Star Wars - The Clone Wars

[Nick Parker 3,040]

It would help if it was not performed by one of the most overheard actors on television.

Also, you cannot defend the Super Battle Droids. That was just pathetic. Also, Count Dooku blatantly telling his apprentice ( in front of the supposed victim) to kill the Toydarian does not seem to be Dooku's style.

[BurgaFlippinMan 7]

I enjoyed it for what its worth.

[Bryant Burnette 654]

It would help if it was not performed by one of the most overheard actors on television.

Also, you cannot defend the Super Battle Droids. That was just pathetic. Also, Count Dooku blatantly telling his apprentice ( in front of the supposed victim) to kill the Toydarian does not seem to be Dooku's style.

I don't think anything can help the newsreel voiceover. I had no idea the performer wad anyone of any note, so I certainly am not bothered by it on a level of familiarity. My problem with it is that it's aping a very specific cultural artifact: the war-era newsreel voiceover. The way it's being used is extremely evocative of 1930s/1940s America. A lot of things in the Star Wars series are working on that level, but with at least an attempt at subtlety through being science-fictionized. This isn't. It's just straight-up reference, and it does not work. It wouldn't work with any voice performer; it's a terrible, terrible idea. But it's such a minor part of the series that I can forgive it; it's not much different than it would be on any tv series for which, as an example, I disliked the theme music.

As for the Super Battle Droids, and the battle droids altogether, I'm not defending them; I'm just saying they don't bother me. I can see why they would bother someone else. I can see why someone else wouldn't like Taco Bell, but that doesn't mean I'm not currently craving some cheap, smelly tacos.

I don't see anything inconsistent about Dooku ordering Ventress to murder the Toydarians. Either way, it led to a cool scene of Ventress getting totally dominated by Yoda. That was a highpoint of tonight's episodes for me.

[Nick Parker 3,040]

Yes, I see what you are saying. It may sound as if I hate the series, but I actually wanted more after the end of it. I predict that I will watch the series every Friday.

[Bryant Burnette 654]

Yes, I see what you are saying. It may sound as if I hate the series, but I actually wanted more after the end of it. I predict that I will watch the series every Friday.

Me too. Unless Ziro the Hutt is going to make frequent appearances.

Who am I kidding...? I'd still watch it.

[Trent Hoyt 13]

The show is fun for what it is. I'll be watching every week.

[Trent B 337]

Well, I thought I would go and see this film on the weekend. My partner works at the theatre so that allows me to get in for nothing. All I can say is that I want my money back and the 20 minutes I lost sitting through that crap.

When I saw the opening titles I thought "here comes the Star Wars fanfare". Boy wasn't I disappointed.

Rubbish. Utter rubbish.

I won't be seeing another animated SW film again. AND DEFINITELY WILL NOT BE GETTING ANY MORE SW MUSIC (except if it is John Williams).

It's meant for entertainment nothing more. I swear those who bash things like this seriously need to quit taking life so seriously.

[Wycket 36]

Just because its entertainment doesn't mean it can't be well done.

Lucas didn't make the Prequels like Star Wars movies. They felt completely different, likely due to the massive use of CGI and stupid humor. This new venture looks like more of the same dumb humor mixed with somewhat familiar characters. It not that I don't enjoy the prequels, because I do to a degree, but IMO they are not Star Wars movies. Things like this only continue to take Star Wars away from where it should be. I haven't seen the movie and didn't watch the show last night, but I likely won't be anytime soon as the reviews seem like its continuing down a path I can't follow.

[lordskylark 1]

For the actual Clone Wars cartoon (not this CGI one), was there ever a release of any of the music to it, be it bootleg or whatnot?

~Andy

[John Crichton 4]

Not that I know of.

[Bryant Burnette 654]

Looks like The Clone Wars got off to a solid start in the ratings:

http://www.thrfeed.com/2008/10/clone-wars-rati.html

Whether it can keep those numbers is another story, but if 75% or so of the people who tuned in were at least as enthusiastic as I was, then Cartoon Network will be pretty pleased with themselves.

[indy4 155]

Well it was Star Wars, so I think a good opening is sort of guarenteed. That franchise has tons of fans.

Next week's numbers will reveal whether the show will actually be a success or not, I think.

[Bryant Burnette 654]

Well it was Star Wars, so I think a good opening is sort of guarenteed. That franchise has tons of fans.

That's conventional wisdom which was proven wrong by the poor performance of the feature film, which didn't have a good opening. Based on how poorly the movie did, the series was by no means a sure-fire hit.

[Unlucky Bastard 7,782]

Maybe it's the crappy animation style and character designs that turned people off.

[indy4 155]

I actually rather liked the animation.

[Jeshopk 8]

I actually rather liked the animation.

I caught 2 back to back episodes on Sunday... why were there 2? I thought it just premiered on Friday.

Thought they were well done.

[Bryant Burnette 654]

Maybe it's the crappy animation style and character designs that turned people off.

Those definitely take some getting used to, but I think they work pretty well. This is obviously not Pixar-level work, but it's pretty good for tv animation.

[Kendal_Ozzel 36]

I actually rather liked the animation.

I caught 2 back to back episodes on Sunday... why were there 2? I thought it just premiered on Friday.

Thought they were well done.

They aired two episodes for the premier. It will normally just be one per week.

[graffin13 0]

the shows were light years better than the movie, but the dialogue between the droids grated on me something fierce...

[Koray Savas 2,251]

Star Wars has always had bad dialogue.

[graffin13 0]

True, but the clone wars dialogue was especially mucky

[indy4 155]

Star Wars has always had bad dialogue.

It never reached the low of "Skyguy" or "Artooie."

[Henry B 50]

Star Wars, Empire and even Jedi had some classic dialogue.

[indy4 155]

So did RotS.

Granted, a lot of it was surronded by horrible dialouge, but a lot of it was quite good.

[Nick Parker 3,040]

I love you more.

[indy4 155]

I don't remember that line.

[Henry B 50]

I don't think there was anything memorable in RotS. It was a lot of generic talk about betrayal, death, whatever. Was there anything like Yoda's philosophies in Empire? Han and Leia's banter? Vader's ruthless edicts?

[Mr. Breathmask 555]

It's not just about the words, it's how they're performed. People like Ford and Guinness made the very best out of those clunky lines. The prequel cast just didn't.

[indy4 155]

McGregor did well at times ("You were the chosen one!" and the whole speech afterwards). McDarmid was fantastic as well, for pretty much every line. His speech at the Senate ("The First Galactic Empire!") was fantasticlly performed.

The only truly terrible actors were Christenson and Porman (the latter actually did much better in RotS). But I've seen Christensen in a different film, and he was quite good. I think the acting blame can fall on Lucas more than anybody else.

[Mr. Breathmask 555]

McDiarmid was decent. The scene at the opera is great, though, I'll give you that. There's actually something significant going on underneath the dialogue and I love that it's just two guys sitting down (although annoyingly, a lot of other scenes in RotS are uninspiredly staged by having two people sitting down as well). Of course it helps that they gave that monologue to someone like McDiarmid.

Still, there's never that level of fun and energy Ford brought to Star Wars and Empire, despite him hating most of his lines.

[indy4 155]

Well the prequels themselves aren't exactly as fun as the original trilogy.

I agree that the scene at the opera is great, but I think the best part of RotS is, as I mentioned earlier, Palpatine's speech after the death of Mace (aided a lot by John's brilliant score).

[Mr. Breathmask 555]

Well the prequels themselves aren't exactly as fun as the original trilogy.

Which is a pretty big-ass problem right there.

I agree that the scene at the opera is great, but I think the best part of RotS is, as I mentioned earlier, Palpatine's speech after the death of Mace (aided a lot by John's brilliant score).

Meh. I'll go with McDiarmid's Darth Plagueis monologue. That and the final scenes from Sidious finding Anakin to the very end.

[indy4 155]

I dunno, Vader's "Noooooo..." it probably the worst part of the film for me. But apart from that, the last minutes are very effective.

[Maestro 147]

Am I the only human being on the planet who has no trouble with the "Noooo!" scene...in fact finding it quite poignant?

Probably.

[Genius_Gone_Insane 5]

Am I the only human being on the planet who has no trouble with the "Noooo!" scene...in fact finding it quite poignant?

Probably.

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!

I like it too.

[Bryant Burnette 654]

Am I the only human being on the planet who has no trouble with the "Noooo!" scene...in fact finding it quite poignant?

Probably.

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!

I like it too.

I don't mind it in principle, but the execution -- acting and staging -- is pretty terrible. I understand why it makes people cringe.

[Mr. Breathmask 555]

I dunno, Vader's "Noooooo..." it probably the worst part of the film for me. But apart from that, the last minutes are very effective.

Hm, I already forgot that was part of it.

Love the score for that last part though.

[oierem 151]

I agree that the scene at the opera is great, but I think the best part of RotS is, as I mentioned earlier, Palpatine's speech after the death of Mace (aided a lot by John's brilliant score).

Which is tracked with the Emperor's Theme. However, I too think that the music helps a lot in that scene and for once, I agree with the tracking of the Emperor's Theme .

[indy4 155]

I agree that the scene at the opera is great, but I think the best part of RotS is, as I mentioned earlier, Palpatine's speech after the death of Mace (aided a lot by John's brilliant score).

Which is tracked with the Emperor's Theme. However, I too think that the music helps a lot in that scene and for once, I agree with the tracking of the Emperor's Theme .

No, the scene I'm talking about is scored with "Anakin's Dark Deeds."

[Nick Parker 3,040]

Well, I just saw the new episode. It was alright. The worst part I think would be the music. It is in all of the wrong places, and it is not very effective. There were no John Williams themes as far as I know. This show has almost no sense of suspense. They make a huge deal of Shadow Squaron's lives, but when

half of the squadron gets obliterated

, there is almost no reaction or mention of them afterward. The next episode looks pretty cool, though.

[Bryant Burnette 654]

Well, I just saw the new episode. It was alright. The worst part I think would be the music. It is in all of the wrong places, and it is not very effective. There were no John Williams themes as far as I know. This show has almost no sense of suspense. They make a huge deal of Shadow Squaron's lives, but when

half of the squadron gets obliterated

, there is almost no reaction or mention of them afterward. The next episode looks pretty cool, though.

I thought tonight's episode was good. I do hope the series isn't going to turn into the weekly plot to take out General Grievous; that'll get old quick.

I enjoyed the nebula sequence;

those big manta rays (or whatever they were called) were pretty cool

.

I agree with you in principle about the music, but it's just too big a nonentity for me to care about one way or another. The score to the feature actively sucked in a few places; here, so far at least, it's just been background noise. As long as it isn't actively distracting me with suck, I won't mind if it never gets any better over the course of the series. Weird to not care about Star Wars music, but in this case, I don't.

[Nick Parker 3,040]

Yeah, I thought the nebula scene was the highlight of the episode. I am actually looking forward to the next episode.

[Bryant Burnette 654]

Just watched the latest episode, wrapping up the "Malevolence" storyline.

Pretty good, overall. Some terrible dialogue, though, not that that's any surprise. But there was also some dialogue that sounded a lot like "real" Star Wars dialogue to my ears, most of it thanks to Threepio.

Still enjoying this show.

[daltysmilth 0]

So, who here has seen the new Clone Wars animated series? I've seen the movie and the first three episodes, and what I've seen so far, I've generally liked. (Including and especially the movie.) The third episode in particular has a terrific space-battle. And though the soundtrack to the film has been generally panned, I liked it. It's different from anything we've heard so far in any Star Wars soundtrack, though it does bear some similarities to the music from Republic Commando at times. And the music in the show has been pretty good so far, as well. One particular cue that comes to mind is from the first episode, when Yoda sort of gives a pep talk to his Clone bodyguards, and there's this very touching version of Yoda's theme played on what sounds like a (possibly synthesized) tribal-sounding flute. That shows to me how much respect Kevin Kiner obviously has for John Williams' original themes, and also his willingness to take those themes and Star Wars music in general and do things differently than what we've heard before. In any case, I have high hopes for this series, and I think there's a lot that can be done with it if they do things right.

One other thing, I don't know if anyone else here cares enough about the score to the Clone Wars movie to do this, but has anyone come up with a chronological sequence of the tracks from the CD soundtrack?

[Joe Brausam 214]

We actually have a Clone Wars thread already...

http://jwfan.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=14658

While we're on it, does someone want to just label that the official thread?

[Koray Savas 2,251]

Why'd he make 2 of the same thread?

[Joe Brausam 214]

Like a double post maybe? But then again, I don't even think you can do that on these forums anymore.

[Bryant Burnette 654]

The score for tonight's episode -- by Kiner, I assume -- featured a cue that, politely speaking, heavily borrowed from Bram Stoker's Dracula's "Vampire Hunters."

It also featured several odd and, to my ears, inappropriate excursions into Matrix-style techno. (I'm referring to the songs used in the movie, not to Davis's score.)

All I ask of the score is that it not blatantly suck, and tonight, it couldn't even manage that. A shame, as I otherwise quite enjoyed the episode.

[Charlie Brigden 7]

Friday's episode - Very good! I liked Grievous a lot, and there was thankfully very little Battle Droid humour. Some good actual emotion, too.

Next week's Jar Jar episode: oh dear.

[Nick Parker 3,040]

I did not watch it yet. Is Ahmed Best providing the voice of everyone's favorite Gungan?