Star Wars: The Wesley Crusher Story
Attack of the Clones: I kept falling asleep. Really. For what I saw, though, my criticism of The Phantom Menace applies, with some caveats.
It was better-made, in the sense the movie flowed better. In the same way Jar Jar ruined 'Menace', Anakin ruined 'Clones'. Unfortunately, Jar-Jar is an unnecessary character with too much screen time. Anakin is the leading role and has too much screen time. This is a galaxy full of petulant whiners. They are heroes because the script calls for them to put up a front when they're in action. Lucas can't fathom the distinction between character complexity and tacking randomly contrasting behaviors together.
M repeatedly referred to Count Dooku as "Saruman". Like Saruman, he's an apostate wizard, a competent lackey of the living embodiment of evil, knows how to fight, and runs shadowy factories making evil fighty-thingies. Unlike Saruman, his name sounds like poop and he's forced to fight a flying green thing.
There was more story on-screen. Lucas was still guilty of burying events in characters recapping each other, but if Lucas knew that officious intrigue would be bad cinema and didn't deserve screen time, he should have reconsidered including it in the script at all.
Clone Wars: a series of three-minute segments on Cartoon Network, and stitched together into a couple DVDs for casual consumption. This is the tight, exciting storytelling that 'Star Wars' used to be. Excepting an introduction by Yoda, everything occurs on-screen, dialog is brisk, action is brisk, and nothing seems to occur for the sake of doing it (excepting a couple laugh lines). Even Anakin's adolescent rebellion is shown through action and plot-furthering conversations rather than through tortured soliloquy. Tartakovsky also delineates the three-way relationship between Anakin, Kenobi and Palpatine more clearly in ninety seconds than Lucas had in his four hours to date. Having to chop an epic into three minute segments will lead to a slam-bang approach, but what's striking is how well this flows in an unbroken screening. I didn't even realize it had been intended to be screened in segments until we saw the 'Making of' documentaries and re-screened 'Clone Wars' with the director's commentary.
We couldn't be bothered to see any of the extras with either Star Wars movie, but we watched 'Clone Wars' twice in one sitting (without and with commentary). George Lucas should apprentice to Genndy Tartakovsky for a year. Maybe there'd have been fewer embarassing character names.
It was better-made, in the sense the movie flowed better. In the same way Jar Jar ruined 'Menace', Anakin ruined 'Clones'. Unfortunately, Jar-Jar is an unnecessary character with too much screen time. Anakin is the leading role and has too much screen time. This is a galaxy full of petulant whiners. They are heroes because the script calls for them to put up a front when they're in action. Lucas can't fathom the distinction between character complexity and tacking randomly contrasting behaviors together.
M repeatedly referred to Count Dooku as "Saruman". Like Saruman, he's an apostate wizard, a competent lackey of the living embodiment of evil, knows how to fight, and runs shadowy factories making evil fighty-thingies. Unlike Saruman, his name sounds like poop and he's forced to fight a flying green thing.
There was more story on-screen. Lucas was still guilty of burying events in characters recapping each other, but if Lucas knew that officious intrigue would be bad cinema and didn't deserve screen time, he should have reconsidered including it in the script at all.
Clone Wars: a series of three-minute segments on Cartoon Network, and stitched together into a couple DVDs for casual consumption. This is the tight, exciting storytelling that 'Star Wars' used to be. Excepting an introduction by Yoda, everything occurs on-screen, dialog is brisk, action is brisk, and nothing seems to occur for the sake of doing it (excepting a couple laugh lines). Even Anakin's adolescent rebellion is shown through action and plot-furthering conversations rather than through tortured soliloquy. Tartakovsky also delineates the three-way relationship between Anakin, Kenobi and Palpatine more clearly in ninety seconds than Lucas had in his four hours to date. Having to chop an epic into three minute segments will lead to a slam-bang approach, but what's striking is how well this flows in an unbroken screening. I didn't even realize it had been intended to be screened in segments until we saw the 'Making of' documentaries and re-screened 'Clone Wars' with the director's commentary.
We couldn't be bothered to see any of the extras with either Star Wars movie, but we watched 'Clone Wars' twice in one sitting (without and with commentary). George Lucas should apprentice to Genndy Tartakovsky for a year. Maybe there'd have been fewer embarassing character names.