Clone Wars Episode 2: Rising Malevolence
Saturday, October 4, 2008

Originally aired October 3, 2008 on Cartoon Network.

In short: The Republic is out to find Grievous' new super weapon. Plo Koon and a bunch of Jedi are stranded in a life pod after a battle, waiting to see if someone will pick them up. Similar plots were done on other shows (Star Trek: Enterprise comes to mind) to varying degrees of success, and it's unfortunate we're seeing such a common device used so early in the series' run.

In this episode, we see a heck of a lot of action. We get to see Anakin talk down to his new sidekick, we get to see R2-D2 doing R2 things, we see big ships get destroyed, we get to see escape pods, and all sorts of stuff. There's little time for exposition, as it seems the series' writers assume you already know the major players and don't need to introduce them or even name them on screen more than once or twice.

Things move along nicely, as there's a slight panic about a super weapon, there's some resentment of Anakin for going on a rescue mission, and there's more than a little tension in the voices of the two main Jedi heroes. Plo Koon, unfortunately, sounds almost like an old, bored super hero. He's very mellow, and can apparently be out in the vacuum of space for a brief period of time. Further, his dialogue propels the notion that by and large, the Jedi are very dull. A more alien voice saying fewer words could be interesting in a variety of ways, but it turns out after years of speculation, Plo Koon sounds just like any other Jedi might sound. Oh well.

This particular installment seemed more robust than the first, but it's still feeling a little light overall. Thankfully, we have two more weeks (at least) following this storyline and the super weapon: the galaxy's most dangerous ion cannon.

Appearing: 2-1B (or similar medic droid), R2-D2, Anakin Skywalker, Ahsoka Tano, Commander Wollfe, Yularen, Clones, Plo Koon, Mace Windu, Count Dooku, General Grievous, Palpatine, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Battle Droids.

Pros: Mostly great voice acting, good sets, decent story, better pacing-- there's a lot of cuts between the Twilight and a ship wreckage, plus the Malevolence. Cutting away to something else makes everything better.

Cons: The Battle Droids have some very creepy scenes with the life pods, but due to the goofy nature of the characters the threat seems removed despite characters being in very real danger. The concept is a wonderfully eerie one, but the execution didn't work. Also, Plo Koon can breathe in space? Who does he think he is, Batman? Aside from clones, we're seeing few new characters-- this could be a problem.

Posted byAdam16bit at 9:00 AM 0 comments  

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Clone Wars Episode 1: Ambush

Originally aired October 3, 2008 on Cartoon Network.

In short: Yoda goes to meet the king of the Toydarians (Watto's people) on a moon to join the Republic, but-- oh yes-- Count Dooku sends Asajj Ventress to issue a challenge to Yoda, which Yoda accepts, over the fate of the Toydarians. Of course, the Toydarians didn't have too much say either way but they seem to like the Jedi. It plays out like a mix of a fable, a few episodes of Transformers (which had similar plots), and a PBS kids show in how Yoda treats the clones. Very touchy-feely, and the Clones are put off by this-- which is probably the right thing to do as to not lose older kids.

The pacing was pretty slow, but I think the real problem is that it wasn't so much slow as it was repetitive-- you're on a single planet for a full episode without much variety. If this were a Star Trek, at least you'd cut back to the bridge of the Enterprise, or perhaps multiple away teams could go through different things. Also, Yoda and some clones vs. anything-- it's not only obvious who will win, but it's so uneven that it's a wonder the Clone Wars lasted more than a few weeks. The Jedi are superheroes, and they're fighting the worst droid army in the history of ever-- how come the war took so long to win?

At 23 minutes (minus commercials) I can see why George Lucas insisted the previous series be about 3-4 minutes an episode. Honestly, this story was so light on plot that it could have easily been done in that short amount of time

Appearing: Yoda, Dooku, Asajj Ventress, Lt. Thire (clone), more Clones, Battle Droids, Super Battle Droids, Destroyer Droids

Pros: Neat scenery (which Yoda actually comments on), good voice work, good designs.

Cons: No wacky and vaguely culturally insensitive accent for the Toydarians, been-there-done-that plot, entire show takes place on a single planet with very little cutting away to make up for it.

Posted byAdam16bit at 8:55 AM 0 comments  

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