Impressions of the Clone Wars....

So, we've reached the halfway point of season one, and I figured it was about time to post my feelings on Clone Wars thus far.

First of all, there's the movie. While not without it's visual merits, by in large, it was rather disappointing. I got the chance to see it at GenCon last year, so the theater was packed with fairly rabid SW fans, lots of costumes and lightsabers in the crowd, and in general a slightly more forgiving audience than the general public. Dispite the "slanted jury" I still heard at least a couple of folks mumbling about the waste of a couple of hours. And while not a complete waste of time, especially since it establishes the characters for the show, the emotional "grabs" that draw you in were sadly lacking. My favorite moments, outside the action sequences, were the few uncomfortable moments Ashoka and Anakin share as they trek across the desert on Tatooine. One other bit about the movie would be my personal recommendation to buy the blu-ray, the picture quality is astounding, and it has a few bits from the live action movies in the extras section.

As for the series itself, I've been enjoying it fully. The production values didn't drop, like I was accustomed to in the past when an American cartoon had a feature film and then a series. In fact, I feel that the quality has improved. The voice casting is solid, I've been pleasantly surprised by more than a couple of choices (I personally love the British accent they gave to Master Luminara), and the occasional guest voice actor, be they from the live action movies (Anthony Daniels, Amed Best) or other sources (James Marsters, Ron Perlman) adds depth to the mix of the show.

The music, while a bit "technoey" at times, is creative, as a hundred episodes made up of sampling from the John Williams scores would seem cheap. Were the score really shines is in the "ethnic" music used to highlight new environments. It truly adds to the exoticness of these new locales, especially since we only get to see most of them for less than twenty minutes.

Perhaps my biggest concern is the fact that so far, there is no overwhelming story arc. We've had a few two and three-parters, but no grand story to hold it all together. Perhaps that isn't in the cards, maybe much like the Clone Wars Adventures comic, this show is ment to be a bunch of little skirmishes with no grand plot, but it may be to early to tell. Heck, Evangelion was a "monster of the week" show untill episode 13, and it went on to set the benchmark for character development for the last decade, so heres hoping....