Clone Wars Movie Reviews - SPOILER Thread

[Jayson]

If you think this show looks "cheap" then I don't think anything would please you.

Well, I would like Obiwan's hair to actually move in the breeze. CG has been able to do that since Monsters Inc. Instead he has helmet-hair. Even Space Chimps had more advanced CG then this.

Both of those movies were developed as cinematic features, first and foremost. The Clone Wars movie wasn't. Do you think Monster Inc. or Space Chimps would maintain those production values as a weekly show? Doubtful.

[Phrubruh]

The sad thing is I've seen weekly CG shows that show higher quality than this. Besides, this is a show that is shown as a feature length movie. Therefore, it can be compared to lower quality CG movies. Lucasfilm should have included this as a free DVD with a ship or something. Simularly to the way we get a GI Joe movie with a few figures or a DVD with a Barbie.

[jedipurge]

"Despite some absolutely gorgeous animation and adjusting expectations for what Clone Wars is meant to be, the Force is not strong with this one." - Los Angeles Times

"Clone Wars will appeal only to the most tolerant, galactically minded children and their parents." - Wall Street Journal

Man my newspaper gave it a bad review that sucks, I work at the Times.

I think WSJ hit it on the head. 

Us, the OT fans mainly, have to see this as the 10 and under that we were when the OT came out NOT as the 30+ that we are now.  It's not really geared towards us, I saw it on Sat. w/my 8 year old daughter.  I think before I became a dad I probably wouldn't have liked it as much, but now that I am I can totally see what Lucas was going for with this movie, and it kinda sucks that some won't get it.  This movie is directed at a new generation of fans and with all the "options" that kids have entertainment and what not I see nothing wrong with trying to get their attention/$.  If Lucas can get ahold of that 10 year old and turn over to the Lucas side of the Force it just means that the "story" as it is will continue.  If you only look at the 40 year old that saw it 30 years ago eventually the line will only go so far.

[Theo Zissou]

while the animation may not be on the level of pixar films. It has a pretty cool look to it. I like the style of it. If i had to pick between the 2 though i like the samurai jack style of the micro series more.

[iFett]

Us, the OT fans mainly, have to see this as the 10 and under that we were when the OT came out NOT as the 30+ that we are now.  It's not really geared towards us

I understand that, but this should have never made it to theatres.  Entertaining or not, the "movie" was horrible - and I'm a fan of shows like Ben10 which is aimed towards kiddies.  Yes I'm 30 and still enjoy the occassional toon here and there.  Hell, if this thing made it to the big screen then why not the Secret of the Omitrix?  That was a masterpiece compared to this piece of garbage.  I'm okay with the animation but I get more life out of a Jimmy Neutron episode.

**Note - I'm knocking this for actually being a theatrical "movie".  I would have been just fine had they released it on tv as was originally planned.

[Jayson]

Anyone else think that Ahsoka will eventually meet her end by sacrificing herself to save Anakin's life coupled with Yoda's line about Anakin's difficulty in letting go of the Padawan?

They sure seemed to emphasize that fact with Ahsoka's frequent life saving lines like "always there to save your life".

[Jesse James]

It's possible...  I really think they're building her up as something that adds to his ultimate demise to Vader.

On the animation point with Obi's hair...  If I'm not mistaken, the characters are to be puppet-like in their styling, so they're not really to "move with the wind" and things.  That's where the references to the old Thunderbirds show have come in when the movie was compared to various other shows.  IE: it's intentional, not just poor quality. 

I believe the stylized details were brought up in some of the videos about CW on SW.com, maybe elsewhere too.  I have a hard time believing LFL's CG work was just crappy, considering their CG work is never crappy in anything else it's in.  And yes, that includes the prequals.

[Keonobi]

Someone earlier mentioned that it was nice to see the Jedi still afraid of the Destroyer droids.  Adding to that, I liked the part where Anakin and Asoka had the cruiser lower it's shields so they could land, only to have the group of Droid fighters recognize this, and immediately turn and crash themselves into the exposed innards of the cruiser.  The droids may be easily tricked when the Jedi do something that is beyong their programming capacity, but when they are presented by a military opportunity they respond.  I thought it added depth to the bad guys, which was nice.


Was I the only one who longed for Jabba to hit the big button (for old times sake) so we could see what's below door number one?

Also, wasn't Pixar originally a computer/program developed by LucasArts/LucasFilm/THX/SkywalkerSound (or whatever Lucas company)?

[Jayson]

Someone earlier mentioned that it was nice to see the Jedi still afraid of the Destroyer droids.  Adding to that, I liked the part where Anakin and Asoka had the cruiser lower it's shields so they could land, only to have the group of Droid fighters recognize this, and immediately turn and crash themselves into the exposed innards of the cruiser.  The droids may be easily tricked when the Jedi do something that is beyong their programming capacity, but when they are presented by a military opportunity they respond.  I thought it added depth to the bad guys, which was nice.

I dug that part as well, and I was surprised that they showed "human" hangar crew officers getting killed, usually they reserve that for helmeted/alien characters. Maybe LFL sees them differently as they are clones.

[Brian]

It's possible...  I really think they're building her up as something that adds to his ultimate demise to Vader.

On the animation point with Obi's hair...  If I'm not mistaken, the characters are to be puppet-like in their styling, so they're not really to "move with the wind" and things.  That's where the references to the old Thunderbirds show have come in when the movie was compared to various other shows.  IE: it's intentional, not just poor quality. 

I believe the stylized details were brought up in some of the videos about CW on SW.com, maybe elsewhere too.  I have a hard time believing LFL's CG work was just crappy, considering their CG work is never crappy in anything else it's in.  And yes, that includes the prequals.

That's a good point Jesse.  I've seen a number of comments in reviews about the animation not being too great (with the characters in particular), and I guess it didn't bother me because that's what I expected as well.  They've mentioned numerous times that its inspired by Thunderbirds and again has the "old timey" feel to it, like Lucas likes to tie into his properties (Flash Gordon, Saturday serials, etc.)

I'm kind of surprised at how poorly it did at the box office.  Granted, they probably weren't expecting anything huge (or needed it), but I guess I still expected "Star Wars" to pull in about double what it did.  I realize its not live action, and that makes a big difference, but is the general public just tired of Star Wars now?  Is it because it is animated?  I've seen some people mention that it wasn't heavily marketed, which might be true, but I can say that I've seen commercials for it at least 4 times a day for the past couple weeks.  Anyways, just a little surprised how poorly it did at the box office, I expected a little more.  Not over $100 or anything, but like I said, at least double the $15 it did.

Like I mentioned earlier, and other people have said, I enjoyed it and appreciate the aspect that this generation's kids will probably love this.  The kids in the theatre I was in seemed pretty pumped about it.  Definitely looking forward to seeing this on a weekly basis though, and seeing more of the Jedi/Clones/etc. in the spotlight.  I'll probably see the movie once more, as my nephews want me to take them to it.

[Phrubruh]

On the animation point with Obi's hair...  If I'm not mistaken, the characters are to be puppet-like in their styling, so they're not really to "move with the wind" and things.  That's where the references to the old Thunderbirds show have come in when the movie was compared to various other shows.  IE: it's intentional, not just poor quality. 

The graphics were poor intentionally for style? You actually believe that? That's an old Disney marketing ploy for, "We didn't want to spend money making it look good, so we went with a cheap and simple graphical style instead." That way LFL can fire the actual ILM animators and outsource it to Korea for a dollar an hour. This is what Disney tried to do during the Eisner years and what John Lasseter is trying to turn back around now. What we have here is the difference in quality between a classic Disney animated feature (the Little Mermaid) vs Disney made for TV/DVD sequal (the Little Mermaid 2). They are dumbing down the quality in order to save money while increasing the price of toys. It cheapens the brand. You guys are good with that?

[Jayson]

The quality isn't "dumbed down" if the tv and movie characters/vehicle share the exact same models - it'll be consistent if anything.

I'd have an issue if it was sold as one thing but delivered as another. The animated character designs were never intended to be life-like nor photorealistic. This is a new style and it'll take some getting used to for some.

[Keonobi]

I don't know how many theaters around you guys were showing it, but I think part of the small weekend take was that a lot of theaters aren't showing it.  Maybe a lot of theaters don't want to show a movie for only a weekend or two, which might be what is planned here if a fall DVD release is accurate. 

I was going to take my nephew to see if it at the one theater a couple miles from my house, but they weren't showing it, we had to turn around and drive 20 miles the other way to one of the big malls to find a theater that was showing the Clone Wars.  On the plus side there four guys in costume (Darth Vader, three stormies and R2-D2 though he was remote controlled).  I think they were there working for the cinema though and not just fans as they were back at the top of the escalator when the movie got out.  I live near Albany NY, so there isn't the same number of 501st people there are in CA or other areas, so it was kinda neat for my nephew and I.

Just going on the reaction of the crowd in the theater I was in (200 5-9 year olds and their fathers), I was really surprised by the low box office numbers.

[Brian]

Yeah, I think the animation style is all a matter of taste.  I actually kind of like it, at least as opposed to the more "realistic" stuff.  I guess if its going to be animated anyways, I prefer things like Pixar's stuff (Incredibles, Nemo, etc.) that looks "cartoony" instead of the Final Fantasy type animated stuff.  For some reason, that stuff has always sort of creeped me out.  I'm sure Lucasfilm could have went that route too (I think Lucas even mentioned that at some point), but if we're getting an animated series like this - I'm fine with it looking cartoony like it does.  Like its been mentioned, the vehicles and everything do look amazing.  I think it will all look better on the small screen, but if the style isn't a person's taste it just isn't going to look good anywhere.

[Keonobi]

Hey, wonder what everyone thought about the scene where Asoka was bragging to the troops and artooie had a chat with another droid, was that R2-KT?  It would be very Lucas to slip something like that in.  I hadn't seen anyone else mention that, didn't know if anyone else caught it.