On August 15th, Lucasfilm will unleash the seventh big screen Star Wars movie, this time in cartoon form. Star Wars is quite possibly the most well-known and loved Science Fiction franchise of all time. Just about any 30-something has a story about the first time they saw Star Wars in the theater, and can recount the confusion of seeing Episode 5 scroll across the screen when Empire Strikes Back played for the first time, and the absolute thrill every teenager got when they first saw Leia in her Jabba’s Palace outfit.
Then came the spring of 1999. After years of anticipation, and having waited in line for ten hours for tickets we got to see the back story for the three most beloved sci fi movies in history, and they sucked! I refuse to go into a rant about the prequels, but I think the first movie should have been edited down to this :
This was the only good part of the first movie.
Now, three years after the Revenge of the Sith, which I will admit had redeeming qualities to it, we are again forced to wonder if another attempt by George Lucas is worth our 11 dollars.
I have heard positive and negative things about this movie. One huge positive is the artwork. This will be a cartoon, but the images that have been leaked online are crazy and certainly have more of an anime flair to them. Here are a few :
Obi Wan looking awesome with his saber. Oh yeah, come and get some.
I am not sure if this is just a concept peice or an actual scene from the movie, but WOW. The artist that did this is amazing.
Here is [ Asajj Ventress ]. I am a fan of this character, and actually enjoyed her role in the Clone Wars TV series. I liked that she considered herself a Sith, even though she was “untrained”. I really hope her role stays strong in this film, and again the artwork is phenomenal.
Ok, so I am pretty sure we can all agree that one thing Skywalker Ranch excels at is creating amazing visuals, but plots seem to be an issue these days, and unfortunately, I think this will be the case in the upcoming movie. Here is the “official” plot synopsis.
The Clone Wars takes place between Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones and Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith. The eponymous Clone Wars rage between the Confederacy of Independent Systems and the Galactic Republic. When Jabba the Hutt’s son, Rotta the Hutt, is taken by a group of renegades, Anakin Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi depart in search of answers: where is the Hutt’s son, and who is controlling this mysterious renegade group? Yoda sends Ahsoka Tano along as Anakin’s apprentice. Count Dooku will unleash his minions, including Asajj Ventress and General Grievous, to cause havoc for the Republic and to make a three way war between the Galactic Republic, the Confederacy of Independent Systems and the Hutt’s.
OK. First of all, Rotta the Hutt… really?!? Rotta the Hutt? Does anyone else out there remember Lumpy? Chewbacca’s kid from the infamous Star Wars Christmas Special. Haven’t we learned our lesson about creating random family members for the Star Wars universe? I am also trying to imagine a distraught Jabba wondering where he son his and thumbing through family photos to give to Anakin to help find little Rotta. Oh, and seriously does any one else really want to think about two Hutts mating and creating a child in the first place? Ugh.
Next, since when does Anakin get an apprentice? He is not a master and still an apprentice himself in the third movie. Granted, I am sure they will address this in the movie, but why add this into an established character history.
The final issue that I have with this movie is the lack of Ewen McGregor and Hayden Christensen. As much as I hate Hayden Christensen’s portrayal of Anakin, we all must face the fact that he is Anakin now, so how are you just going to get two different actors to play the MAIN characters. If this were a straight to DVD, or TV movie, I would not care as much, but this is a feature film, get the original actors or don’t do the freaking movie.
This movie is meant to be the precursor to a TV series, which will no doubt see a change in the voices of all the characters, which for a TV series, I am not too concerned about that, but ultimately I just think that this movie should have been a prime time special on the channel that will be airing the TV series and that’s all. Aside from the visual elements, I just don’t see anything about this movie being worthy of big screen play, or 11 dollars of my hard earned money.
In the end, I wish I could love Star Wars as much as I did in the Spring of 1999, before seeing episode I. The anticipation of that movie, the idea of new Star Wars content and the thought that a whole new generation of Star Wars fans being created just doesn’t exist with this movie. It seems an after-thought and in my opinion will be the final insult to what I considered to be a defining story in my childhood.
So let me know what you think, will you see the movie? Are you looking forward to it like you did the originals? Leave a comment.
After 19 years away, Steven Spielberg, George Lucas, and Harrison Ford have recaptured that magic that has made the Indy trilogy so successful and have added a worthy sequel to a franchise that stands the test of time.
First, let me cover a few things I was not thrilled with. The start of the movie missed the typical Indiana Jones beginning focusing solely on him, and just sort of dropped you into a movie that was already in progress. Then there are the Aliens. Yep, there are Aliens in this movie. While I was not thrilled with it, I thought they at least did it well, and it didn’t spoil the movie. Lastly, I didn’t like Mac’s character. I don’t think Indy is stupid enough to be duped by the guy as many times as he is in the movie. That said… let’s get into the good parts.
The stuff we love about Indy films are here, the Paramount logo fading into a mountain-like object in the background, Indy’s phobia of snakes, the flight paths on the background maps with the old Pan-America Plane and Indy sleeping under his hat, and the numerous references to the first three films, including pictures of [ Sean Connery ], and [ Denholm Elliott ].
This latest Indy movie finds that perfect balance between action, humor, and humanity that made Raiders so special. It is not a goofy comedy, like Last Crusade seemingly was, though there is still plenty of humorous moments in this film, and the chemistry between [ Shia Le Boeuf ] and [ Harrison Ford ] is remarkable. It has a healthy plot building process, and we get to watch Indy and Marion’s love redevelop , in fact, the scenes with Marion and Indy together are some of the best parts of the movie. The action sequences are awesome, the car chase scene in the jungle is a fast-paced, thrill ride with a bit of a chill with the giant ants. While there was a liberal use of CGI in the movie, many of the action sequences are done old school, letting us remember back 20+ years ago to Raiders and why we loved it so much. I thought that they struck a great balance with the CGI, not too much, and not too little.
The entire cast is has perfect chemistry and everybody plays their parts incredibly well, even despite the fact that [ Karen Allen's ] last memorable role was in 1984 with Starman. Harrison Ford, obviously missed the role of Indy, and you can tell he is having the time of his life in his return to everyone’s favorite archaeologist. He we instrumental in getting this movie made as he spent years campaigning for this movie, and he puts his all into a strong performance. [ Cate Blanchett's ] heavy Russian accent is a bit over-the-top, but she ends up being just creepy enough, and intriguing enough to keep us interested in her character, and ends up being one of the better villains from the series.
A strong story and great performances don’t imply that this film isn’t flawless. It isn’t, but the flaws are few-and-far between and didn’t hinder my overall enjoyment of the film. The first 20 minutes are somewhat slow and while it isn’t necessarily boring; it is still entertaining, but it could have used several minutes of edits.
Bottom line, I loved this movie, and repeat viewings are assured. It is the Indy film that you’ve been waiting twenty plus years for, and the Lucas, Spielberg and Ford have proved that you can bring an American icon back from the dead and still have him wow the audience.
Indiana Jones is back, and oh how we’ve missed him.