Release Date: August 15
Director: Dave Filoni
Writer: Henry Gilroy, George Lucas, Steven Melching and Scott Murphy
Starring: Matt Lanter, Ashley Eckstein, James Arnold Taylor
Studio/Run Time: Warner Bros., 98 mins.
From The Matrix to Children of Men, it’s impossible to deny the influence that video games have had on film during the past decade.Star Wars: Clone Wars takes this to the logical extreme by creating a film that’s images look more like a video game than some AAA games.Unfortunately, it also chose a plot more suited to a game or a children’s cartoon series, which the film is partially a spin-off from, than a full-fledged movie. But it’s especially sad that a few of the better Star Wars games feature not only significantly deeper stories, but also superior CGI, meaning that both this project’s film and video game predecessors have already done better.
Taking place between Episodes II and III of the prequel trilogy, Clone Wars centers on a conspiracy plot during its titular period that required the assistance of Anakin Skywalker and Ben Kenobi.Jabba the Hutt’s son has been kidnapped and he more or less blackmails the Jedi into retrieving him because, well, he can.The separatists try to deceive Jabba into thinking that the Jedi really plan on killing the young Hutt, forcing the protagonists to deal with Count Dooku and a Sith who never appeared in any of the real features.
None of the leads involved in the live-action films were involved in this project and, though this is weirdly a positive thing for Anakin, it’s indicative of the film’s second-class status.Lucasfilm certainly has some of the most advanced CGI technology in the film world, but they made the inexplicable choice to render Clone Wars in strangely stylized art that looks at least five years out of date.Jabba’s chin and most characters’ hair become rendered in just two or three triangular polygons, a choice that’s not just lazy but also jarring when every character’s eyes are startlingly realistic.It seems that rather than going all out for the production, the studio did just enough to get the job done.
The film’s worst offense is that, especially with its addition of a wisecracking teenager sadly reminiscent of The Simpsons’ Poochie, there’s no real threat.At no point in Clone Wars is it unclear that the good guys will win out and come away unharmed, which makes the whole thing seem too pre-determined to maintain interest.The film’s many action scenes still look good, but compared with their live-action counterparts, they lack the drama and connection that comes from real humans in jeopardy. Clocknig in at a mere 95 minutes, Clone Wars feels as long as any two of the other six Star Wars films combined.
Lucasfilm was trying something different and clearly wanted to make a Star Wars for children.This doesn’t excuse decisions like making Jabba’s Uncle little more than a flamboyant Truman Capote impersonation, but since the filmmakers weren’t trying for depth, their failure to achieve any is no great loss.More importantly, though, I overheard kids sitting behind me in the audience asking when the film was going to end.It was clear that they were with the rest of us in the theater and would rather watch a real Star Wars movie, or play a real Star Wars video game, since either would greatly outshine this unfortunate hybrid.