The Clone Wars - Review/Criticas "externas"

[Kanon]

Un topic para recopilar reviews, criticas, etc, publicadas en otros sitios...

Para facilitar la lectura, una review por post, quote con link a la fuente. Sin discusion (usen/abran otros topics)

[Kanon]

Does THE CLONE WARS suck as bad as the Prequels? Massawyrm says 'ROGER ROGER!'

Hola all. Massawyrm here.

A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away... life was good and a movie named Star Wars rocked our god damned faces off. But those days are gone, in their place an endless stream of merchandising not meant for the average consumer, but the hyper specialized fan who still to this day must own everything and anything properly branded with the Star Wars logo. The inmates run the asylum now as Lucas long ago stopped listening to his soul as an artist - his heart as a storyteller – and has since begun listening to the slavering fanboys who cry themselves to sleep at night with their Darth Vader backpacks clutched close to their chests lest they separate it from their beating hearts. He's long since stopped working with the geniuses of old, replacing them with young, idealistic artists who revere him as some sort of living Man-God and long to carry on his legacy rather than forging their own. He's forgotten that the most important duty you have to your fanbase is not to give them what they want – but instead to give them what they REALLY want.

Do the fanboys REALLY want a bunch of scenes of characters whose destinies we already know fly through a series of dogfights so their pretty ships can go PEWPEWPEW against lifeless moronic droids so incompetent you question the tenacity of anyone that would put them into service let alone fight a war with an army of them? Do the fanboys REALLY want to spend the next 20 years of their lives arguing that the movies they love don't, in fact, suck the hair off of a nutless monkey? Do the fanboys REALLY want an animated television series not written for 30-year-old men, but easily amused 8 year olds on Saturday morning between bites of soggy Corn Puffs? Because that's what they're fucking getting with The Clone Wars.

This. Is. Shit-ty.

Everything that was wrong with the prequels is wrong again here. There's not much reason to dredge out all those complaints again. The Prequels aren't actually Star Wars movies. They're Fanfic. Bad fanfic that tries to include every element you love about Star Wars without actually using those elements the way they were intended. And while some might argue that it can't be fanfic if the original creator is involved, I would counter that the creator in question died a long time ago. In a galaxy far, far away. As an artist Lucas is entirely bankrupt, no longer able to conjure a single, tangible, original idea. And unlike other artists in his situation, he isn't able to properly recycle the ones he had to begin with either.

No, Star Wars is an ailing, dying beached whale of a property, too large to ignore but left too long in the sun to save. And the stench is unimaginable. So leave it to television writers to sit down and come up with a classic solution to lagging ratings. Their genius booster shot in the arm of suckdom? A plucky tween girl sidekick who keeps getting herself into trouble while being delightfully precocious and calling Anakin... Darth fucking Vader himself... Skyguy. Again. And again. And again. Every time this 14-year-old little monster opens her mouth to say something "witty" my jaw went slack and my eyes rolled into the back of my skull. She's unbearable, absolutely excruciating to watch, and yet she finds herself in almost every scene of the film. She's around so much I half expected her to pop up in scenes with the emperor or the Hutts, just stumbling into frame while saying something "cute" like "Oops, wrong door," or "This isn't the shuttle bay."

Seriously, the only way she could be any more annoying is if she added the word MEESA to the beginning of every sentence and BOMBAD to the end of it. You beginning to feel me? I get that they might be working towards a Luke Skywalker type transformation, but that doesn't replace the fact that A) her very presence makes me want to punch the person nearest me in the face repeatedly and B) she will not, ever, play a part in the mythology of the original films... or the fanfic prequel films... at all, unless Lucas goes back in to tinker with them AGAIN. So odds are she will meet a bitter untimely end sometime later in the series, like randomly slamming into an asteroid like the Han Solo clone from Shadows of the Empire. If and when that happens, I MIGHT tune in. If I don't just youtube the scene. Again. And again. And again.

Then there's the unending problem of putting characters in peril that we already know the fates of. Look, George. Having Anakin and Count Dooku have a dual ISN'T EXCITING. We already know what happens to Dooku. He died on screen YEARS AGO. We know he doesn't die at the hands of Skywalker. Nor does Skywalker get so much as a scratch from him. We know this already. So why devote so much time to it, unless you're completely out of ide...

Oh.

The party's over guys. The only one's left here are the folks who haven't realized it yet. I'm sure the Star wars fan forums are going to be aflutter with the revelations that Dooku once fought Anakin or that Anakin actually once went back to Tatooine, or that Jabba has an Uncle that - unlike other Hutt's - sounds like a bad New Orleans piano player. But for the rest of us? This is just another episode in a long line of attempts to charge you for something you loved as a kid. I mean honestly, how much shit would we be giving Coppola if he had greenlit The Further Adventures of the Corleone's? Because that's what this is.

Will I be watching the series? After an hour and a half of being bored to tears? Not on your life. That path leads only to fear and anger, and we all know that once you start down that path, there is no turning back. If you WANT this to be good rather than KNOWING it will be good, odds are you're gonna be in the same boat as myself. This is no better than the Prequels. Scrub that hope out of your heart now.

Until next time friends, smoke 'em if ya got 'em.
Massawyrm

http://www.aintitcool.com/node/37881

[Kanon]

`Clone Wars' revives old-style `Star Wars' fun

By DAVID GERMAIN, AP Movie Writer Thu Jul 17, 8:02 AM ET

SAN RAFAEL, Calif. - A tinge of Anakin Skywalker's coming dark side clearly is visible in "Star Wars: The Clone Wars." Yet the animated adventure mostly harks back to the fun, swashbuckling times of the original "Star Wars" trilogy.

Lucasfilm Animation, which screened the movie Tuesday for The Associated Press in advance of its Aug. 15 theatrical release, has crafted a movie nicely tucked in to Anakin's early heroic days, before his transformation into the evil Darth Vader.

Along for the ride are noble-hearted clone soldiers with the camaraderie of Marine grunts, inept android warriors as idiotic as the Three Stooges and a young protege who rivals Anakin for cockiness and affectionately calls him "Sky Guy."

Dave Filoni, director of the movie and supervising director for "The Clone Wars" animated TV show debuting this fall on TNT and the Cartoon Network, said the idea was to return to the wisecracking tone of the original "Star Wars" in 1977, before the gloom of Anakin's fall.

"I wanted this to have the banter. I wanted this to be funny," Filoni said in an interview at Skywalker Ranch, home to Lucasfilm Animation, a division of "Star Wars" creator George Lucas' filmmaking empire. "Telling that dark story of Anakin Skywalker was important for George, but this was a chance to show Anakin before that. Anakin as a hero, Anakin as the good guy, Anakin more like his son," Luke Skywalker, of the original trilogy.

The Anakin in "Clone Wars" is a hybrid of Luke and his rascally ally, Han Solo, Filoni said.

"He's cocky like Han, he can do a lot of things like Han, he's clever with machines like Han. But he's naive like Luke. The whole galaxy is a bit overwhelming," Filoni said.

The movie presents all of the key characters from Anakin's world: Jedi masters Obi-Wan Kenobi, Mace Windu and Yoda; Anakin's future wife Padme Amidala; androids R2-D2 and C-3PO; gangster Jabba the Hutt; villain Count Dooku; and Palpatine, the galaxy's evil emperor in waiting.

Characters not seen in the live-action movies include conniving assassin Asajj Ventress; Jabba's sinister uncle, a giant slug that speaks with a Truman Capote-like Southern drawl; and Captain Rex, a loyal member of Anakin's clone crew.

The main newcomer is Ahsoka Tano, a teenage girl from an exotic alien species who's assigned as Anakin's Jedi apprentice. With mischievous wit, Ahsoka breaks down Anakin's stiff facade and reluctance to take on a student, the two establishing a flippant rapport as they slice up droids with their light-sabers, scale a daunting summit on a rescue mission and play nursemaid to Jabba's kidnapped baby son.

"She definitely brings a fun side out of Anakin. I think they have such a great relationship," said Ashley Eckstein, who provides Ahsoka's voice. "Ahsoka is very eager to prove herself, and I don't think she would allow Anakin not to accept her."

The movie offers a glimpse of the inner turmoil that contributes to Anakin's turn to the dark side. Crash-landing on his home planet of Tatooine, Anakin momentarily bears a haunted look as he's asked about the desert world, where he exacted a savage revenge over the death of his mother in "Attack of the Clones."

"I was hoping I'd never have to lay eyes on this dustball again," Anakin says.

Opening with a variation on John Williams' familiar "Star Wars" theme, the movie is heavy on humor. Anakin devises an amusing low-tech way for him and Ahsoka to sneak inside a droid energy shield. Obi-Wan engages in a witty surrender negotiation with a general who speaks in a Sean Connery brogue. When a droid falls off a cliff and smashes on the ground, his superior leans over and barks, "Get back here, sergeant."

A few veteran "Star Wars" performers provide voices for the movie, including Samuel L. Jackson as Mace, Christopher Lee as Dooku and Anthony Daniels as C-3PO. Taking over from Hayden Christensen as the voice of Anakin is Matt Lanter, while James Arnold Taylor does Obi-Wan, who was played by Ewan McGregor in the prequel trilogy.

Anakin remains a bit rash, but he has graduated from apprenticeship to Obi-Wan to take the lead on his own missions as an equal to his former master.

"With this movie and also the ongoing series, we're going to see the banter between Obi-Wan and Anakin. We're going to see them as comrades, as buddies," Lanter said. "It is reminiscent of some of the original `Star Wars.' It's got that comic relief in it and has kind of that old-school feeling."

Mentioned briefly in the first "Star Wars," the Clone Wars are depicted fleetingly in "Attack of the Clones" and "Revenge of the Sith," the second and third episodes in the prequel trilogy.

The new movie and the TV show take place in the three years between those films, as the Jedi lead the galactic republic's clone army against the robot forces of a separatist movement headed by Dooku.

It was a murky epoch in the "Star Wars" universe, ripe with stories about Anakin and other central figures but also minor characters and new ones never seen before.

"That was the impetus of that, this whole period of time we could run around in,"

Lucas said in an interview earlier this year.

Lucas initially planned just a TV show. But as he viewed the first footage, "he said, `This looks great. The fans should really see this on the big screen,'" said Filoni, who came to "Clone Wars" after working on the animated series "Avatar: The Last Airbender."

Filoni and his collaborators reshaped a story arc developed for the series into a stand-alone tale they could tell as a theatrical movie.

The computer animation borrows from the striking panoramas of Japanese anime, while the characters have a chiseled look and movements vaguely reminiscent of the 1960s puppet adventure series "Thunderbirds."

Though animated, the world is recognizably "Star Wars," from Yoda's twitching frowns to the hum of the light-sabers.

"A lot of people have said to me that have seen it — well, the few people that have seen it at this point — that they feel like they're watching `Star Wars,'" Filoni said. "They feel like they're seeing those characters again. Even though we've done this style that's painterly, if you want to call it that, it's still `Star Wars.'"

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080717/ap_ ... JlpoVxFb8C

[Kanon]

‘Star Wars: The Clone Wars’ Lives Up to Mediocre Expectations

It’s tough to tell why there hasn’t been much buzz for the latest offering from Team Lucas. It might be that there wasn’t a huge advertising campaign for it. Maybe it’s another victim of the box office vacuum left by The Dark Knight. Maybe fans still find it difficult to gear up for the Star Wars universe after the aftermath of episodes I, II, and III. Whatever the case, that lack of excitement actually matches the tone of the film near-perfectly.

Star Wars: The Clone Wars features a lot of familiar faces - those faces just happened to be animated this time around. Anakin (voiced by Matt Lanter) and Obi-Wan (voiced by James Arnold Taylor) have got their hands full with battles breaking out between The Republic and The Separatists, but amongst the throngs of clones and battle droids, Anakin’s job get tougher when his padawan shows up. Ahsoka Tano (voiced by Ashley Eckstein) is young, rash, and neither she nor Anakin are ready for her training. As the battle rages between the two of them, they are charged with rescuing Jabba the Hutt’s kidnapped son in order to secure his favor and permission to use the crucial routes through the outer rim to give them the advantage in the war.

The main problem for this film was pacing. The battle sequences are incredible, innovative, and fun to watch, but they are almost always going on. The audience barely gets any relief from the war to reflect on what they’ve seen. Even though a lot of character development gets handled within the fights (and from the previous installments to the canon), the feel of the film is ultimately flat, the depth of the story difficult to find beneath the barrage of heavy artillery fire.

Ahsoka does as much as she can as a character to disrupt Anakin’s world, and their story really is the story of this film. Unfortunately, other characters fall to the wayside, completing mostly unimportant side tasks or promising to show up and inexplicably never showing up. Sticking the basic issue of pacing, without a subplot to create a dynamic story, the film bogs down heavily in the relatively small task of getting Jabba’s son back. Despite a massive rebellion threatening civility in The Republic, it seems all hands are on deck for that task even though most of their actions have little effect on the outcome. This includes a cameo from Senator Amidala (voiced by Catherine Taber) in a scheme to aid Anakin that seems to come from nowhere.

That scheme includes one of the most annoying characters since Jar Jar Binks plagued the screen with his presence: Jabba’s uncle Ziro the Hutt (voiced by Corey Burton). Why Ziro seems to be Rip Torn wearing a Phyllis Diller the Hutt costume about to take the main stage at the Bird Cage is never explained, but it takes a generous moment to know whether their was a massive continuity error in Amidala’s calling him Jabba’s “uncle.” His sniveling, far-too-over-the-top flamboyancy sticks out like casting Liberace as Lawrence of Arabia.

Another character misuse comes in the form of the evil Asajj Ventress (voiced by Nika Futterman). If I can continue using outlandish comparisons - Ventress appears as if Voldemort and The Lawnmower Man had a daughter and fed her gravel and rage until they realized she could use The Force. She’s a terrific villain, truly frightening at some points and handles a fight with Obi-Wan like a pro. So of course, the filmmakers push her aside near the end ala Darth Maul to give the lifelessly dull Count Dooku (voiced by Christopher Lee) top spot as baddie. Despite being bearded and lying constantly, he’s barely threatening and is even handled easily in a fight with Anakin. Essentially, The Republic is being threatened by someone’s manipulative, yet hilariously polite, great-grandfather.

Aside from the grand distractions, the film does have some good things to offer. Somehow, the filmmakers found a solid balance of having intense action sequences while remaining kid-friendly. It’s those battles - especially the opening street skirmish with giant, Wellsian battle droids and the completely vertical fight as Anakin and clone forces scale the fortress where Jabba’s son is being held - that keep the film on an even keel. A few of them last a bit too long, and, yes, there are too many fights, but they are amazing to watch.

Also great is the relationship between Anakin and Ahsoka. Some will find her character obnoxious - easily imagining her frustrated parents dropping her off at the Jedi Temple and speeding away as more daycare than Knight Training - but her spark works fairly well when paired with the too-rash Anakin. It’s a great example of a teacher learning from his student and a student coming into her own.

When I spoke with director Dave Filoni and producer Catherine Winder at Comic-Con, they mentioned that they saw Ahsoka’s character as a way to draw in a younger, female audience. It’s unclear as to whether this film will actually succeed in that goal. Having a strong female protagonist and a badass female villain could appeal to younger, female viewers. but the sheer amount of battles might be a turn off. Perhaps they’ll focus more on those characters and less on digitally blowing things up in the television series that’s been produced alongside the film.

Oddly enough, without knowing about that series’ existence, this film is difficult to understand. It spends a lot of time on one task that probably would have been completed within minutes in any other Star Wars film, tries to develop the relationship of two characters while constantly having to run back to the smaller stories going on, and has the kind of resolution that should ominously signal a sequel is on the way. A film sequel might be in the works, but it’s more likely that Star Wars: The Clone Wars serves more as a supplement to the forthcoming television show. It had a lot of potential, but unfortunately, that label of ’supplement’ seems more appropriate for it than ’stand alone film’ does.

The Upside: You’ll get tired of the fighting eventually, but while they work, they are breathtaking. Also, No Hayden Christiansen is an upside all on its own.

The Downside: A lot of noise and laser blasts for not much pay off. It’s a Star Wars film for kids, so, big kids are out of luck.

On the Side: Sadly, for the first time, Frank Oz isn’t the voice of Yoda.

http://www.filmschoolrejects.com/review ... ations.php

[Kanon]

Dammit! Harry hated THE CLONE WARS!

I’ve never hated a STAR WARS film before. I have weathered Jar Jar and any number of Ewoks. I survived Hayden and a wooden Portman. I even accepted Jake Lloyd. I handled all that because it felt like STAR WARS.

I can accept all of Lucas’ flaws, so long as at its heart it felt like Star Wars. I can deal with politics in Star Wars. I can deal with trade skirmishes in Star Wars. I can deal with musical numbers, breathing in the vacuum of space. Basically – so long as it feels like STAR WARS – I can watch any of it.

Was I looking forward to STAR WARS: THE CLONE WARS (2008)?

FUCKING A!

I was dying. After Genndy’s CLONE WARS – I felt that perhaps Lucas “got it” – and that this new animated series was taking a lead from Tartakovsky’s brilliant assembly of pieces. Genndy’s CLONE WARS got STAR WARS better than anyone has got it since Lawrence Kasdan and Irvin Kershner. Genndy took designs and characters that folks were dissatisfied with and made them cool. He did this by using and adapting the themes created by John Williams, the wholly perfect entity involved with Star Wars along with… the sound effects of Ben Burtt. He understood speed and motion – not just with action, but in editing. He understood classic film composition and iconography. And he knows what BADASS is.

The folks behind this STAR WARS: THE CLONE WARS movie… you could tell, they looked at what Genndy did – but they didn’t understand any of it. There’s a shitload of battles and shit going boom. There’s noise everywhere – fury everywhere… but none of it is directed. The music by Kevin Kiner is criminally bad. Why they didn’t employ Paul Dinletir and James Venable is beyond me. No, no – let’s hire the composer of WALKER, TEXAS RANGER. Ahem.

Now – I made excuses for this film as I was watching it. I don’t think you understand how much I love STAR WARS. Maybe you do, maybe you do too.

Before the movie started I was firing myself up to go out after the film and buy that new $200 Hasbro Millenium Falcon. I really wanted to go buy it, and I wanted this movie to empower my brain to go through with that. Instead, I found myself at home – putting on Genndy’s THE CLONE WARS – to try and rebuild my passion – so I can go get that new Falcon.

Instead – I’m thinking I’ll just be here at home enjoying this and that’ll be all I need.

Anyway – as I was watching the film, I was excusing the sloppy shots, the sloppy use of the Clone Troopers and Droids – undoing all the awesome work that Genndy had done – and the droids are silly again. The Clone Troopers are limp. And the Jedi – they’re at 25% power from the mind of Genndy. But I was accepting that. I figured that was Lucas dialing back so that the animated series wouldn’t overpower his features.

Then they introduced Baby Jabba aka Rotta the Huttlet aka Stinky. At the point of this character’s introduction – it officially became, the worst character in the history of STAR WARS. If you hate George Lucas cutsiepoo bullshit – oooooooh boy. You’re gonna have a field day of venting and hatred directed at this unbelievably fucking awful little shit.

Oh – but wait… Little Stinky the Hutt isn’t the worst character in the history of STAR WARS… because Stinky got introduced earlier in the film. As much as I hated lil Stinky… I was weathering Stinky. I seriously was. But later there was a character of such immense shit – offensively bad. The character was so bad, so incredibly awful – that it was a slap to the face. It woke me out of my shit-accepting stupor and made me angry. SUDDENLY my “inner fanboy rage” was awoken.

As I watched this terrifyingly awful character named Ziro the Hutt. A seemingly female Hutt – with tattoos and make-up that sounds like a racist take on a Black New Orleans Crack-Dealing Whore. Because this Hutt speaks ENGLISH – and it is many times worse than I’m actually describing. This character was actually too much for me. So bad that every flaw I was looking past, was now a road sign to inadequacy and mediocrity. All of a sudden my brain realized that Asajj Ventress’ voice no longer was acceptable – and sure enough – the amazing Grey DeLisle, who originally voiced the character back in 2003 – had been replaced by a Nika Futterman – and that voice was missed. The character didn’t have that snarling menace anymore.

I realized that nothing in this animated film felt right. I felt time expanding. It seemed that the film was dragging – nevermind that lots of shit was firing all over the place – and stuff was going boom and things were being revealed. I just didn’t care because this wasn’t what I wanted.

I hated the score, the animation, the shots, the characters and most of all the retarded fucking idiot story.

I hated the film. HATED IT. REALLY HATED IT.

Does this mean the whole Star Wars Animated Series is doomed? No – but it isn’t a good sign. So much of this is awful because of the Hutt plotlines and character. I also feel that Dave Filoni must be a hack. His work here is sloppy – and depending on writers and directing talent – individual episodes may be better. This film was several episodes all strung together – my prayer is that the individual episodes will be both great and awful – and we’ll discover which talents are responsible for each.

That said – the audience did have light applause. My father liked it. My sister felt too much was going on. Me nephew really liked it. That said – Yoko was complaining right along with me. She thought it was shit too. I know Moriarty liked it. Wonder what Quint and Massawyrm thought.

Fuck. I hated a STAR WARS. That fucking sucks.

Originalmente en http://www.aintitcool.com/node/37874 actualmente retirado por embargo de Warner hasta el dia del estreno

[Kanon]

Star Wars: The Clone Wars (TBC)

Review

Brad Bird famously promised to punch anyone who refers to animation as a genre - it’s just a technique. It’s with a similar, if rather less belligerent, ethos that Lucasfilm brings us The Clone Wars. Animation, they argue, is just a new way of continuing the story that began in 1977. Whether or not you agree is up to you, but regardless of the nomenclature used, this latest offering is a very different experience to that of Episodes past.

The spiritual (and chronological) successor to Genndy Tartakovsky’s animated series, this computer-generated tale boasts similarly stylised visuals and over-the-top action. The hyperreal outlook takes some getting used to, but once you’ve made the transition, the beauty of Filoni’s brave new world becomes apparent. The cast of caricatures bear an intricate, textured aspect like that of hand-painted models, each familiar face lovingly exaggerated to fit the new mould.

There’s little reference to the larger saga here, focusing instead on the action, which unfolds through a series of slick skirmishes and colossal set-pieces. The stand-out is a giddy, vertical firefight on the craggy side of a plunging rock face - an arresting sequence that dares to try something genuinely fresh and inventive.

Traditional lightsaber duels are here as well, of course, thanks to the welcome return of Sith apprentice Asajj Ventress, whose sinister looks and dual ’sabers are as crowd-pleasing here as in Tartakovsky’s cartoon.

Ahsoka Tano is the main addition to the roster: a precocious youngling who serves as Anakin’s unwanted padawan. Probably the most worrisome aspect of the film for fans, this sassy, smart-mouthed Jedi-in-training is actually surprisingly affable, striking up a snappy rapport with Anakin, who casts aside his usual pouty petulance. In fact, there’s a lightening of tone all round, allowing some tremendous fun with battle droids (who have finally found their natural habitat) and the introduction of Zero The Hutt - a drawling, cross-dressing pimp of a character and the closest Star Wars has to an intergalactic Huggy Bear.

If this doesn’t sound quite like the Star Wars you remember, that’s because in many ways it’s not. The absence of the Fox fanfare (substituted by Warner Bros.’ theme) is followed with no opening crawl, and the main title feels awkward without John Williams’ iconic score – replaced by a proficient but less grand offering from Kevin Kiner. All of this detracts from the film’s cinematic impact. Indeed, serving as an elongated introduction to the new Clone Wars series (destined for British TVs next year), this feels more like great television writ large than a movie in its own right.

The biggest grumble for fans will be that Clone Wars skews towards a younger audience than the live-action films. Despite the occasional hint of darkness (Ahsoka’s omission from Episode III bodes ill), this is a more frivolous affair than we’re accustomed to. However, Lucas has oft said that while the fans have grown up, Star Wars never has, and in many ways The Clone Wars accomplishes exactly what he set out to do 30 years ago: take people out of themselves to a galaxy far, far away. It may not be what the (now older) fans are hoping for, but this is entirely in keeping with Lucas’ original vision - whether you like it or not.

Verdict
An enjoyable escapade and a great introduction to the forthcoming series - just not the seventh Star Wars film fans were hoping for.

Good
Reviewer: James Dyer

http://www.empireonline.com/reviews/rev ... FID=135488

Nota: 3/5 estrellas, cambiado en el texto a "Good", el equivalente segun la leyenda en el sitio

[Kanon]

Star Wars: The Clone Wars (Animated)
By TODD MCCARTHY

"Star Wars: The Clone Wars" will serve its purpose as a quick fix for die-hard fans who simply can't wait for the new Cartoon Network show to debut on Oct. 3. This first theatrical production from Lucasfilm Animation purportedly reps a synthesis of the series' first three episodes - 30 installments are finished and at least 100 are planned -and there's little doubt this stuff will look more at home on the tube than it does on the bigscreen, since one thing is for sure: This isn't the "Star Wars" we've always known and at least sometimes loved. Young kids will constitute the biggest audience for this Warner Bros. release - it's downright weird not to see the Fox logo on a "Star Wars" feature - while devotees old enough to have seen the originals on their first go-round will likely wait to check out this strip-mining of the cinema's most enduring mother lode at home.

Series trivia freaks will note that the clone wars were glancingly referred to in the very first "Star Wars" film, but didn't really come up again until "Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones." Conflicts in question were set in the three-year period between the events of that film and "Episode III - Revenge of the Sith," and resulted in the long-standing Republic coming under the increased control of the Separatists to become an empire.

One could say that excluding them from the bigscreen "Star Wars" saga was the equivalent of writing the history of the United States and leaving out the Civil War. The omission, however, left Lucas and his cohorts with the opportunity to invent a virtually endless array of battles, which is what "Clone Wars" mostly consists of: a little exposition, an invasion; some more exposition, a light saber fight; a bit more blah-blah, a spaceship dogfight;, and on and on.

Leaving behind the traditional animation employed on the three-season, similarly combat-oriented "Star Wars: Clone Wars" series aired on the Cartoon Network 2003-05, Lucas & Co. here employ a computer-generated anime/manga style that results in somewhat more dramatic compositions and color schemes. But the movements, both of the characters and the compositions, look mechanical, and the mostly familiar characters have all the facial expressiveness of Easter Island statues.

Given that the Anakin-into-Darth Vader story arc has been milked for all it's worth, Dark Side villainy is here assumed by the estimable Count Dooku, all of whose energies are devoted to expanding the influence of the Separatists and the power of the droid army. Happily, Christopher Lee was induced to return to endow the role with his inimitable basso inflections, providing one of the film's greater pleasures.

Less crucially, Samuel L. Jackson and the perennial Anthony Daniels voice their original roles of Mace Windu and C-3PO, respectively. Most of the other voicings are OK - the declamatory dialogue makes few demands - but Frank Oz is sorely missed as Yoda, whose replacement, Tom Kane, sounds little like him.

With the droid armies on the move, young Anakin Skywalker is paired with a foxy, red-skinned, blue-eyed, Egyptian-style teenager, Ahsoka Tano. This previously (if briefly) seen subject of Queen Padme learns on the job as Anakin takes on a videogame's worth of adversaries while attempting to find, then return, the kidnapped infant son of the infamous Jabba the Hutt.

The expansion of the Hutt clan reps the script's most diverting aspect. The mere idea of the corpulent, nasty old Jabba fathering a sprig is itself amusing, and the offspring, variously referred to as Rotta the Huttlet and Stinko, resembles a wriggling turnip with eyes. Dooku manipulates Jabba and his relative Ziro, imaginatively etched as a melodramatic Southern queen, into believing the Jedi mean to betray the Hutts, and sends a stealthy assassin, the sleek Asajj Ventress, to take out Anakin.

With his sculpted beard, light saber in hand and arm pointing forward like a Greek statue, the newly minted Obi-Wan Kenobi looks like he belongs in "300" rather than at the controls of a spaceship.

Director Dave Filoni, who helmed the visually imaginative Nickelodeon animated series "Avatar: The Last Airbender," seems at home with Lucas' universe, which is a good thing, since he's the supervising director of the upcoming "Clone Wars" series. One can only hope the writers find intriguing tangents and backwaters to enter as the program progresses, rather than being forced to crank out a battle-to-end-all-battles every seven minutes.

Employing a reorchestrated version of John Williams' trademark theme at the beginning and the end, the score by new composer Kevin Kiner is never absent even for a moment; he's tried to associate every realm depicted with its own theme, but settings come and go so quickly that nothing sticks around long enough to resonate.

http://www.variety.com/review/VE1117937 ... id=31&cs=1

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Film Review: Star Wars: The Clone Wars
Bottom Line: Anakin’s a real mannequin in this stiffly-executed CG feature.
By Michael Rechtshaffen

Situated chronologically between “Attack of the Clones” and “Revenge of the Sith” in the “Star Wars” saga, “Star Wars: The Clone Wars” serves as the maiden voyage for Lucasfilm Animation, but despite the exclusively CG rendering, this anticipated new episode is at best a reasonable facsimile.

Frankly, given the newer installments’ increasing reliance on CG effects, the transition from live action to animation isn’t really all that dramatic -- and that’s part of the problem with the latest adventure.

Without the need for actual bodies and expensive sets, the sky truly was the limit for where the imagination could go here, but the largely uninspired “Clone Wars” feels landlocked.
In the absence of any extensive innovation, the video game-ready results play more like a feature-length promo for the imminent TV series of the same name than a stand-alone event.

Given the prolonged awareness factor, the fanboys and junior Jedi Knights should still be out in full force -- at least in the opening weekend -- producing stellar though unlikely out-of-this-galaxy results.

Briefly alluded to in “Episodes II” and “III” as well as the subject of a very different-looking animated TV series from a few years back, “Clone Wars” finds Anakin Skywalker (voiced by Matt Lanter) reluctantly paired with overeager Padawan learner, Ahsoka (Ashley Eckstein), on a mission to rescue crime lord Jabba the Hutt’s kidnapped baby.

There are admittedly some eye-catching sequences in the production, directed by Dave Filoni (Nickelodeon’s “Avatar: The Last Airbender”), from a script credited to Scott Murphy and TV animation veterans Henry Gilroy and Steven Melching.

But the distinctive animation style eschews photorealism in favor of something more of a high-tech marionette look recalling Sylvia and Gerry Anderson’s vintage “Thunderbirds” and “Fireball XL-5” ‘60s series.

Unfortunately, that wood-carved appearance is all-too-fitting considering the less-than-fluid movement of the characters (they all appear to walk like C-3PO) and the lifeless dialogue.

Strained attempts at comedy are reserved for the constant bickering between Anakin and Ahsoka, who form something of a bizarre dysfunctional family along with the Hutt-let.

While the vocal talents of originators Hayden Christensen, Natalie Portman, Ewan McGregor and even Yoda’s Frank Oz are nowhere to be heard, a welcome bit of continuity has been provided by Samuel L. Jackson, Christopher Lee and Anthony Daniels, who lend their voices to Mace Windu, Count Dooku and C-3PO, respectively.

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/fil ... &rid=11497

[Kanon]

El regreso del (que te) Jedi

"Star Wars, The Clone Wars" es prodigiosa en batallas animadas. Nuevos personajes se suman a Anakin iy Obi-Wan.
Por: Pablo O. Scholz

Los motivos pueden ser varios —así como también los fueron al pensar las precuelas—, pero hay algo que es evidente: el universo Star Wars es inagotable.

Una mención al pasar en la primera La guerra de las galaxias y otra aparición más "seria" y profunda en la nueva saga sirve para situarnos entre el Episodio II y el Episodio III, en plena Guerra de los clones, con los caballeros Jedi luchando incansablemente por mantener la paz y el orden. No olvidar que los Jedi están con la República —como corresponde— y que los Separatistas y su ejército de droides son una amenaza más que fantasma.

George Lucas, el autor y productor de todos los capítulos hasta ahora, decidió saltar a la animación, delegó la dirección de lo que primero imaginó una serie de TV —que verá la luz en octubre en los Estados Unidos; aquí, averiguamos, no hay fecha— y al pizpear los resultados, el productor de Indiana Jones se jugó a apostar a un largometraje. Que sirve de introducción, claro, a la serie que se verá por Cartoon Network.

La animación no es en absoluto hiperrealista a la hora de presentar a Anakin Skywalker u Obi-Wan Kenobi, sino todo lo contrario. Los personajes son dibujitos, pero esperen a ver las naves espaciales y digan si no les parece estar sentados admirando cualquiera de las starships de la saga entera. Al margen de la trama —mínima y sencilla, lo cual no es poco viniendo del cerebro de Lucas, amante de enrevesar historias y conflictos en los últimos tres capítulos que dirigió— otro rasgo común es la contraposición entre las escenas de batallas, logradísimas en cuanto a elementos de acción, destreza y explosiones varias, y aquéllas en las que los personajes deben hablar. Que sigue siendo, históricamente, el punto más flojo de Star Wars.

Hay nuevos personajes. A Anakin le adosan su aprendiz de Padawan, Ahsoka Tano, una adolescente no humana —de ser esto posible—, y además de luchar brazo a brazo con Obi-Wan tiene que rescatar a un bebé. Jabba el Hutt, el Conde Dooku y Asajj Ventress están del lado de los malos, pero uno ya imagina dónde irán a parar las fuerzas del lado oscuro. A los fans, no los decepcionará.-

http://www.clarin.com/diario/2008/08/14 ... -00603.htm

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CRITICA DE HUGO ZAPATA

Star Wars no da para más. Alguien debería notificárselo a George Lucas. Más allá del curro comercial que representa esta película yo no termino de entender que necesidad había de retomar las Guerras Clónicas otra vez, después del excelente trabajo que hizo Gendy Tartakovsky con la serie animada del 2003, ganadora de un premio Emmy.
Guerras Clónicas retrató muy bien desde la animación tradicional toda la mitología de este super clásico del cine. El personaje de Anakin estuvo excelentemente desarrollado y los dibujos prepararon el terreno para La venganza de los Sith.
Vamos a recordar que esta trama narra los hechos ocurridos entre el episodio 2 y 3 de la saga.
Después que la historia épica de la familia Skywalker llegó a su fin volver atrás con lo mismo no tiene sentido y resulta agotador. Si al menos hubieran preparado una película sobre los hechos posteriores al episodio 3 se justificaba un poco más y creo que hubiera sido más divertido.
El nuevo film es la presentación oficial de lo que será una nueva serie que se emitirá en unos meses por el Cartón Network. A Lucas le gustó tanto lo que habían hecho los muchachos de su productora que decidió convertir a los primeros episodios en un largometraje.
Si bien las escenas de acción son espectaculares la película carece de alma y no retrata el espíritu de Star Wars como lo hizo Gendy Tartakovsky.
Sinceramente el guión es muy pobre y toda el conflicto del secuestro del hijo de Jabba the Hut es un bodrio. Hay momentos demasiado infantiles y me sorprendió que no reapareciera Jar Jar Binks, ya que el tono de la película era ideal para que estuviera él.
La incorporación de Ahsoka, la discípula o “Padowan” de Anakin también va para atrás, debido a que parece más un personaje de Disney que de Star Wars.
Esta nueva versión de las Guerras Clónicas fue dirigida por Dave Filon, quien desde hace un tiempo cosecha elogios por su trabajo en la serie animada de Nickelodeon, Avatar: The last Airbender, que pronto será adaptada en el cine por M Night Shyamalan.
No sé si lo habrán hecho al propósito, pero el diseño de los personajes y la manera en que se mueven parecen un tributo a las geniales marionetas de Gerry Anderson que en los años ´60 fueron famosas por las series del Capitán Scarlata y los Thunderbirds, entre otras creaciones.
Desde la realización el film está muy bien logrado, esto no se puede dejar de destacar y en el cine se ve espectacular.
Samuel Jackson (Mace Windu), Christopher Lee (Conde Dooku) y Anthony Daniels (C-3Po) son los únicos actores que volvieron a interpretar a los personajes de la saga. El resto del reparto fueron reemplazados por otros artistas.
Para revivir las épicas batallas de los jedis en una pantalla grande no está mal si sos muuuuy fanático de la saga, pero la película sinceramente hace poco por entusiasmar al espectador con la futura serie.
Será menos impactante desde la realización, pero yo me quedo con las Guerras Clónicas de Gendy Tartakovsky.

http://www.cinesargentinos.com.ar/ficha ... wars.shtml