The 2008 'The Clone Wars' animated theatrical movie - a general discussion thread — Page 7

I think it's interesting that they can estimate Sunday's take based on Friday and Saturday, but I guess they figure most people would have gone either Friday night or Saturday.  So I suppose there's still a possibility that the numbers can be further revised downward.

That's really sad imo.  I agree with CO.  It's pretty sad that a Star Wars movie, cartoon or not, premiered at #3.  Knowing Lucas, he'll just blame it on the fans.  That's fine by me actually.  Blame it on us all you want.  The reality is that we no longer want to see what you're turning out.

EDIT: And TDK just overtook the original Star Wars on the all time list (non adjusted of course).  It still has $130 mil to catch up to Titanic, so I don't think that one's going down.

CO said:

Seriously, Lucas has moved on from the OOT fans, hence his crappy release of the OOT DVD in 2006, but as I said, this gross this weekend gives me hope, cause it may be a wake up to Lucas that the real fanbase is the OT fans, not the kids/PT fanboys, cause these guys couldn't even propel a SW cartoon to #1 for one weekend?

Yeah, the GOUT DVDs were George's final "f**k off!" to us. 

I'd also like to see Titanic get dethroned. Titanic was a big-budget romance novel set during a historic event. LA confidential was robbed of the Best Picture Oscar that year. 

bigbaddaddyvader said:

I dont normally venture onto TFN as it is just too weird but I thought I would see what they made of the Clone Wars movie and I had to post this as I actually was kind of flabbergasted.Here is one guy's thoughts:

"For me, it's (currently)... 

1. Revenge of the Sith 
2. The Clone Wars 
3. The Empire Strikes Back 
4. Return of the Jedi 
5. Attack of the Clones 
6. A New Hope 
7. The Phantom Menace "

What?Really?I mean....come on.I just cant get my head around that.

 

That list is a joke. Half the people at TFN are just trying to start a fight, and that's the problem with TFN. I can't take anything that anyone says there seriously.

I totally agree with lordjedi.  I haven't seen the movie (nor do I plan to), but I have been reading plenty of reviews, more than I have for any Star Wars movie.  Since I'm not seeing it, I'm really interested in the takes other people have of it.  Pretty much every review was negative, but, overall, they were pretty mixed as to why it was negative.  Some people hated the animation style while others loved it.  Some thought the action was boring while others thought it was the only redeemable factor of the movie.  Some loved Ahsoka while others sympathized with Anakin's youngling genocide because she was so annoying.  However, there always seemed to be one thing they agreed on:  while it was a complete piece of shit (for whatever reason/s), it was passable for kids.

When you have movies like Wall-E or the original Star Wars trilogy that proves that there can be movies that appeal to every age demographic, why does this get excused?  A turd is a turd.

*Disclaimer--Of course, I'm assuming it's a turd, but as I've stated, I haven't actually seen it.  Your own mileage may very, but I can be fairly certain that it's not the 2nd best Star Wars movie ever made.

Massawyrm at AICN makes some really good points about the whole "kid's film" debate: http://www.aintitcool.com/node/37951

"Kids Movies are films that are meant ENTIRELY for children. That is they either do not take the entertainment of adults into account or completely fail to entertain them when they try. You can spot these a mile away. They contain goofy characters falling down, making biological/caka/doodoo/peepee/fart jokes, are accentuated with tons of sound effects up to and including slide whistles, and are a veritable rainbow of colors and shapes. Their very intent is to grab a hold of the miniscule attention spans of young children and keep them focused on the screen for 90 minutes straight. They are cheap, easy to make and entirely disposable.

A Children’s Film on the other hand strives to entertain not just those same children, but their families that accompanied them as well. They are elegantly told stories that hit all the same kinds of notes that the story of a Kids Movie would, but often have deeper meanings that mean something completely different to adults. They are films that grow up with you and that you can carry to adulthood and love just the same, if not more, than you did when you were a child. Films like The Iron Giant, The Dark Crystal, The Harry Potter films, virtually everything by Pixar and of course my favorite movie this year (not the best, but the one I’ve watched the most and will no doubt continue to watch again and again) Kung Fu Panda...........

.............But lets step back for a moment. Tell me something. In what universe do you live that the charred, smoldering remains of a character’s aunt and uncle constitute the makings of a kids movie?"

Hehe, I love that.  I was all taken in by the poignancy of the second paragraph only to bust a gut at the end.  And, of course, that reminds me of George's flip-flopping stance about his own movies, where he constantly asserts that Star Wars is for kids yet was forced to defend himself for the violent imagery in Revenge of the Sith. 

Oh, yeah, and the barbecued Lars family...

I didn't really attempt to carry this as far as I wanted to in my previous post, but I think it is worth discussing.  While Clone Wars has gotten nearly universally bad reviews, most of them can't seem to agree on why it's bad.  I tend to agree with a lot of the general views that have already been expressed here about movie reviews:  that you can't rely on them to match your opinion or even be more than that one person's opinion, but if a lot of them all say the same thing, then it's probably something to take with a little more value.  So does the fact that, while all the reviews are bad, but hardly any can agree on exactly why, lend credence to the opinion that it's "bad" or do the wildly different specifics serve to slightly invalidate that?  Of course, I'll need some help from those who have actually seen it, since I can't really contribute much beyond this observation.

EDIT:  Oh, and to Johnboy's typo, I just thought you were doing a new twist on an old favorite when I first read it.  ^_~

I don't know what serials you've been watching, zombie84, but the Flash Gordon and Buck Rogers serials were well made, and had decent budgets for their era. Local tv stations dug them up in the wake of Star Wars' success, and I've been a fan ever since!

Gaffer Tape said:

I didn't really attempt to carry this as far as I wanted to in my previous post, but I think it is worth discussing.  While Clone Wars has gotten nearly universally bad reviews, most of them can't seem to agree on why it's bad.  I tend to agree with a lot of the general views that have already been expressed here about movie reviews:  that you can't rely on them to match your opinion or even be more than that one person's opinion, but if a lot of them all say the same thing, then it's probably something to take with a little more value.  So does the fact that, while all the reviews are bad, but hardly any can agree on exactly why, lend credence to the opinion that it's "bad" or do the wildly different specifics serve to slightly invalidate that?  Of course, I'll need some help from those who have actually seen it, since I can't really contribute much beyond this observation.

EDIT:  Oh, and to Johnboy's typo, I just thought you were doing a new twist on an old favorite when I first read it.  ^_~

I think the one thing all the negative reviews of the Clone Wars (or at least the ones I've read) have is that they share the opinion that Star Wars today is a far cry from what it once was. And I'd agree with that 100%.

Gaffer Tape said:

I didn't really attempt to carry this as far as I wanted to in my previous post, but I think it is worth discussing.  While Clone Wars has gotten nearly universally bad reviews, most of them can't seem to agree on why it's bad.  I tend to agree with a lot of the general views that have already been expressed here about movie reviews:  that you can't rely on them to match your opinion or even be more than that one person's opinion, but if a lot of them all say the same thing, then it's probably something to take with a little more value.  So does the fact that, while all the reviews are bad, but hardly any can agree on exactly why, lend credence to the opinion that it's "bad" or do the wildly different specifics serve to slightly invalidate that?  Of course, I'll need some help from those who have actually seen it, since I can't really contribute much beyond this observation.

 

I don't know, I read most of those reviews and they all seemed to have the same criticisms: 

The animation looks ugly/cheap/wooden

The dialogue is poorly written and juvenile 

The new characters are uninteresting and/or annoying

The battles are boring and too long

Jabba the Hutt's Uncle sounds like Truman Capote (LOL!)

Mielr said:

Massawyrm at AICN makes some really good points about the whole "kid's film" debate: http://www.aintitcool.com/node/37951

.............But lets step back for a moment. Tell me something. In what universe do you live that the charred, smoldering remains of a character’s aunt and uncle constitute the makings of a kids movie?"

 

Well, I'll tell you what universe.  It's the universe where a 10 year old can be glued to the television, watching a movie his parents taped off TV for him, every morning for 3 months straight during summer vacation.  Honestly, I guess I just didn't think about the fact that they were "smoldering remains".  All I thought was "Luke's Aunt and Uncle are dead now".  To take it a step further, how is destroying a planet something you'd see in a kids movie?  Again, it's probably not something you expect.  And that leads me to...

Gaffer Tape said:

Hehe, I love that.  I was all taken in by the poignancy of the second paragraph only to bust a gut at the end.  And, of course, that reminds me of George's flip-flopping stance about his own movies, where he constantly asserts that Star Wars is for kids yet was forced to defend himself for the violent imagery in Revenge of the Sith.

The violent imagery in ROTS was far worse than seeing two charred skeletons in the remains of the homestead.  Even today, when I saw ROTS, I was physically grossed out.  But when I watch ANH, I do not get that same feeling.  On the contrary, when seeing Beru and Owen's charred remains, my only thoughts were that Luke was now free to move on and begin his training as a Jedi.

Don't forget that ROTS is the only Star Wars movie to receive a PG-13 rating.

zombie84 said:

SilverWook said:

I don't know what serials you've been watching, zombie84, but the Flash Gordon and Buck Rogers serials were well made

Uh, when you can see the strings holding up the models I don't count that as well made. The serials were twenty minute Ed Wood films. Terrible acting and writing, most of the sets were cheap, bad special effect cutaway and formulaic plotting. The Flash Gordon series had a few cool sets because they re-used the stages from The Mummy and Phantom of the Opera, so that series has some acceptable production design there, but theres really little well-made about them. They were crude and cheap, especially the typical ones.

 

Even as a kid, I can remember thinking how fake the Buck Rogers sets looked...with all the plaster rocks and fake "high tech" ....I was pubescent pre-teen and only wanted to watch Buck Rogers because of Erin Grey...

zombie84 said:

SilverWook said:

I don't know what serials you've been watching, zombie84, but the Flash Gordon and Buck Rogers serials were well made

Uh, when you can see the strings holding up the models I don't count that as well made. The serials were twenty minute Ed Wood films. Terrible acting and writing, most of the sets were cheap, bad special effect cutaway and formulaic plotting. The Flash Gordon series had a few cool sets because they re-used the stages from The Mummy and Phantom of the Opera, so that series has some acceptable production design there, but theres really little well-made about them. They were crude and cheap, especially the typical ones.

 

One might as well complain about all the visible matte lines and other FX byproducts in the original versions of the films this site is devoted to preserving. ;)

Many of the Republic Pictures serials feature superlative model work done by the Lydecker Brothers. Those shots hold up very well today.

http://www.vttbots.com/page20.html

One of the highlights of my first visit to Universal Studios in the early 80's was seeing a recreation of the Flash Gordon rocketship effects rig. It was way more sophisticated than anything Ed Wood was using.

I'm not above chuckling at the poorer quality serials MST3K poked fun at. And J-Men Forever! is one of my favorite comedy movies. But to lump them all in the same basket seems a bit unfair.

If not for many of these matinee serials, enjoyed by young and old alike, we would have no Star Wars and no Indy! And then what would we complain about?

I saw the movie this weekend with my 5-year-old son. I went in with very low expectations. I've reached a point where I feel like Star Wars has moved on from where I am, so I basically have nothing to lose. And of course, if I had hated it, but my son still liked it, well, it's still an evening well spent.

You know what? It wasn't that bad. It was superficial and fun, like a guilty pleasure. I liked the action scenes, and they were actually on a more personal level than what we got in the prequels. And I enjoyed Obi-Wan - he's always a class act. Except for the look of Dooku, the animation style didn't bother me.

I would say that the trailers almost made this look worse than it was. In one trailer, Stinky burps, and Asohka (sp?) says, "My training didn't prepare me for this." That never actually happens that way in the movie.

The next morning when we woke up, my son asked to watch Star Wars. I asked him which one he wanted to watch, and he said "the one where Luke blows up the Death Star." That's my boy.

Sluggo said:

Don't forget that the PG-13 rating wasn't created until after ROTJ came out.

 

Not that the OT would have gotten the 13 anyway.

I still think the reason that ANH-SE was censored (two different imperial officers getting blasted in the chest) was to avoid the PG-13 rating. It's the only thing that makes sense.