I am one of the lucky ones. I saw Star Wars in the theater when I was 6 years old. My grandfather took me to see it at the Mayfair movie theater in Northeast Philadelphia. Now the theater is gone (it had beautiful murals on the tall ceilings. Pictures of Greek mythology) and a Rite-Aid is there now. All of that is so long, long ago. But I remember the hologram of Princess Leia saying, "Many years ago you served my father in the Clone Wars." And, boy, that's all I needed. I imagined amazing space battles with X-wings and Tie fighter that would just absolutely blow my mind.
Flash forward to 2008. Star Wars: The Clone Wars came out this past Tuesday. I passed seeing the movie in the theaters (that tells you something right there) and thought I'd give the movie a spin on Blu-ray. Some technical details: The picture quality is excellent. I watched the movie on a Sony Wega 50" rear-projection TV with 1080i (not p) resolution, listening in 5.1 Dolby Digital sound. The film is clear, crisp and sounds solid. No, it's not the best movie to show off your system as I don't believe the CGI animation truly captures the colors and depth of my setup, but it does look nice.
So what did I think of the movie? I fell asleep. Okay, I am being a bit harsh. Let me explain. I am fighting off a cold and do feel a bit under the weather, but about an hour into the film I lost interest and fell asleep for about 30 seconds. An explosion woke me up and I fought to stay asleep. I would give the film 2 1/2 stars out of four. My main take on the film is this: The younger you are, the more you're going to love this film. If you're 8 years old, this film will rock. If you're 37 like me, well, not so much.
Here's what I did like: I actually liked the little baby Hutt. I didn't think I would, but he works rather well in the plot and I liked Anakin's padawan. She is saucy and just enough rebelious enough for us to see how Anakin needs to pull in his own anger.
What didn't I like? The CGI. Characters move in a blocky, hesistant manner at times. Motion isn't fluid and I know that this is the style of the film, but it's distracting. When you're looking at Jabba's face, there's a part under his mouth that sticks out and I kept thinking I was playing the Star Wars Lego game. Character had that harsh, blocky look. This movie isn't the Clone Wars I wanted so much to see when I was a boy--a live action film with great special effects and a wonderful plot line. Instead, we get a tired and re-hashed storyline: Hyperspace lanes are blocked (isn't the universe 3D? Can't ships just fly around on the Z-axis a blocked "lane"?) and Jabba's son has been kidnapped. Obi-wan and Anakin are leading a clone army to defeat a billion droid on planet X and they have to save the day. Yawn.
There's no drama in the film, no depth of character. Again, it's a great flick for the under 12 crowd. Having watched The Matrix the night before with all its mind twisting "are we in a computer simulation and slaves, what really is reality" and then seeing The Clone Wars the next night was a bit of a let down.
If you're a huge Star Wars fan from back in the day, you'll probably not like the movie. There isn't anything said or done that you haven't already seen before. If you know a young Star Wars fan, show them this film because they'll love it.
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