Wednesday, February 13, 2008

Star Wars: The Clone Wars

So it's been announced that come August Star Wars is returning to the big screen. This time as a CG film, it'll take the first 3 episodes of the new Star Wars: The Clone Wars show and make them into a 90 minute feature. Now although I quite like the look of the style they're going for I really can't see the point of doing stories that take place between Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith, we've already seen the outcome of that story, and the last film didn't work anyway because we did already know the outcome to this story !
At least the Clone Wars series by Genndy Tartakovsky was made before people had seen Revenge of the Sith and helped build up to that movie, but now it seems like this is seriously retreading old ground.
For me Star Wars has become to much about Jedi's and Sith flipping around with 2 lightsabers and lots of Sith lords with fancy tattooed faced, OK it may have worked for Darth Maul but it's become awfully boring. Star Wars used to be more than just Jedi. They were such a small part of the original trilogy now they've become boring in a lot of ways. In this new story Anakin has a Padawan, Ahsoka, pictured with Anakin above. Again we already know she doesn't survive even up to Revenge of the Sith making any new characters pretty much redundant already in terms of drama. Also returning is General Grievous, a poor excuse for a Star Wars villain if ever I saw one.
I'd rather Lucas use this style of animation and do sequels to the original trilogy if he doesn't plan to make live action films of them, or the adventures of Han and Chewie etc... There's so much more they could do if they stop being tied down by all this prequel crap.
Fans would love to see Timothy Zahn's 'Thrawn Trilogy' turned into an animated show I'm sure, characters like Mara Jade already have a very large following, as does Thrawn. Zahn's 3 novels Heir to the Empire, Dark Force Rising, and The Last Command were super books that really stood out because the market hadn't been flooded with the hundreds of Star Wars novels there are now.

Here's the link to the news story at the BBC.

10 comments:

Steve said...

As a kid I never thought I'd ever hear myself saying this but I am getting so tired of the whole Star Wars franchise now...

dylan said...

Totally agree with you Andrew, you too Steve. I'm not even that bothered by the design of it all anymore either. I thought Revenge of the Sith was particularly dull on that side of things too. The only good thing about the Prequels was the amazing production design of Phantom. I might have been a bit interested in something set between the prequels and the OT but tbh the more distance kept between them the better. Like you said all this jedi/sith stuff is just boring, the stupid way they have to speak is really annoying "Yes, my young Padawan". The OT seemed more about pulpy adventure and fun.

rant over lol.

allen etter said...

Once again, it seems that George Lucas has no idea what continuity means...don't you have to be a jedi before you have a padawan?

paulhd said...

Think Mark Hamill said something about the, um, self important manner of the Jedi in the bad trilogy wasn't what he expected and took some of the fun out it.
The new film looks like it will continue the cycle of over rendered dullness. Have to actually watch to see if the story is as dull, and I'm not sure I can be bothered. Anyway, I've already seen the Clone Wars cartoons and have my doubts that they'll be improved.
Five years or so ago I would have said a Han and Chewie spin off would have been awesome, now I just want all Star Wars related nonsense to fall into a black hole and never been seen again.

I. N. J. Culbard said...

Well, if people didn't see all this coming with the Care Bears making a guest appearance in Return of the Jedi, then I'm sorry, but you had it coming.

;-)

But seriously, the word "franchise" does not spell "fried gold". Never did and never will. Such is the nature of the beast.

Thirty and Forty somethings crying over a "franchise" that's entertaining a new generation of kids the world over because it's not the same as when they were kids themselves need to step outside.

Signed

George Lucas.

ps. keep buying the t-shirts.

Michael Grant Clark said...

Not Star wars related but funny none the less. Weta are releasing a range of dr who miniature 'helmets!' No doubt the'll look great but would you start with a sontaran one?

Also, what is the doctor doing to Davros in the sidebar???

Witness the doctor take the pleasures from the Davros that once corrupted Kaled.

Moonwatcher said...

Why does he keep dragging up all this prequel junk ? It was boring then and even more boring now.

I. N. J. Culbard said...

Why? Most likely because those prequels were enormous commercial successes.

Nobody with a goose that lays golden eggs is going to kill the goose. TPM tapped into a new generation so he's making movies for that generation now.

Face it. We're old.

paulhd said...

I don't think they're very good kids films, but I have pretty much given up any notion they're for me.
I suppose the really thing that bugs me isn't the debatable quality of the films, it's that fact that way back when I thought Lucas was this, y'know, 'creative', who just wanted to do his thing. Turns out he just likes golden eggs. For shame Lucas.
Anyway, I wonder if I can preorder an ticked for the new Indy film?

Andrew Glazebrook said...

I've seen people on a few forums saying they thing an adaptation of Star Wars:Shadows of the Empire would be a great project to see animated. Shadows of the Empire is a story that takes place between TESB and ROTJ !