I need to get this out up front – Star Wars: The Clone Wars is not a bad movie. It is pretty good actually, as a standalone. It is funny and full of amazing action sequences. The characters are entertaining, the acting is good, and the effects and animation are phenomenal of course. As an original movie, not connected with any other property, it is pretty cool. Kids will love it, and casual moviegoers will get a kick out of it. As a Star Wars movie though, sadly, it is just not good.
Based on the Star Wars universe, the original Clone Wars cartoon series was a triumph of storytelling and animation. The movie is different. It doesn’t have the direction brought to the series by animation great Genndy Tartakovsky, and instead relies on the relatively new director Dave Filoni to take the art style famous in the traditionally animated shorts, and make them work in 3D.
But they don’t work, not really, and without the more mature style of story and attention to detail of the original series, things that were once sort of charming quirks – the ridiculous look of Count Dooku for one – become greater annoyances, bordering on funny. For those not familiar with the art style, the look of the characters in the film will be a bit of a shock.
Familiar faces like Anakin Skywalker, Obi-Wan Kenobi, and, especially, Yoda look very strange indeed. Partially of course, this is to set the series apart and make it decidedly different from what audiences are used to seeing. Some of the designs are quite good, and really stand out as an improvement. Anakin especially looks much better than in the live action Star Wars prequels. The animators are really able to put his ongoing corruption not only into his words but into his look as well.
Where they went wrong though is making everything else look just a bit too familiar. The droids looked the same as in the live action films, if a bit less detailed. One can say the same of the clone troopers, and pretty much anything without humanoid features. Shots of spaceborne ships looked incredible, very similar to their live action film counterparts, but a severe disconnect came when the scene cut to the inside, and threw into sharp contrast just how cartoony this movie was.
Another attempt to separate themselves from the herd was a change in the intro. Gone is the traditional Star Wars theme and gone are the scrolling words. This could have been an incredibly welcome change, really setting the tone for the cartoon, but for a few flaws. First, “A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away,” still precedes the film, setting up expectations in older viewers of a traditional Star Wars intro.
Secondly, and perhaps most confusingly, the film starts with a sort of recap with a voiceover in place of the traditional scroll. It sounds something like the old newsreels, and it would have been interesting if it were in that sort of context in the film. If Anakin’s new Padawan were watching it, perhaps, or if it were simply presented to the audience as such. It does not do that though, and leaving everyone bitter and confused.
Sadly, that is a pretty fair assessment of the movie overall. There is a lot that it tries to do, much to its credit, but it just falls short. It does not really set itself apart as something amazing and wonderful and new, nor does it hold true to the Star Wars universe. It just sits in the mid-ground, being neither one nor the other.
3/5
