If you aren't watching STAR WARS: THE CLONE WARS lately...

...then you are missing some of the best and most daring storytelling that the Star Wars saga has enjoyed in a heap many moon!

I found myself genuinely shocked at how much I enjoyed the three-part "Nightsisters" arc which concluded a week ago this past Friday. Written by Katie Lucas (daughter of The Flanneled One himself), the storyline showed that Lucasfilm does have the willpower to not play things safe... as well as bring on some bigtime "What the...?!" moments (which if you saw the final moments of "Witches of the Mist" you know what I'm talking about). That new villain Savage Oppress is voiced by Clancy Brown (who I still think should eventually provide the voice of Darth Bane) was the sprinkles on top of a fine dessert indeed.

And then there was this past week's episode, which featured the return of Liam Neeson as the voice of Qui-Gon Jinn, as well as Pernilla August doing the voice of Shmi Skywalker...

I think one of the bigger complaints that many fans have come to have about the saga is that Star Wars is being kept too risk-free and pristine. And there's some frustration about how Star Wars could, should be a toy that Lucasfilm plays with and plays hard.

"Overlords" - which is the beginning of a new three-part story - proved us all wrong. At last, this is some of the potential that Star Wars has always had... and it's being allowed to blossom forth brilliantly.

So to the cast and crew of Star Wars: The Clone Wars: my hat is tipped to you! These episodes have given me all new reason to not only watch this show but also DVR it for further enjoyment :-)

Read More

Cad Bane: Best new Star Wars baddie in a LONG time!

Previously I'd noted that I've been late to the game so far as Cartoon Network's Star Wars: The Clone Wars animated series goes. I'm now regretting it even more, because today was the first time that I got to see Cad Bane in action.

What else can I say? Cad is easily the awesomest new villainous addition to the Star Wars pantheon in too great a long while. Everything about Cad Bane screams bad-a$$: his Clint Eastwood/"spaghetti western"-esque look, his voice (provided by Corey Burton), his proficiency with the blaster (or more than one), his cold-blooded personality... and the fact that he's a reputation for being the most feared bounty hunter in the waning years of the Old Republic. That alone carries lots of street cred in the galaxy far, far away.

And I just found out that there's a Cad Bane action figure floating around. Guess I'll have to be looking for it now... :-)

Read More

I'm FINALLY watching STAR WARS: THE CLONE WARS

I'm either losing my interest in Star Wars (probably not) or just incredibly lazy when it comes to checking out new television (more likely). Whatever it is, at long last I'm getting to see Star Wars: The Clone Wars, the CGI-animated series on Cartoon Network set between Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith.

And against what I assumed would be my reaction, I must profess that I am very pleasantly surprised and delighted at this show. Star Wars: The Clone Wars is some of the saga's finest storytelling. The action and dialogue is vintage classic Star Wars, and in many ways hearkens back to the tone of the original trilogy. I've only watched a few episodes so far, and I'm told that what I've seen isn't even the best of the series: that better yet is still coming for me to behold.

So if you're a Star Wars fan too and have been wondering about The Clone Wars series: I'll stake my reputation as a true fan (maybe too true, LOL!) on telling y'all that this is something that you should look into. And I'll definitely be buying the complete Season 1 DVD set when it comes out soon.

Read More

STAR WARS: THE CLONE WARS trailer and why I'm not at all crazy about it

For awhile I've been wondering: is it even accurate to refer to the six Star Wars movies as "Star Wars Episodes 1 through 6" anymore? I mean, the Star Wars saga is now way more than the story presented in George Lucas' original films, and Star Wars: The Clone Wars will only muddle the waters further. Perhaps Lucas should amend the titles of his movies to a scheme like "Star Wars: The Skywalker Cycle Episode I: The Phantom Menace". And doesn't "The Skywalker Cycle" have a nice operatic ring to it? Sorta like Wagner's Ring cycle.

Well anyway, here's the link to where you can watch the new trailer for The Clone Wars...

I must admit: for the first time in my life, I'm not jazzed at all about seeing a new Star Wars movie in the theaters (no doubt all of Chris Knight's friends will gasp in disbelief at reading that). To its credit, The Clone Wars looks amazing. But it seems too much like a waste of good technology. The Clone Wars is already the most extensively chronicled single period of Star Wars lore. I mean, this is three years of story time that we've seen documented over the past six years of real time by way of dozens of novels, comics, many video games, and Lord only knows what other media. And there was already a superb animated series devoted to it. Right now I'm feeling like if I were to go see The Clone Wars at the theater it would only be out of longstanding loyalty to Star Wars, not because I'm enthused about this movie itself.

Do we need the new The Clone Wars movie and computer-animated television series? I'm not sure that we do. Because if this kind of effort and financing is going to be poured into bringing to life new tales of the Star Wars saga (something which I'm not against at all) I would much rather it be spent toward showing us parts of it that we haven't seen before, or at most barely hinted at. Heck, the era of 4,000 years prior to the events of the movies that is portrayed by the Knights of the Old Republic video games would be absolutely fertile ground for developing the saga further. There is something like 25,000 years of Star Wars history that we know is there, and most of it is getting ignored. To focus on a narrow 40-50 year slice at the cost of everything else in this rich mythology is too big a waste of potential to just let it slide by unprotested.

I really hope that somewhere in Lucasfilm, that plans are on the table to further develop the Star Wars universe well beyond the confines of what we've come to expect of it. The Clone Wars could be an excellent test-bed for the technology that could keep this a viable franchise for many years to come. It would be a shame to let it go to waste just to keep milking a proven cash cow.

Read More

STAR WARS: THE CLONE WARS trailer soars online (and an update on TALES OF THE NEW REPUBLIC)

I must admit, when I first heard about this project I was more than a little skeptical. I mean, haven't the Clone Wars been depicted enough over the past five years? Guess I was hoping for this kind of effort to be made toward covering ground we haven't seen yet (like the interval between Revenge of the Sith and A New Hop, or the Old Republic era). That said, this looks "impressive... most impressive!"

Mash down here for the new Star Wars: The Clone Wars trailer.

Speaking of computer-animated Star Wars, a few days ago I posted a report about something called Tales of the New Republic. Ever since word about this came out last week a lot of fans have been stymied as to whether or not this is an official Lucasfilm production. Sometime in the last day or so it was posted on the project's website that this is not an officially sanctioned production. It's something being done by a group of fans. Still astounded by the amount of work that seems to be going into this though. Here's the trailer for Tales of the New Republic that they've put online...

Read More