The Phantom Menace was pretty tame, but I honestly enjoyed the flick. Yes, even Jar Jar Binks. I think that it was a complimentary prequel to the original trilogy -- nowhere near as good, of course, but an entertaining look back. Attack of the Clones is where my faith began to falter. It didn't seem to fit with the rest of the relatively serene movies. It just jumped off the cliff, then grabbed onto the edge to stop from falling at the last minute. I'd like to label the problem as being a lightsaber-wielding Yoda, but that certainly wasn't the extent of it. Revenge of the Sith was when the series finally let go of the edge and plunged into sheer craziness. It simply shed everything that had made the original films great and focused on Anakin's transformation into Vader. Again, this wasn't BAD, per say, but it just didn't meet expectations.
Episode III, actually, was my favorite of the three because it shed all restrictions. Instead of trying to live up to its brothers of the '70s (which episodes I and II had failed to achieve) it went rampant with the action, badass characters, and general awesomeness. General Grievous is the best character to have spawned from the new trilogy, and when the film was released, I wished I could have seen more of the mystery villain (is he a man or droid?!) who I honestly believe could match Vader in villainy excellence.
Behold, for my prayers were answered. But before I explain, I have to back up a couple of years.
Believe it or not, I once had cable access. It's a long story, but basically I was watching the Cartoon Network for years when suddenly our cable company was ousted in favor of another and my favorite channel (along with Nick, Bravo, Discovery, etc.) was yanked from me. But before this sad, sad event, I had been relatively excited about a micro-series that the Network was featuring entitled "Star Wars: Clone Wars," and like a good little boy, I tuned in to watch the first few episodes. Sadly, they sucked, and I quickly stopped watching them.
Hold on, the story's not done.
A couple years went by, and without cable TV I had no idea what was going on in the world. Almost all of my interest in television had been vanquished and had been reduced to re-runs of The Simpsons, That '70s Show, and Becker. So it was only recently that I heard that Clone Wars, which I had so easily dismissed, had won an Emmy. Finally, I went to the movie rental shop this week and, curious, picked up the first of the two volumes.
Four words. HARDCORE NON-STOP EXPLOSIVE ACTION.
Er. Is “non-stop” two words or...?
It's actually very, very good. I now associate the suckiness I believed to have seen before with the unsatisfactorily short length of each episode (five minutes -- it wasn't called a micro-series for nothing), but when the entire season is viewed as a theatrical presentation, its excellence shines like gold. The action is literally non-stop, and the choreography and plot of each battle and the story as a whole is so good that it doesn't seem sloppy and gimmicky like some movies that boast continuous action do. The action is also VERY exaggerated (like Mace Windu taking out an entire droid army by himself), but it fits with the highly stylized theme of the series. So even though you'd never see a Jedi running at 60 MPH in any of Lucas's movies, in this case, it's so freaking COOL that I'm willing to suspend my disbelief.
The highly stylized theme applies to the artwork and animation, too. Genndy Tartakovsky, who directed the series, is also the creator of several other notable Cartoon Network shows, so Clone Wars is basically a hybrid between Star Wars and Samurai Jack. This means a lot of blocky chins and shoulders, not a lot of useless dialogue, and a simple-but-satisfying formula of hardcore action followed by extended calms.
But Clone Wars presents so much more than just high-quality action. It allows us to view the parts of the universe that we never saw on the big screen. One of my favorite episodes of the series follows the group of elite clone troopers led by Commander Cody that infiltrates the enemy base. The way they execute the mission is enough to make me want to buy an X-Box and try my hand at "Republic Commando." The choreography of the movement and strategy is exquisite, but it’s also not something that you’d ever see in one of Lucas’s films.
The elite troopers’ reappearance was also one of my favorite parts of volume two of Clone Wars. Yes, I was so enthusiastic about the series that I immediately picked up the second DVD. It differed from its action-oriented older brother by having a bit more in terms of character development and story outside of battle. There is still a butt-load of butt-kicking, but the movie essentially focuses on Anakin's attempt at passing his final test in becoming a true Jedi Knight. And honestly, I hate to say this, but this one volume seemed to make much more of an impact on Anakin's character development than the entire trilogy put together. I might be presumptuous in this statement, but I believe it to be true.
But the best part was that my favorite character had a special place in the series. (Scroll up now to the second and third paragraphs of this post and make the connections. See how I did a little foreshadowing back there? Oh yeah, that was clever.) General Grievous proved to be a far more menacing (not to mention a way past cooler) antagonist than Darth Maul, Count Dooku, or Palpatine. I can't even begin to describe the visual orgasm that is Grievous in action. This is something that you simply have to see for yourself, so I suggest that, if you enjoyed the action of Episode III in the slightest, you pick up Clone Wars. Buy the two volumes if you have to. To sum it up, Clone Wars is a product of loyal and talented Star Wars fans that not only gives us further spectrum into the history and depth of the new trilogy, but arguably supersedes and surpasses the original material. It is well worth your money and your time.
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