Star Wars: The Clone Wars

This film was pretty dreadful, really, but switch off your brain and you could enjoy it. It belongs on television, not on the big screen, and it felt like a bit of a swiz to be watching such an unimportant bit of Star Wars history in the cinema, the plot revolving around Anakin getting an annoying chirpy padawan and the two of them getting caught in a plot to frame the republic for the kidnapping of Jabba the Hutt’s son.

The stylised art seemed to have been made to look as though carved out of wood to directly reflect the dialogue, which was grimace-inducingly stilted and pompous. It was cut from the same part of the Star Wars cloth that makes you long for Han Solo’s scepticism and the grit and grime of the Millennium Falcon. The romance was of the fallen Empire, and the prequel universe still doesn’t seem to quite fit, the Empire having lasting such a shamefully short time, the idea of Yoda just going off and hiding in a swamp instead of allying himself with the rebels more than a little odd, and now we have to wonder why Jabba makes no reference to these events.

On the other hand, the film told a neat story, it had moments of cuteness, and even though the comic relief battle droids aren’t my favourite idea of Lucas’, their stupidity was quite amusing at times.

(originally written 24.8.08)