I’m pretty easy to please as a Star Wars geek. I shouted praises for "The Phantom Menace" when others were being critical. Not that I didn’t have anything negative to say about the new trilogy, but none of it was enough to keep me from enjoying it. This animated movie is one my my least revisited Star Wars projects. I loved the Tartakovsky "Clone Wars" series (the earlier 2-season run on Cartoon Network). I had some minor complaints, but by and large I thought it was great. Now comes the new "Clone Wars."

 

First gripe: the title. Give us a title that distinguishes the two series for goodness sake. With two series and a movie all with the exact same title it gets hard to talk about them without having to carefully explain why they’re different and which one I’m talking about. If you’re not up on your Star Wars releases it can become even more confusing. So let me take a paragraph or so and make sure we’re on the same page here. There was a cartoon series called "Clone Wars" previously. It lasted for 2 seasons and featured short segments rather than full-on episodes. I will typically refer to this as the “earlier series."

 

There is now a new series called "The Clone Wars." This one was ongoing until about the time Disney took over (and "Rebels" became the animated series of note) and kicked off with a theatrically released movie of the same name which is what I’m reviewing here. I’ll refer to them typically as the “new series" and “the movie” respectively. They have nothing to do with the earlier series; this new line is redesigned and re-imagined. It’s not exactly a remake but not really a continuation, either. Steve Sansweet in a Q&A session I had the privilege of attending said that Lucas does not consider the earlier series canon. He didn’t necessarily intend to contradict it, but he had no problem doing so if he decided he wanted the new series to go in a different direction down the road.

 

For instance, there is some hint of history here between Anakin and Asajj, which would be in keeping with the continuity of the earlier series, but there is no direct mention of it nor any promise that it won’t be overwritten (I'll save furter details on that for reviews of the series seasons). There’s no indication of how Asajj got from point A at the end of the earlier Clone Wars to point B at the beginning of this movie. And all this is without looking too hard at the specifics of the timeline which may or may not make it difficult to chronologically reconcile the events in the collective run of all of "The Cone Wars" with what has been laid out in the already existing movies.

 

So now that we have that as clear as mud let me get back to talking about the Clone Wars as a period in Star Wars history rather than a particular series. After seeing this movie and reading some of the early stories I began feeling like we were spending too much time on the time period. My attitude has changed as I've gotten into the ongoing series although I do wish we would explore some other periods.

 

In the movie Rex and some of the clone troopers get some screen time, but the focus is really on the Jedi. In the midst of a fierce battle Anakin is assigned a young padawan named Ahsoka. She’s inexperienced and headstrong, a bit like Anakin himself. She has a lot of talent (I initially felt like she was too powerful, but I've come to accept that virtually every new Star Wars story presents its new Force-sensitive character as very far above average), but she also causes a lot of trouble. The movie left me neither loving her nor hating her but I've grown fond of her in the course of the series.

 

Anyway, Jabba the Hutt’s son has been kidnapped by Anakin’s nemesis Asajj. Anakin and Ahsoka go after the Huttlet – right into a Sith trap! Whoever comes out on top of this little skirmish will have the favor of Jabba and thus access to the space he controls which would make for great strategic advantage in the war.

 

Asajj was one of my favorite things in the early series. I thought Darth Maul went out like a punk (Lucas REALLY should have kept him around longer), and Asajj seemed to be making up for that. She’s a terror with her twin lightsabers with speed and agility that make her a good match for the increasingly powerful Anakin. Her small, feminine frame, pale skin, and dark style created an odd but distinctive combination of beauty and danger – like a serpentine seductress who has lost interest in the seduction part and just wants blood now. She was mysterious and dangerous.

 

In the movie she is far less alluring (which may be more because of the animation which I’ll get into shortly) and feels more like a henchman destined to fail than a real threat. She feels like she’s past her prime. Maybe that was on purpose and will work into a future story arc, but for a movie it doesn’t work nearly as well as what I expected after the earlier series. Her diminished presence is one of my biggest disappointments with the movie.

 

While I find Asajj a weaker character, Rex hard to cheer for (knowing his future betrayal), and Ahsoka hard to relate to I don’t truly dislike any of them. Ziro the Hutt, though, I detest. This is by FAR the worst character EVER put into a Star Wars ANYTHING. He’s annoying, goofy, and devoid anything redeeming. I cringe when he is on the screen. If you hated Jar Jar you may find it impossible to sit through Ziro’s scenes. He's just so un-Hutt-like.

 

The writing in general is not great. Aside from Ahsoka and Asajj not being what they could have been and the other things I’ve mentioned there are some big plot problems. Watching the movie commentary I learned a lot about what the characters are thinking in certain situations. For instance, when Anakin challenges Ahsoka to a race to the top of the plateau it is primarily to take her mind off the dangers of the battle. However, these things do not come across in the movie itself which means they aren’t projected very well. We should have some indication of what Anakin is doing not have to be told about it.

 

Another big problem for the movie as its own entity comes from this being a kick off to a longer series. Yes, there is a lot of character development potential in Ahsoka, but because it is intended to be drawn out over the course of the series we get very little of it here. The biggest change in the established characters is that Anakin goes from having reservations about having a padawan to being more accepting of the idea. The lack of change along with the weak sense of peril leaves the whole of the story feeling rather unimportant. There’s not a whole lot to contemplate in this.

 

Another big problem with this production is the animation. I thoroughly dislike the character designs. The characters look like plastic puppets rather than cartoons. It’s particularly bad with hair and fleshy faces. They look stiff and unnatural. I watch a lot of animation from cell drawings to stop motion so I’m not terribly picky, but this style is perhaps the worst I’ve seen at least in a contemporary big-budget release. It’s not just the design style I dislike, either. A lot of times the actions feel jerky and uneven. I wasn’t the biggest fan of the extremely angular designs of the earlier series (though I prefer them to the new style), but the movements always felt natural and graceful. The new series isn’t like that.

 

I applaud the movie makers for attempting to give the movie its own voice. For instance, writing new music is better than reusing the movie score. The problem is that these things don’t always work, and some things distinguish the Star Wars universe as a whole. Deviating from them makes this movie feel too removed. One is the main theme. It has been reworked for Clone Wars. This is the one piece of music they should have left alone. I say that, though, coming from the standpoint of seeing the other movies. Now that it has been established as the series theme song it doesn't bother me as much in the movie.

 

Another big negative change is the replacing of the opening crawl with narration. The crawl is distinctive to the Star Wars universe and didn’t need a revamp. Like the theme, though, it bothers me less now that it is established as part of the series. My initial impressions were formed because I was comparing it to the movies. Other than that my complaints are generally nitpicky like Dooku not looking enough like Christopher Lee.

 

Acting is mostly decent. I can’t think of anyone that stands out as poor (even though I hate Ziro’s voice). Sam Jackson, Chris Lee, and Tony Daniels play their famous roles and are probably the best of the bunch considering their scant number of lines. There are a few other recognizable names especially if you follow voice actors a lot. I have come to associate Matt Lanter more with Anakin than Hayden Christiansen, and I can't imagine anyone but Ashley Eckstein as Ahsoka, but this comes after watching the series. Judging the movie by itself I was not blown away initially. I'm sure that had something to do with my disappointments with other aspects of the production.