Star Wars: Clone Wars film (Minimal spoilers)
Moderator: Vympel
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Lord Insanity
- Padawan Learner
- Posts: 434
- Joined: 2006-02-28 10:00pm
Clone Wars was awesome. No it wasn't ESB, but is was definitely better that TPM. The pacing was way better than the prequels and the whole thing felt more like an original trilogy movie. Obviously (or it should be anyway) the story was just filler. The beginning and the ending of the whole series are already known in the form of AOTC and ROTS. There are a lot of things they simply can and can't do just because of that. That said for a mere filler story it was actually pretty darn good in its own right. Obi-wan effortlessly smacking down Ventress and her running away was worth the price of admission alone. Heck even the cliff climbing scene made perfect sense in context. They appeared to actually try an air landing first and were getting shot to hell. "Mini-hooker" didn't bother me at all. The way some of you were talking I was expecting a female Jar-Jar. She was less annoying than a real 14 year old girl and Yoda gave a perfectly good explanation for why she was there. My overall impression is I am kind of bummed I don't have cable and will have to wait for the series to come out on DVD before I can watch it.
-Lord Insanity
"A little nonsense now and then is relished by the wisest men" -The Real Willy Wonka
"A little nonsense now and then is relished by the wisest men" -The Real Willy Wonka
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Darth Vengen
- Redshirt
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- Joined: 2008-04-27 05:29pm
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Count Chocula
- Jedi Council Member
- Posts: 1821
- Joined: 2008-08-19 01:34pm
- Location: You've asked me for my sacrifice, and I am winter born
It's not going to win any awards or establish any new canon, but I enjoyed it. I really liked the AT-TEs climbing up the damn mountain and firing their nose guns without falling off. The three-dimensional combat, with vertical climbing tanks, gunships, speeders, and leaping Jedi was well done IMO.
Did anyone else notice the shark's mouth nose art on on one of the gunships assaulting the fortress/monastery? Tres cool.
My three year old son watched the entire movie, with very little fidgeting or talking. He was totally into the film (he's added a new phrase to his vocabulary: "Ohhh No! It's the bbaaaddd giirrrrlll!" I think he's talking about Ventress, not Mary Sue).Those of you who had or have kids that age know just how remarkable that is. He won't even sit still at home for Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, for gods' sake!
Oh, yeah. Anakin's still a dick.
Did anyone else notice the shark's mouth nose art on on one of the gunships assaulting the fortress/monastery? Tres cool.
My three year old son watched the entire movie, with very little fidgeting or talking. He was totally into the film (he's added a new phrase to his vocabulary: "Ohhh No! It's the bbaaaddd giirrrrlll!" I think he's talking about Ventress, not Mary Sue).Those of you who had or have kids that age know just how remarkable that is. He won't even sit still at home for Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, for gods' sake!
Oh, yeah. Anakin's still a dick.
Lord Monckton is my heeerrooo
"Yeah, well, fuck them. I never said I liked the Moros." - Shroom Man 777
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Themightytom
- Sith Devotee
- Posts: 2818
- Joined: 2007-12-22 11:11am
- Location: United States
I actually kind of loathe the little girl, her existence is illogical. it wasn't quite MovieRuin level irritation, but what the hell is yoda setting Anakin up with a padawan for? they had serious misgivings about him in all three prequels and suddenly their thinking "Let him train the little one, teach her the ways of..."
Did anyone see the preview for the clone wars on Cartoon network? I suppose its unlikely given that youd have to have been watching ben Ten Alien X...
....
...
yeah anyway there are Y Wing precursors and would looked like a giant WMD shooting V'ger torpedoes at a stardestroyer.
Did anyone see the preview for the clone wars on Cartoon network? I suppose its unlikely given that youd have to have been watching ben Ten Alien X...
....
...
yeah anyway there are Y Wing precursors and would looked like a giant WMD shooting V'ger torpedoes at a stardestroyer.
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Pint0 Xtreme
- Jedi Council Member
- Posts: 2430
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- Location: The City of Angels
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I finally got a chance to watch the Clone Wars last night and I must say that it was surprisingly fun to watch. I didn't think Alohka was really as bad as everyone makes her out to be and I thought the relationship between her and Anakin worked pretty well. The action scenes kicked ass and I thought the only thing really lacking was the ending. But then again, this is just the pilot to an entire series. Seriously, bring it on!
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Coyote
- Rabid Monkey
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- Location: The glorious Sun-Barge! Isis, Isis, Ra,Ra,Ra!
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[Casts Minor Force Necro]...
Saw it today. I was prepared to be bummed and found myself pleasantly surprised. They packed a lot into an hour and a half, I felt, although they did this by rushing scene-to-scene, ban-bam-bam, without taking time to really develop a given scene or situation. However, I went into this knowing it was geared for kids, and the kid attention span being what it is, I think most kids might find this pace decent, and the plot/intensity fairly respectful of their maturity level (it will depend on the age of the kid, I'd suppose-- someone with kids would have to say one way or the other, really).
That said, let's take a look at some stuff that went poorly:
The snazzy version of the Lucas score. Bad, bad, bad. Luckily it did not show up much.
The animation was, I agree, better geared for the small screen. It doesn't translate well into the big screen. I did find Dooku's appearance to be overly distorted compared to the rest of the human characters, though. Something about Yoda seemed off, too. There were times when he seemed almost 2-dimensional, while every one else was more 3d rendered.
The voice of the guy that did Darth Sidious/Chancellor Palpatine: when he was being Darth Sidious, he did well. But when he was being Chancellor Palpatine, he sounded out of place.
Ahsoka needed, at least, a real shirt instead of a skimpy tube-top. I could not help but feel a bit disturbed at the thought that this might be an attempt at some fanservice-- she's supposed to be about 14, I think. I think a lot of misgivings people have about her would be solved if she just wore a real shirt; the criticism of her as it stands may just be a deep-seated primal revulsion at the thought of a 14 year old sex object. That's a guess on my part, not being an actual psychologist.
The Zero the Hutt and Padme stuff seemed like filler, really.
The good:
The actions scenes pulled no punches, I felt, considering this is a kids' movie. Some of the initial "hand-held cam" effects at the very beginning almost, I shit you not, made me think of a situation in Baghdad... I thought the action and battle scenes actually showed more thought than some of the live-action stuff in the movies.
The music. I may be odd man out, but I fucking dug the music. It was just the right kind of "new direction" to let the SW universe soak up, and it went with the setting just fine, I think. Only the jazzy version of the main theme went against this grain. The Middle Eastern flair, the drums, the brief quasi MidEast/Celtic choral bit... I thought it went very well with the setting and would like to hear more.
A lot of background setting got added, I think, or reinforced. I'm glad they only introduced Ahsoka as a new character and resisted the temptation to bring in scores of new Bad Guys. We got to see Ventress again, and not only that, but she wasn't made uber-wanked. No new 'toys' were really added, (the spinning droids at the beginning, and the shuttle, was about it. That fugly spice freighter was just a one-off clunker, I think, and not intended to be a new vehicle).
I liked seeing other things like... the painted droid in Jabba's palace; the return of the Magnaguards; the return of the Death Star/Spy Droid; the brief shot of Barriss Offee (that was her, standing silently in the background, in the first scene in Palpatine's office, right?). No over-reliance on Yoda or Windu. Anakin was sort of a dick, in a way, but also seemed more understandable. They didn't rely on Grevious, either, or introduce weird new anachronistic stuff (like the droids on hoverbikes with lances, or that giant flying pounding-thingy in the first cartoons).
The indifferent:
The droid humor was actually chuckle-worthy, and didn't, I felt, detract from the movie. True, it wasn't necessary, too, but it didn't detract. I actually felt that Ventress's casual tossing off of the droid that brought her bad news was certainly in tune with the movie; after all, she's evil and they're just annoying droids.
Also: the Seperatist tank general-- was that one of Ephant Mon's people? Cool.
Overall, I am looking at this along all the other Star Wars stuff I know of-- in the overall canon, if we accept the EU, this actually fits very well and is fun to watch. The biggest problem will be Ahsoka's existence, when she is not mentioned anywhere else, ever. That will be hard to reconcile. OTOH, when I consider other things accepted in the overall canon-- shit like most of the EU novels, especially The Crystal Star and anything having to do with the goddman Yuuzhan Vong, this actually shines like a gem.
If you want to limit 'canon' as being only the movies and other visual mediums, where GL actually has involvement, this holds up decently. Ahsoka is far better than Ewoks and Jar-Jar, certainly. It's kid fare, but not as bad, and actually cleverly executed in some areas.
I'd give it three and a half tail wags out of five possible.
It's biggest flaw, really, is that it's be hard to draw in new, unfamiliar Star Wars fans with this. You kinda have to know what's going on and a bit familiar with the SW universe to get it.
Saw it today. I was prepared to be bummed and found myself pleasantly surprised. They packed a lot into an hour and a half, I felt, although they did this by rushing scene-to-scene, ban-bam-bam, without taking time to really develop a given scene or situation. However, I went into this knowing it was geared for kids, and the kid attention span being what it is, I think most kids might find this pace decent, and the plot/intensity fairly respectful of their maturity level (it will depend on the age of the kid, I'd suppose-- someone with kids would have to say one way or the other, really).
That said, let's take a look at some stuff that went poorly:
The snazzy version of the Lucas score. Bad, bad, bad. Luckily it did not show up much.
The animation was, I agree, better geared for the small screen. It doesn't translate well into the big screen. I did find Dooku's appearance to be overly distorted compared to the rest of the human characters, though. Something about Yoda seemed off, too. There were times when he seemed almost 2-dimensional, while every one else was more 3d rendered.
The voice of the guy that did Darth Sidious/Chancellor Palpatine: when he was being Darth Sidious, he did well. But when he was being Chancellor Palpatine, he sounded out of place.
Ahsoka needed, at least, a real shirt instead of a skimpy tube-top. I could not help but feel a bit disturbed at the thought that this might be an attempt at some fanservice-- she's supposed to be about 14, I think. I think a lot of misgivings people have about her would be solved if she just wore a real shirt; the criticism of her as it stands may just be a deep-seated primal revulsion at the thought of a 14 year old sex object. That's a guess on my part, not being an actual psychologist.
The Zero the Hutt and Padme stuff seemed like filler, really.
The good:
The actions scenes pulled no punches, I felt, considering this is a kids' movie. Some of the initial "hand-held cam" effects at the very beginning almost, I shit you not, made me think of a situation in Baghdad... I thought the action and battle scenes actually showed more thought than some of the live-action stuff in the movies.
The music. I may be odd man out, but I fucking dug the music. It was just the right kind of "new direction" to let the SW universe soak up, and it went with the setting just fine, I think. Only the jazzy version of the main theme went against this grain. The Middle Eastern flair, the drums, the brief quasi MidEast/Celtic choral bit... I thought it went very well with the setting and would like to hear more.
A lot of background setting got added, I think, or reinforced. I'm glad they only introduced Ahsoka as a new character and resisted the temptation to bring in scores of new Bad Guys. We got to see Ventress again, and not only that, but she wasn't made uber-wanked. No new 'toys' were really added, (the spinning droids at the beginning, and the shuttle, was about it. That fugly spice freighter was just a one-off clunker, I think, and not intended to be a new vehicle).
I liked seeing other things like... the painted droid in Jabba's palace; the return of the Magnaguards; the return of the Death Star/Spy Droid; the brief shot of Barriss Offee (that was her, standing silently in the background, in the first scene in Palpatine's office, right?). No over-reliance on Yoda or Windu. Anakin was sort of a dick, in a way, but also seemed more understandable. They didn't rely on Grevious, either, or introduce weird new anachronistic stuff (like the droids on hoverbikes with lances, or that giant flying pounding-thingy in the first cartoons).
The indifferent:
The droid humor was actually chuckle-worthy, and didn't, I felt, detract from the movie. True, it wasn't necessary, too, but it didn't detract. I actually felt that Ventress's casual tossing off of the droid that brought her bad news was certainly in tune with the movie; after all, she's evil and they're just annoying droids.
Also: the Seperatist tank general-- was that one of Ephant Mon's people? Cool.
Overall, I am looking at this along all the other Star Wars stuff I know of-- in the overall canon, if we accept the EU, this actually fits very well and is fun to watch. The biggest problem will be Ahsoka's existence, when she is not mentioned anywhere else, ever. That will be hard to reconcile. OTOH, when I consider other things accepted in the overall canon-- shit like most of the EU novels, especially The Crystal Star and anything having to do with the goddman Yuuzhan Vong, this actually shines like a gem.
If you want to limit 'canon' as being only the movies and other visual mediums, where GL actually has involvement, this holds up decently. Ahsoka is far better than Ewoks and Jar-Jar, certainly. It's kid fare, but not as bad, and actually cleverly executed in some areas.
I'd give it three and a half tail wags out of five possible.
It's biggest flaw, really, is that it's be hard to draw in new, unfamiliar Star Wars fans with this. You kinda have to know what's going on and a bit familiar with the SW universe to get it.
Something about Libertarianism always bothered me. Then one day, I realized what it was:
Libertarian philosophy can be boiled down to the phrase, "Work Will Make You Free."
In Libertarianism, there is no Government, so the Bosses are free to exploit the Workers.
In Communism, there is no Government, so the Workers are free to exploit the Bosses.
So in Libertarianism, man exploits man, but in Communism, its the other way around!
If all you want to do is have some harmless, mindless fun, go H3RE INST3ADZ0RZ!!
Grrr! Fight my Brute, you pansy!
Libertarian philosophy can be boiled down to the phrase, "Work Will Make You Free."
In Libertarianism, there is no Government, so the Bosses are free to exploit the Workers.
In Communism, there is no Government, so the Workers are free to exploit the Bosses.
So in Libertarianism, man exploits man, but in Communism, its the other way around!
If all you want to do is have some harmless, mindless fun, go H3RE INST3ADZ0RZ!!
Grrr! Fight my Brute, you pansy!
