Star Wars: The Clone Wars

Star Wars - The Clone Wars
Oh dear…

I honestly was hopeful going into this film. I honestly thought to myself “Maybe without Hayden Christiansen, it might be possible to make a good Star Wars film.” Oh how wrong I was.

There are a lot of things that annoy me about this film. The voice work is poor at best, ranging from the uninspiring to the ridiculously hammy. The opening voice over is particularly poor, and I found myself wondering what exactly would have been so wrong with an opening crawl, even if it didn’t have a John Williams score pounding alongside. The dialogue is appalling, as expected, and the character interactions are just as bad. And, it must be said, the animation simply isn’t up to scratch.

I’m not saying that I have a problem with stylised animation, because I don’t. What I do have a problem with is the fact that the animation appears to have been stylised to make it easier and cheaper to do. I also have a problem with incidental shots being repeated – I spotted a shot near the opening with the cannons firing and a clone surveying the battlefield repeated exactly not a minute later. That’s what I’d expect from a TV show on a tight budget looking to fill up some vital seconds, not from a Hollywood movie from one of the richest men in the movie industry.

The biggest problem with The Clone Wars is that, after Episodes I – III, I don’t really care about these characters anymore. Anakin is an irritating, arrogant character (though thankfully missing the infuriating mopiness of the Hayden Christiansen incarnation), while the Obi-Wan of this film is ridiculously hammy. There’s also the fact that the plot is about securing supply lines. This is so incidental that I find myself struggling to care less.

All in all, this is far worse than any of the prequel trilogy. While those films were not particularly good, this one is downright bad. It looks cheap. It sounds cheap. It feels cheap. The Star Wars name used to carry with it some expectations of standards. With this film, they all disappear. Unless you’re an absolute diehard fan, then don’t bother. C.

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