Critical Reaction For Clone Wars

I don't think we've had a thread about this yet.

Critics' opinions are as worthless as everyone else's...but I still have fun reading all of the reviews when Star Wars movies come out.

Any predictions on what the critical concensus will be? I'm particularly curious about Ebert's reaction. As I recall, he loved the imagination in The Phantom Menace, but seemed to disliked the look of the digital film used in Episodes II & III(although ROTS still got a positive review). Will he appreciate an all-CGI film a little bit more?

And what about awards? Think it'll get a "best animated film" nomination? I know Oscar loves to snub Lucas, but it just wouldn't make sense for some crappy kid's movie like Madagascar 2 to be nominated over Star Wars.

The Genndy Tartokovsky(or whatever his name is) shorts won their fair share of acclaim, and this show/movie looks way better. Is it unrealistic to dream about potential Oscar noms and Emmy awards?

 

I definitely think it will be receiving some nods in the animation categories. It's one of the reasons I am so excited about it after seeing the trailers. The animation is not something we've ever seen before. It kicks ass.

 

They'll probably hate it. lol Or they'll go nuts because it's actually that good. But critics don't really matter, and I think that it will be well received by the public. Probably rack up a few Emmy awards along the way.

 

With it being an animated film aimed at younger crowds, I'm sure they will recognize that it shouldn't be held to the expectation of Star Wars, and adjust their expectations accordingly--at least to some degree. But being animated or being "for kids" doesn't excuse bad story or bad writing, as you get films like Finding Nemo or Incredibles which got terrific reviews and then you get movies like Cars and Shark Tale which generally got trashed as "the movie's not good, but it doesn't really matter because kids won't realise that." It's just impossible to tell how critics will react until they see the film, because I think they'll judge it on its own merits. If it sacrifices smart writing "because its just for kids" the way something like Shark Tale did then the film will deservingly get panned, but if it manages compelling storytelling like something like some of the Pixar films then it'll get deserved praise. My feeling is that, since this is basically just a television aimed at kids and teens, and historically those are not well written--Lucas wanted it put on the big screen not only the merit of story, but because it looked cool. Thus, it is unfortunately more likely that it will be closer to Shark Tale than Finding Nemo, if I can even make an analogy using such different material, but this is all sort of guesswork at this point.

 

Well, going off what George has said recently (and that's all we have to go by right now), the films won't be Pixar style or dumbed down for kids. There's one article floating around in the ether where he says that there aren't jokes that go over the kids' heads like there are with Pixar films. I think that's a good thing because those aren't really the style of jokes that are in the movies anyway. I always remember as a kid thinking that cartoon shows which were apparently meant to be funny were never actually funny.

 

The trend will be for critics to enjoy the new cartoon better than the prequels, that way they can continue blaming George Lucas specifically for the prequels and continue to wish they were made by somebody else.

 

If anything, it has a remote chance for a nomination. Not likely, though.

As for a win, no way. Wall-E has already essentially got the Oscar.

 

You know Ebert will hate it.

 

Yes, I can only laugh when people and web site lists say that the CW microseries was the best Star Wars visual product since '83. I'd argue it was some of the worst since the 90's (it looks like Ewoks and Droids wasn't great), which still puts it above 99% of other stuff.

 

Definitely. Great points all around.

If viewed as a commercial to hype everybody up for ROTS, then the microseries was fine--seeing the spaceships and clone troopers in action was exciting enough.

But if viewed as a legitimate piece of Star Wars, it was garbage(IMO). It was all so over the top. The animation itself was fine, but there's just no way to take the battles seriously. I had the same problem with Samurai Jack--it had great little bits of atmosphere, and then super-cartooney action sequences.

I honestly will never understand people who say it's better than the PT, or even anything remotely resembling good Star Wars. I get the feeling that people only say that as backwards way of criticizing Lucas.

It will be interesting to see if those same fans say the same about the new Clone Wars series. Or is Lucas "too involved" this time around? It definitely sounds like he has a lot of input on the scripts and animation--although it's possible that this is just being exaggerated to satisfy the anti-EU fans.

 

Well, those same people who bash George for the PT being too different from the OT would've hated him if he didn't make it different from the originals. Newsflash: It's dull and not cool/rebellious to bash George for everything. It's so pathetic when I read AICN or another site and see them foaming at the mouth anytime he's mentioned. "George is greedy... Jar Jar... ewoks!" Maybe he is greedy, but I like to pay people for good ideas/ products. A little coin his way for what he's done for movies and fandom is a very fair trade, IMO.

And like you said, it's silly watching Yoda and Co. jump over buildings in a single bound. I'm glad that it was well received so that we can get the real deal, but other than that, it offers little post-ROTS' release.

 

I'm just happy GL isn't writing the screenplays. That's my only beef with the PT, there's hardly any story to them and they have holes in their plots big enough to drive a truck through. I had no problem with his direction or the use of CGI.

And who actually reads the AICN talkbacks? For god's sake nothing satisfies those people!