Clone Wars Movie Reviews - SPOILER Thread

[Reid]

Just came back from the midnight showing. Overall, I thought it was very flawed, and some things were just flat out stupid, but I enjoyed it for the most part. It was fun, and a lot more enjoyable than AOTC. My thoughts below... (Spoilers)










What I Liked
-I enjoyed the ground battles, particularly the opening one. Really gave a nice sense of scale to the whole conflict. The vertical battle on the B'omarr castle was stunning, to say the least. Pretty much all the "war" elements were well done.

-The little excursions to Tatooine were nice to see. I want an animated Jawa! Would've liked to see a bit more of Jabba's Palace other than the audience chamber.

-The banter between the Jedi and Rex was well done, they really gave him some nice personality. Rex was probably one of my favorite new characters from the film.

-I liked seeing a hyperspace jump. Loved the hyperspace jump. Considering the prequels were devoid of it, it was a nice way to hearken back to the OT.

-Liked seeing some non-clone Republic personnel, the gunship mechanic guys, the officers, they were all very cool. Hopefully we'll see some figures, especially the lead admiral guy.

What I Didn't Like
-WAY too much "cutesy" stuff. Anakin and Ahsoka's nicknames, the banter between them, it got quite tiresome. Ahsoka as a character really annoyed me. They tried way too hard to make her a stereotype rebellious teen, I think.

-Dialogue. It was below AOTC level. I'm dead serious. The worst offenders were the droids, but the Jedi had plenty of cringe worthy lines. Even the non-cutesy lines sounded generally just awkward.

-Lack of Jedi. It seemed the film focused on Anakin, Obi-Wan, and Ahsoka, and acted like the other Jedi didn't exist. Annoyed me a bit.

-No Grievous. Wanted to see Grievous.

And finally, the number one thing I disliked most about the CW film...

-Ziro The Hutt. Jeezus this guy was just terrible. Whos idea was it to give a Hutt a nasally, exaggerated southern accent, ala Truman Capote? This guy was easily the Jar-Jar of the film. I want a figure!

Overall, despite its flaws, I'd have to give it a solid 8 out of 10. Most of the time it was pretty fun, and the pacing was excellent. Not one scene bored me. Might see it again.

[David]

I just got back. And all I can say is...ouch.


Okay, so it wasn't terrible, but it definitely had outstanding lame moments (and some excellent ones too!).


Good stuff:

The Battle Droids! They were the best part of the whole movie. "So...are we gonna tell him they got away or what?" They were just hysterical!

The Battle Scenes. A lot more Clone Wars battle action is possible in animation, so it was very cool to watch heads being blown off, Jedi running around atop Tri-Droids, STAPs being cut down in mid-air, etc. Definitely some neat stuff that's not possible in the live-action Star Wars universe.

The CIS General Guy/Negotiations with Obi-Wan. This was just a very enjoyable scene, I really liked the alien general and hope to see him return in the TV show.

Dooku and Ventress. Very, very sinister villains, I loved watching them plot. Ventress especially was very good in this movie.

Padme. Not bad! I enjoyed her role, her character was definitely at her best in this movie, by far. Maybe just because they showed her butt so much.

Rotta. Okay, he's cute, and he grew on me. I laughed out loud during the lightsaber duel when Dooku said, "Surrender the Huttlet or die!" Probably one of the best Star Wars lines ever!


Okay, the praise is over. The Bad Stuff:

Ziro the Hutt aka 'Jabba's Gay Uncle.' For those of you who have heard about how much this character sucks, I can now say with absolute certainty...yeah, he sucks. He's just really, really bad. If it weren't for the awesome plot line he was involved in with Padme, Dooku, Rotta, etc. I don't know how I'd have been able to stand him.

The Soda Can Droids. The droids that were guarding the shield generator looked really, really stupid.

Obi-Wan's Big Ugly (Now Animated) Forehead Mole. Damn, that was bugging me!

Yoda. Voice Yoda's sounded it awful it did because so mixed up was it that very retarded it sounded. In other words, Yoda's sentences just really didn't come out right at all, so that got kind of annoying after a while.

Plo Koon & Kit Fisto: Was that seriously it? Oh man! When I saw them show up in the trailer I was really looking forward to seeing what kind of roles they would have. Turned out what we saw in the trailer was pretty much it. So that was a little disappointing.

General Grievous: Ditto. He pretty much had those two seconds at the beginning and that was it.

Jar Jar. Ditto. (NOT! )


And the Odd Stuff:

The News Report-esque Introduction. It wasn't bad or anything, it just...well, it wasn't the giant paragraphs floating in space so it didn't have the proper Star Wars intro feeling to it.

Ahsoka, Ahsoka, Ahsoka. I still don't quite know what to make of her. I knew from the beginning that she would be kiddie and potentially annoying, but she was better than I thought she would be. She had awesome moments (race up the mountain, Magna Guard battle, and a few entertaining lines) and some not so stellar moments (several really, really terrible lines). I'm just gonna have to see it again and decide whether I like her or not. She was hot though, I'll give her that.


Well it's getting a little late and I'm starting to lose the ability to form coherent thoughts...so that's all for now. I'm just gonna wrap this review up by giving the movie a 7 out of 10. This could change when I see it again though, for better or worse...

[Phrubruh]

Here is the L.A. Times review on it. Interesting thing is the senior critic staff didn't want to review it so they handed it off to a frequent contributor.

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/reviews/la-et-starwars15-2008aug15,0,2374460.story

According to AICN, there was suppost to be an embargo on reviews until today. That is why the review was pulled. Most of the time when movie companies put an embargo on reviews or won't let critics review the movie before its release, it's a telling sign that this movie should have went directly to DVD as quickly as possible.

[Phrubruh]

Roger Ebert gives the movie a star and half.

http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080814/REVIEWS/808140301/-1/PEOPLE

[nheimbigner]

read on the tv guide that anakin develops a crush on ahsoka that is involuntary...

Weird, isn't Ahsoka like 11?

14

[Brian]

Newsarama has a bit more favorable review up.  I had a chance to catch this this afternoon, and I have to say I enjoyed it overall.  It isn't like the live action movies, of course, but I think Ebert is maybe a little bit hard on the movie overall.  Sure, it has its silly moments to be sure (and the nickname stuff that's been discussed does get a little old), but I thought it was a fun movie overall.  Geared a little more towards the kiddos, but that's not necessarily a bad thing.  As I was watching it, I was thinking that I would love this as a kid, and plan to take our nephews in a couple of weeks here.  I enjoyed it as an adult too, for what it was, and really look forward to the weekly series.  I think the chance to see some focus on the other Jedi (like Plo Koon ), and the clonetroopers will be neat to see.

One thing that I really liked about this movie is that it didn't seem to have any lulls or downtime, it was pretty much nonstop action - which was kind of cool.  I think that it will have its critics, just like the prequels, but there's a lot of good here too.  Like I've said before though, I'm a little less critical of movies.  I'm not looking for absolute realism and "gritty-ness" from a movie like this, I just go to a movie like this to entertained for a couple hours - and Clone Wars did that.  It definitely has me looking forward to the animated series, which I think will look great on television.

[speedermike]

The big issue, and I pointed this out a while ago, is that this was made for TV and it looks cheap on the big screen.  If this had been the first 2 episodes viewd on TV, reviews would be very positive.  But when compared to the Holy Trilogy, The Prequels, current animation like The Incredibles and Wall-E, it's just not up there.  This was a huge mistake to put this in the theaters...

that being said...

I actually really liked it.  I thought it was quick, funny, well designed and light weight in the best way.  Loved Obi-Wan's negotiation, thought Ziro was very funny just because it was so odd (and I like how he talked Huttese with Jabba) the action was well done, and...I actually liked Anikin in this movie better then either prequel.  He seemed to be the hero I always wanted him to be, without the whining.

So, as a "movie" this is a big bust, and Lucasfilm is gonna have to get some spin going quick, as the start off for the TV show?  Bring it on!

Man, can someone get me a job working for Lucasfilm?  I really want to help them to stop falling flat like this!

[evenflow]

I really liked it, ALOT. I thought it was much better than Indiana Jones. My only complaint was the terrible Ziro The Hutt. I don't know what they were thinking ut i woul dhave much preferred Gardulla or Zorba the Hutt than that mess.

[speedermike]

Am I the only one who like Ziro?   (I guess living and working in the NY art wourd for years, I've known my share of queens...and usually they're all just show and very sweet at heart...)

Anyway...the "Bounty Hunters have returned" gag was totally true to the SW spirit and funnier than anything in all three prequels.

[Jesse James]

I liked Ziro too (check out my review for some more details) actually.  The galaxy's a big place, and I thought that an "eccentric" Hutt was a neat idea...  He's not just a carbon copy of Jabba, which is what EU sort of has delivered to us as far as Hutts go, but instead he's a flamboyant, decadent (similar, but moreso than Jabba), and evil prick...  I liked that whole aspect.

I agree, this will be better on TV than film, at least to me, but if I were going with a 1 to 10 scale, I'd give it a solid 8 I think.  Really the only thing that bothered me at all was the immediate "familiarity" Ahsoka gave Anakin with the nicknames.  Beyond that I thought the whole thing was very fast-paced, very exciting, very war-centric, and even had a nice mini-plot thing smashed into that fit perfectly with the "war".

Truman Capote is a lot of what I hear mentioned in regards to Ziro, and I agree.  That's a spot-on analysis, and I think it's 100% intentional by the creators as well.  Capote existed, so why couldn't a Hutt be similarly styled? 

I think Koon and Fisto will show up in some of the TV episodes, as will more familiar faces.  I dig the idea of a new adventure every couple episodes, which the pacing of the movie gave me that impression as to how the TV series will work...  Maybe a couple nights will be spent diving into and out of one story arc, only to lead into another one to take up a couple of nights...  I dig it.

I like SW in general but the military aspect is huge to me, and that was brought out very well in this cartoon.  I think that rocks.

[JesseVader08]

I really enjoyed it!  I think the interaction between characters was done BETTER than a lot of the writing from the prequels.  It was just a lot of fun, full of action with some humour thrown in. 

Roger Ebert gives the movie a star and half.

http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080814/REVIEWS/808140301/-1/PEOPLE

As soon as I heard Ebert gave it a low rating, I figured it should be pretty good. 

[Theo Zissou]

I thought it was good not great. i didn't like The words Stinky, Snips, Skyguy, and Artoo'ie. it didn't ruin it for me but it was just eh :/ Ziro really didn't bug me that much. i agree "an "eccentric" Hutt was a neat idea"

Actually one of my favorite things was the battle droids and the lines they had. lol. like the one that asked ventress about telling the count she failed, and she just flings him off the cliff.

I thought the style of everything was pretty cool. some of the little additions like the epoies outside jabbas palace.

The story was ok, but i've read alot better clone war stories in the comics. I liked what i saw in the preview of the TV series so i think once it hits tv we might start seeing some really cool stuff. Alot of it does feel kid friendly and that's ok. comparing it to the story from the cartoon network series though i think they did a better job on that.

As far as asoka goes i hope she just leaves the order and goes into hiding or something. I get the feeling though from the way they talk about anakin learning how to let things go that she ends up dead toward the end of the tv show.

[Muftak]

Went to see this with my wife yesterday afternoon.

First off, opening day 5:00 PM, playing in one theater, and that theater isn't half full. Guess this isn't quite the spectacle of years gone by, huh?

I had warned my wife for months about how worried I was that I wouldn't be able to get into the "new stuff," and as she looked around the theater she asked if it would be okay to sneak into another movie if this was too bad. I gave her the look.

It started with the "A Long Time Ago..." bit, and a young kid sitting behind us just squealed "OH YEAH!!" with such pure delight, and I remembered being just like that kid, not even ten years ago when TPM came out. He probably hadn't seen a Star Wars movie in the theater yet, was probably a baby when AOTC came out, and too little for ROTS's PG-13. So this movie, playing in theaters, is for them. I got it at that instant.

The movie took over and I sat in awe. The art, while not Pixar lush, definitely had its own beauty. I was afraid the characters would look too stiff, but it wasn't bad...maybe because I still love the figures, and more than anything this looked like action figures acting out a Star Wars movie. The only one I didn't follow was Yoda...he looked really weird and jarring to me.

The storyline was pretty good. I had complained to my wife when originally hearing about the Hutt and Tatooine elements that I feared they would do it all wrong, and forget Anakin had ever been a Hutt's slave...but they nailed it to my great glee. Having not heard about Ziro, it was kind of shocking to discern that he was being played gay. And not gay in a flat, one-dimensional way. Sort of menacingly gay. A gay Star Wars character..? In what is supposed to be a kid's movie? Wow.

Ahsoka was a little heavy-handed, but it was the character whose eyes we were supposed to be witnessing this through, so that is understandable. I didn't have a hard time with the nicknames everyone else seems to. Stinky was a well done character in his own right, and seeing his reunion with Jabba was very cute.

Loved the battle droid jokes and pratfalls. Loved that droidekas are still feared. Couldn't get enough of the Jawas, constantly appearing whenever a piece of equipment was left alone. Just great great fun Star Wars stuff.

In the end, my wife and I both enjoyed it, and she even said she is interested in the TV show now. This went a long way towards renewing my faith in the future of Star Wars. The Lucas era is over, bring on the guys who actually like this stuff!

[Darth_Anton]

About 30 of us saw this last night. 4 left early, they couldn't take it. For the party overall, it was mixed, some loathed it, other thought it was "fun."

I myself liked the broad strokes, but felt hat it was too childish. It's one thing to dumb down to children, it's another to go overboard, which this collection of episodes does. The battle sequences were well done and fun, the stuff with rex was actually pretty exciting. I couldn't take Ziro, though. If I was trying to forgive the fact the show stars a Bratz, Ziro simply ruined all efforts to get past the fact that there is so little in this movie designed for adults to enjoy. That's the difference between a good kids film and a bad kids film. The good ones make them smart enough that the parents don't roll their eyes and cringe. That's why all of Pixars movies do so well.

[Theo Zissou]

While i like the action and battle scenes for the style and look of it. there isn't much of a feeling of danger. I've been rewatching the cartoon network volume 1 this morning and this current series could of used a few touches of the first clonewars animation. One is the dialogue is minimal and works very well. second they do have a feeling of danger with durge and ventress and both characters push obi and anakin to a point of defeat before being defeated themselfs. The movie could of used another darkside disciple that could of been killed. i know in the comics dooku had ventress, skorr, vos for awhile, and sora bulq.