Star Wars: The Clone Wars
Some incredible highs and some very low lows - very much like Star Wars as a franchise.
Reminder for reviews: I'm only really going to talk about what stood out to me, so anything I don't bring up is most likely just fine.
If an issue isn't bad enough to detract from the experience, then that's a good thing - just like something not standing out as being noteworthy doesn't necessarily make it a bad thing.
It's perfectly fine for a thing to serve its purpose and nothing more.
MOVIES
- Star Wars: The Clone Wars plot summary: As the Clone Wars sweep the galaxy, Anakin Skywalker and his new Padawan, Ahsoka Tano, embark on a mission to rescue the kidnapped son of Jabba the Hutt. The renegade Count Dooku, however, is determined to ensure that they fail. (IMDb)
- It seems almost pointless having the Star Wars: The Clone Wars movie separate from the series, because you absolutely should watch it as part of the latter.
- This 'movie' is little more than a series of episodes edited together to tell a feature-length story and that's it.
- The problem with this approach is that the story assumes you know who everyone is and their relationships to each other.
- There is little to no effort to really explain anything that wouldn't be a problem if viewed at the correct point when watching the TV show.
- In fact, do not watch this movie first and instead find a guide online to watch it when it actually takes place in the timeline.
- There's also the issue that because this was made so early on in the show's existence, that it's not exactly visually pleasing either.
- The visual designs are exaggerated, but still very simplistic, and the animation quality is nowhere close to how good the show would eventually become.
- To go along with the visual issues, there's also the fact that the characters are still being worked out by the writers.
- This means that the characters' 'voices' are still not quite defined yet and leave the voice actors with very little nuance to work with.
- It does feel a little unfair to score Star Wars: The Clone Wars because it's more of a feature-length episode than a film, but I didn't choose to make it a separate thing that doesn't really work on its own. [3/10]
GAMES
- I'm continuing through 1000xRESIST, although not as much as I would've liked thanks to needing to recover from some busted ribs.
- I did, however, finish Lake and will write about that very cosy game next week.
- I'm also continuing to chip away at my latest playthroughs of Baldur's Gate 3 and Mass Effect: Legendary Edition, and am enjoying both exactly as much as I expected.
TV
- Star Wars: The Clone Wars series summary: Jedi Knights lead the Grand Army of the Republic against the droid army of the Separatists. (IMDb)
- Star Wars: The Clone Wars feels like it perfectly encapsulates the issues that Star Wars has as a franchise.
- There's a lot of good to great stuff; there's some pretty terrible episodes; and there's some which just exist.
- It's part of what comes with the territory of being a series aimed primarily at children, while being a series about some very child-unfriendly themes, such as the cost of war.
- There are some really great episodes, especially as the series goes on, which I think are some of the best Star Wars stories told.
- Seriously, if those final four episodes had been released as a movie, I'd only have Star Wars and Empire Strikes Back ahead of it.
- Then again, there are some episodes aimed very squarely at not just kids, but very young kids, and have little to no worth whatsoever to the ongoing story.
- There are also a fair number of episodes which seem to exist solely to make up the numbers.
- These episodes are of varying quality, much like the rest of the show, but also have the downside of making you wonder why they were made.
- The show also struggles with its identity at times, almost losing me completely by the end of the fourth season.
- I get that the people making the show wanted to flesh things out in the Star Wars universe, but things go too far at times.
- Seasons three and (especially) four felt more like a Star Wars anthology show at times than keeping to the subject of the show's title.
- For me, the show was at its best with episodes centred on the trio of Anakin, Obi-Wan or Ahsoka, or when treating the clones themselves seriously.
- There are a lot of episodes where this isn't the case and my patience with the series was seriously tested with some very silly and unfunny episodes.
- If that wasn't enough, a lot of episodes also have some really bizarre pacing.
- Excluding the opening and closing credits, there's around 20-22 minutes of time in each episode, which felt like an issue quite often.
- There are some single episodes that have rushed endings, where maybe just an extra 5 minutes would've massively improved things.
- Likewise, there are numerous multi-episode storylines which often feel like they don't have enough substance to justify how long things need to be stretched out to fill the time required.
- It's especially frustrating when you can have a great single episode or multi-part story preceded or followed by something paced so terribly that you wonder how the difference was allowed to be so stark.
- Fortunately, many of the show's problems become less regular as the series continues, and I have only minor complaints when it comes to the last two and a half seasons.
- The good-to-great stuff massively outweighs the bad stuff in that run of episodes, which worked out very well to leave me with a far better impression of the show now I've finished it.
- One slight issue is the rush to tie things in to the looming events of Revenge of the Sith, which really should have been better set up through the series' as a whole.
- There's also the fact that the writers and the team behind the visuals massively improved as the show went on.
- Hell, the final season looks absolutely stunning at times and easily movie-worthy, although the 6-year gap between seasons six and seven undoubtedly helped.
- Overall, it's a really tricky show to recommend, because even though there is so much good stuff here, there's a lot more 'meh' to terrible stuff.
- There are 133 episodes of the show in total, but probably 'only' 50 or so that are genuinely worth watching if you're not a child or a Star Wars super-fan.
- My advice would be to find a chronological order to watch the show in, and be liberal with skipping episodes to get to the good stuff.
- Star Wars: The Clone Wars ends amazingly well, but there's a lot of mediocre or worse episodes that will put off many, although you may find some of the incredible highs are worth it. [6/10]
Kommentare