances are you’ll enjoy it more than those of us that are.

2 1/2 out of 5 stars (Star Wars fan rating)

4 out of 5 stars (non Star Wars fan rating)