Star Wars: The Clone Wars by
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So here we go again. Three years after George Lucas supposedly concluded the Star Wars saga with Revenge of the Sith, we’re back in that far, far away galaxy for The Clone Wars, the story of what happened in between Episodes II and III. That description doesn’t make the film sound particularly significant, and you could be forgiven for thinking it’s a little pointless, especially as Gennedy Tartakovsky covered the same campaign in his acclaimed 2003 cartoon of the same name. However, Lucas is set to launch a new toon later this year and was so impressed with the first three episodes that he bunched them together and granted them this theatrical release. So is it worth the effort?
The first thing you notice about The Clone Wars is that,
on the surface at least, it’s surprisingly un-Star Wars
like. John Williams was unavailable for the project,
and while some of his iconic themes have made it into
the film, they’ve been reworked and remixed to less
effect by Kevin Kiner, the composer sadly losing much
of Williams’s epic sweep amid more workmanlike action
beats. That much perhaps was inevitable, but more surprising
is Lucas‘s abandonment of the iconic opening. We’re
still a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away of course,
but that famous yellow Star Wars logo has been replaced
with a Clone Wars one and the opening crawl scrapped
in favour of a 50s-style radio serial announcer. Cool
certainly, but just a little jarring.
Once things get underway in earnest, however, it’s clear little has changed. Like its predecessors, the film opens with all-out action, as the separatists’ droid army - lamentably as wacky as they were in Phantom Menace - do battle with the Clone Troopers, led by Obi Wan and Anakin. Joining the two experienced campaigners is Ahsoka, Skywalker’s young Padawan learner and the only new character that fans will have to adjust to. Though clearly designed to give the tweens a point of identification in a film otherwise dominated by gravely voiced old men and embattled war vets, she proves a more than worthwhile addition to Star Wars lore. Intelligent, resourceful and self-sufficient, she’s another fine example of a strong Lucas woman, and given time to blossom in the series proper, she could become as beloved as Princess Leia.
She’s certainly got the fight for it. While Obi Wan is commanding the Clone Army, she and Anakin are tasked with the film’s main plot: rescuing Jabba the Hutt’s young son from bounty hunters in order to curry the tubby slug‘s favour. Not as epic as we're used to certainly, but it‘s a worthwhile plot device. The return to Tatooine forces Anakin into a painful trip back to his home planet, the use of an enemy as famously dangerous as Jabba allows Ashoka to prove her worth on the battlefield and the lack of a complex plot means the two Jedi’s relationship is developed in a gentle and realisitic manner, ensuring that Clone Wars’ characters engross, even if we do know what’s going to happen to them in the future.
Director Dave Filoni is the man given the unenviable task of tackling that sticky issue, and his helming is bold and ambitious enough to keep the audience on their toes. The camera flows around the battlefield with thrilling grace - certainly with more style and subtlety than some of the rather over-directed war sequences Lucas helmed - and the stunning animation bodes well for the series. Defying realism, the skies are painted in a richly expressive manner, the landscapes are more alien and unusual than the live-action films managed to achieve, and the characters, echoing the designs that proved so popular in Tartakovsky’s series, are wonderfully robust, with Obi Wan and Yoda looking especially impressive in animated form. You can certainly see what impressed Lucas so much.
But ultimately we must return to the initial question: is it worth it? For a mainstream audience, the answer has to be no. There are no earth-shattering revelations here and the uninitiated will have trouble acclimatising themselves to the animation. But for kids and Star Wars geeks, it’s well worth a look. Put simply, Star Wars: The Clone Wars is a blast. Yes, I’ll write that again, a modern day Star Wars film is FUN! No clunky exposition, no tiresome politics, no 'darkness', just good guys and bad guys battling it out with lightsabers and blasters. In fact, you could say it’s the kind of Star Wars film we were waiting for in 1999. Just a shame it took nine more years to arrive.
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