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The Power Converter
date posted: Aug 16, 2008 12:53 PM
Plagiarism By Droids: A Clone Wars Aggregate Review
There is a lot of mixed reaction over the latest installment in the SW saga! Some loved it and some hated it. Right now it's maintaining a 19% score at RottenTomatoes (out of 100) by users, and 5% by the journalist critics. But there is a lot of love here, it seems!

Blogs offer a ton of knowledge, especially when aggregated on one site, with one focus. There's a lot of data here floating around. What if a droid got ahold of it? What if the droid became self-aware and tried to write its own review?! Well... R2, replay that message...

AUTOMATED DROID AGGREGATE FILM REVIEW #1: SW CW

I returned from my local theater from seeing The Clone Wars. First impressions? The beginning felt very abrupt, just kind of thrown into the middle of a story. Where's the massive ship floating by, and then the view of the next planet we're going to mess up? I've got a bad feeling about this... Give it 10 minutes though, and that feeling passes. Since TCW occurs just prior to the fall of the Republic, the equipment and such of the military and the Jedi is a mixture of that seen in the PT and OT, quite masterfully done, effectively tying everything together.

Thumbs up on the animation. In fact, one of the opening space battle scenes was incredibly reminiscent of the prequel movies, nearly indistinguishable. Until I spotted a character, it felt like live action. It's not trying to be first-class animation, it's trying to take animation in new directions The point wasn't to be photorealistic, but why not just go for that?

Some of the voice-over acting is good, I especially liked Christopher Lee as Count Dooku and Tom Kane as Yoda. If you are one of those folks that thought Hayden Christensen's acting was bad, just wait until you hear his replacement ... Hayden is Morgan Freeman compared to this guy. The comic relief just ended up ruining the movie for me. The droid army was hilarious. What is this, a new model of battle droid programmed to crack jokes? The droids ... were preponderously silly. The action was great, the clones were awesome! Rex and his group of clones were cool to watch fight. The clones under the helmet were unique and that was fun.

Ahsoka was a great new addition to the Star Wars Saga, she is eager to prove herself to Anakin as a good student. Which was cool to see. The only use of Ashoka was to draw a young female audience to Star Wars. But she just turned out being a bulimic looking, tube top wearing teenager. Right off the bat she calls Anakin "skyguy." Since when would that ever be acceptable in a padawan/master relationship? Leia always called Han "flyboy," so I really don't mind sky-guy. Her animated movement was better than most. In terms of strength as a character, her lightsaber action had me enthralled. I do appreciate that there was not an overt attempt to make her a sex symbol, she looks 14 without being overly sexed up.

Ziro was also good for some laughs. Who knew that Eric Cartman was Jabba's 'flamboyant' uncle? Do you find him offensive, or no?

If John Williams was dead I would say that he would be turning in his grave, but he isn't so I don't know what to say. Nothing can ever come close to the original John Williams score, but this was exciting, catchy, and a breath of fresh air. Speaking of music, good, UNIQUE score. Definitely a modern instrumental take that made its presence known: this music is different, but the themes are still there.

I guess we lifelong fans have to get used to the idea that Lucas isn't trying to entertain us anymore. Storywise, it would have worked well as one of the thirty minute episodes of the upcoming tv show. I think that things would have been better if Clone Wars was just on television. Given time to get attached to the characters and kicking back in my living room watching it in 30 minute pieces I think it would have been a much better experience. There were no plot twists, and overall, there wasn't even an incentive to continue watching. Overall, the whole movie seemed a bit hollow. A kids movie should appeal to kids, kids should be able to follow along, and kids movies can have depth. No, it isn't Star Wars: A New Hope revisited, it won't give you the chills and thrills of 1977, but it's FUN! It does what it set out to do--nothing more, nothing less. It's an amusing romp. It had that exciting Star Wars feel to it that we all love and appreciate! It was exciting, poignant, fast, and colorful. No, you won't find the meaning of the universe by watching it, but you'll be guaranteed a good time.


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Thanks to all the bloggers writing reviews! It's been fun reading thru all of them and picking out quotes! -B