by Kevin Gaussoin, Editor-in-Chief
A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away….
Star Wars: The Clone Wars does what no Star Wars prequel has ever done: Not suck.
Sure, Episode I had pod racing and a cool battle with Darth Maul, Episode II had Yoda battling Dooku and the arena scene, and Episode III had a battle scene on Kashyyyk, a place we hadn’t seen since the Holiday Special, but overall, they were an embarrassment to all us old school fans of the original trilogy. They featured whiny Anakin whining his whiny face all over the whiny place… They just weren’t good.
Today, we can forget all that, instead of putting up with the pain that was the prequels, we instead have an solid story that’s entertaining end to end and packed with action and voice talent that is superior to those who have previously played these prequel parts.
Star Wars: The Clone Wars takes place somewhere in a time gap within the 21st episode of the 2003 Clone Wars TV series which in turn takes place between Star Wars Episode II and Episode III. This film chronicles the introduction of Padawan learner Ahsoka Tano as she enters into the tutelage of Jedi Master Anakin Skywalker. Ahsoka, a character who could have easily remained a one-note cute/precocious/brash kid, but her character shows some amount of learning and growth even over this short span depicted in this movie. The other main plot line in the movie follows the Jedi and their quest to retrieve the kidnapped son of Jabba the Hutt, as Count Dooku and his Sith assassin Asajj Ventress trying to prevent their success along the way.
Extras:
-A Creative Video Commentary (with the director, producer, writer, and editor) – Blu-ray only
-The Voices of the Clone Wars
-A New Score
-Gallery of Concept and Production Art
-Webisodes
-Deleted Scenes
-The Hologram Memory Challenge
-Trailers
Beside the deleted scenes and part of the trailers, all of these special features are in the same high definition as we’ve come to expect from Blu-ray features. The main feature is of course in 1080p, the highest resolution available, and the Audio is in Dolby TrueHD for lossless uncompressed sound for the best home theatre experience possible today.
ComicsOnline gives Star Wars: The Clone Wars 4 1/2 out of 5 lightsaber battles won.
