SuperSearnold - Comic Book Reviews

Greetings from your friendly neighborhood Searnold [Shár- Nŭhld].  Welcome to my comic book review blog.  Today is Saturday, September 6th, 2008.  Thanks for tuning in.

Remember like a month ago when I promised that I would review Star Wars - Clone Wars and Hellboy II - The Golden Army?  Neither did I.  ;-)  Until one of you was gracious enough to remind me you were still waiting for my thoughts.  So this weekend my reviews will focus on those movies while I work on revamping the format of my comic book reviews.

Today we’ll be doing the latest canon installment of Star Wars - the Clone Wars animated movie.  For those who don’t know, this movie takes place between Episodes II and III and is the prequel to the Clone Wars animated series that is premiering October 3rd on Cartoon Network.  Wait - you may be saying - didn’t they already do a Clone Wars animated show on Cartoon Network?  Indeed they did.  But it was comprised of 3 minutes shorts - whereas the new show contains full half hour episodes.  George Lucas has said that over 100 episodes will be made.  George - it would appear - has more faith that the show will do well than I do.  And I based my assumption that the show will be bad based upon the quality of the movie.

You know how after you watch a movie, you come out with a general impression of “good” or “bad” and then you tend to remember the parts that reflect that impression?  Case in point - The Dark Knight.  Everyone comes out of that movie with a “good” impression, so they tend to forget the bad parts (which I’m completely okay with).  Well I came out of Clone Wars with a “bad” impression - so now, not quite a month later, the scenes I tend to remember are the bad ones.  [I just wanted to honestly lay my biases out on the table for everyone to be aware of as they read this.]

I want to say that I am a HUGE Star Wars fan.  So I’m not saying this was a bad movie because it was all Star-Warsy.  I’m saying this was a bad movie because I don’t feel that it lives up to the quality standards set by Star Wars (not even the Episode I standards.)

My biggest problem with the movie is that it was bad (can you tell I didn’t enjoy the movie?).  Okay, all joking aside, the movie is an action movie - which is cool - but it severly lacks a plot that I could buy into.  Perhaps the difficulty stems from the fact that everyone knows exactly what is going to happen after this series - so nothing surprising can happen.  We know who dies and who doesn’t, which - in what is essentially a war movie - essentially annihilates the suspense.  Also, when considering the massively epic scope of the Clone Wars, this movie focuses on a dissappointingly small and insignificant single battle - the battle to save Jabba’s son. 

The only reason I took any enjoyment from the film was because it was taking place in the Star Wars universe.  It’s always fun to watch people using the force to kick ass.  And lightsabers are the coolest weapons ever.  But if I just wanted to see a cool Star Wars action film, well, I would watch Star Wars - which ALSO managed to have a plot.  So why shouldn’t the Clone Wars?  I also want to add that the action scenes from the previous Clone Wars series were far more badass, so this is even a backwards step from that shortlived series.

It was pretty clear that this movie was dumbed down for children.  Even the addition of Anakin’s padawan, Ahsoka, felt forced in there to appeal to a child audience - similar to the inclusion of one Jar Jar Binks.  Along with the whole “dumbed down” thing came character moments that were just silly.  The scene I specifically remember was when Anakin begs Ahsoka for help, then immediately scolds her for interferring in a battle that he had under control.  The way this scene was done COULD have been done to show Anakin’s fickle nature, or that he is quick to become angry.  But instead it played out like the writers forgot that Anakin had ASKED for help a few seconds earlier.  The movie was riddled with scenes like this that played out poorly.

So should you go watch the movie?  No, sadly, no.  More than anything I want another awesome Star Wars movie.  But this was not it.  I’ll be watching the show when it comes out because I remain eternally optimistic - so I’ll be sure to let you know how it turns out.

That’s all for Star Wars - Clone Wars.  Tune in tomorrow for Hellboy II - The Golden Army.  As always, thanks for reading - see you next time.
-Searnold