logo Sign In

The 2008 'The Clone Wars' animated theatrical movie - a general discussion thread — Page 6

Author
Time
 (Edited)
Post link

I never meant to imply it didn't get great reviews.

In the end, if you like a movie and the critics don't, (or vice-versa) what does it matter?

I honestly can't name very many critics beyond Roger Ebert and the late Gene Siskel. I didn't even know Rex Reed was still around until someone mentioned elsewhere he panned The Dark Knight!

And when a good review is in short supply, the studios quote someone you've never heard of from an obscure source. And if you're Sony, you invent a critic who always praises your films. ;)

 

Where were you in '77?

Author
Time
Post link
SilverWook said:

 And if you're Sony, you invent a critic who always praises your films. ;)

 

LOL! True, and to be honest, I don't care what the critics think, because I never had any intention of seeing the film in the first place.

It just saddens me that it has come to this. :-(

 

Author
Time
 (Edited)
Post link

Its only sad if you treat it with any seriousness. I mean if they had released that Droids TV special The Great Heep in theaters as an animated feature-film it would have gotten eviscerated, and deservingly so because its a piece of crap as an animated feature film. But like Droids, as much as I liked that series, Clone Wars really just a footnote in the scheme of things. I think right now LFL has created a sort of media tunnel-vision in the fandom because they have promoted this piece of shit so much. In the end, no one will ever remember it except this little footnote that happened after Lucas stopped making the actual episodes.

Author
Time
Post link

Just saw the film and I have to say...I'ts not as terrible as I was expecting. Yes it's a turkey, Yes it's an overly long advert for the coming flood of games, action figures, books....But I think Ultimately some people do and will take this far too seriously.

I actually didn't mind some of the things that have other fans worked up, I enjoyed the "Starship Troopers-esque" opening...It doesn't try to emulate the 'real' Star Wars movies, It says from the outset "this is something different"

I can understand why others hate it, And i myself hold it in low regard, But I don't really have any regrets in seeing it. It's certainly not for everyone. I feel obliged to mention, at least on of our numbers was in the target age group and our tickets were about 1/3 normal cost.

The thing that DOES piss me off about the Show / Film is that it totally disregards the 2d clone wars series, While HEAVILY borrowing ideas from it. 3d Clone Wars is Certainly inferior to 2d Clone Wars, At the very least in terms of storytelling...

 

 

 

Author
Time
Post link
Johnny Ringo said:

The thing that DOES piss me off about the Show / Film is that it totally disregards the 2d clone wars series, While HEAVILY borrowing ideas from it.

 

 

 

Do tell. I've been curious about this ever since Filoni acted in that behind the scenes video as if the Genndy series never happened. "Ever since that conversation in A New Hope, Star Wars fans have been wondering ..... what were the Clone Wars?" Ummmm, yea, and we just got exactly that several years ago.

Author
Time
Post link
Johnny Ringo said:

The thing that DOES piss me off about the Show / Film is that it totally disregards the 2d clone wars series, While HEAVILY borrowing ideas from it. 3d Clone Wars is Certainly inferior to 2d Clone Wars, At the very least in terms of storytelling...

Wait, what?  Yes, please tell us more.  I thought the 2nd series was even better than the first and now they're going to disregard it?  It suddenly doesn't fit with the story he wants to tell?  Arrggh!!

 

F Scale score - 3.3333333333333335

You are disciplined but tolerant; a true American.

Pissing off Rob since August 2007.
Author
Time
Post link

"It's good enough." This reminds me of the 2006 dvd debate, where a cut-rate product is sold as something more than it is. "It's just a kids movie, so it's good enough." Well, it's playing in movie theaters at full price just like other kids movies such as Wall-E, etc. so why shouldn't it be held to the same standard? 

Author
Time
Post link

Well, me and the little one went to see it today. He was so excited about watching the cartoon Star Wars at the cinema, and I was pretty stoked taking him to watch a SW film at the cinema for the first time.

We sat there watching all the bloody adverts, the trailers, and as soon as the WB logo came up....He fell asleep. He slept all the way through the film. Poor little sod.

Me, I didn't think it was that bad at all. Not a masterpiece, and I'm probably one of the only people who thought it was better than the 2d cartoons. To me they were just a little over the top, with all the flying 'super' Jedis an' all. This did seem in keeping with the films. But hey, each to his own.

God to admit, Ziro the Hutt was a little weird. Quite glad my son never got to see the 'Sweet transvestite Hutt'.

On a side note. I saw the visual guide book to accompany the series in out local Tesco's today. Seems there will be a lot of Jar Jar to come in the series. As well as a few more familiar characters. And the back story to the little Jedi chick (sorry forgot her name already) seems pretty cool. Something to do with Plo Koon (man these names crack me up) .

 

Based on this film I'll give the series a chance.

http://www.facebook.com/DirtyWookie

Author
Time
Post link

The Clone Wars movie only took in 6.2 million Friday night, which will give it around 19 million opening day weekend, as it loses to Tropic Thunder.

Let me first say this post isn't to anyone who took their kids to see this as I am glad you guys enjoyed it.

But the fans finally sent a message to George for the first time in my lifetime, we aint gonna show up for shit anymore, and I think the Lucas backlash finally happened.  From the SE, to the PT, to the Originals not existing anymore, to the OOT DVD being shitty laserdisk masters, to this cartoon, there is a reason a SW movie won't even be #1 Opening Weekend for the first time ever.  

This shows that the PT/kiddy audience isn't as big as Lucas thought, and proves to me that the OOT audience is the heart of SW, as I know all of my friends who grew up with SW didn't see this movie this weekend, and the boxoffice numbers reflect it.

 

 

Author
Time
Post link

It may not even make that much.  It only did about $1.5 mil better than TDK on Friday night.  I have no doubt TDK and TT will do better Saturday and Sunday.

F Scale score - 3.3333333333333335

You are disciplined but tolerant; a true American.

Pissing off Rob since August 2007.
Author
Time
Post link

The sad part is that by tonight Clone Wars will have already turned a profit. Thats what happens when you release a television episode theatrically. I would estimate the movie's budget at under $10 million, but I wouldn't be surprised if it was actually only $5 million. Technically, this could turn out to be the most profitable Lucasfilm venture since the original. Why wouldn't they do one of these every year? Even if it ended up in last place on its opening weekend it would still break even, and with a kids action film in  the summer season with a brand name franchise there's no way you would ever open in last place. Thats why companies keep making these pieces of shit, they are just marketing love-childs, and from a business perspective theres absolutely no reason not to keep doing it.

Author
Time
 (Edited)
Post link

Zombie as we have discussed on ORS, you are 100% correct that this movie made a profit already, but this does say something as to what happened to the vaunted SW audience?

My post is more of a long term outlook as to how many people have jumped ship in the past 10 years, and everything finally came to head this weekend with these poor boxoffice results.   Sure they are good from a profit point of view, but Lucas can't be happy that SW fans didn't turn out in droves like they do for anything he has put out in the past. 

I say this cause it all goes back to the OOT fans and hopefully the OOT being released on Bluray someday fully restored.  If The Clone War movie did 50 million, it would show that there is a new generation of fans, young kids and PT fanboys who can vault any SW related thing to #1, but the OT fanbase definitely stayed away on this one, as I don't know one person who went.   So maybe Lucas will realize that the fanbase to cater to make the most $$$$ is the OT fans.  THen again its Lucas...maybe not!

Author
Time
 (Edited)
Post link

I wish I could share your optimism CO, but I'm not so sure.

Yes, many have jumped ship. But an equal many have joined. So what if $20 million worth of OOT fans have left--double that amount in new kids have joined. The success of the prequels and all of its anscillary products is testament to that. Enough Star Wars fans eat this shit up, and even though OOT fans have turned their back on this stuff, an equal amount if not more have flocked in. Look at the video games, the novels, the comics--people are buying these. A lot of them are adults, most of them are kids, lots of them have been in the fandom for years and some of them are newly indoctrinated. Basically the way the fandom has always been.

In the end, you are right, the OOT is the one that will be remembered and this will ultimately be what most people watch. But not in this generation. The PT-version of the Star Wars series will continue to be as successful as it has always has been. The Clone Wars had a poor reception but I think they expected that, even if its lower than they estimated. Think of it this way: Its 1985. Lucasfilm releases Droids: The Great Heep in theaters. What do you think happens? It gets awful reviews and does lacklustre business (whilst nonetheless making a profit several times over). Does this mean that the OT is dead? All it really means is that only a fraction of the people who saw the episode films will turn out for a children's television cartoon--the hardest of hardcore and the audience the movie is actually targeted at, ten year olds. Thats basically what happened here. I wish I could say this means that Star Wars will finally get back to its roots now that Lucas has got a slap in the face, but this honestly is nothing unusual, remarkable or unexpected.

Author
Time
 (Edited)
Post link

I don't even think it is even remotely the same thing, the nelvana cartoons did not go out of their way to destroy the continuity of the oot and also they were hand drawn animation on cels not wooden low budget cgi produced in singapore.

 

Also they were always ment to be little side adventures for the kiddies in the same way as the two tv ewok films.

 

Clone Wars is saga continuity and it is a fucking turkey.

 

Even Lucas apologists like Roger Ebert eviscerated it. Here is a guy who gave Indy IV and Revenge of the Sith good reviews. Seriously lacks credibility after doing that, he even gave the poorly received hack job X-Files 2 a good review.

 

I hope force unleashed is not a turkey as well. Because if it is then star wars is done stick a fucking fork in it its over since 1997.

Except for the occasional EU gem like the first Knights of the Old Republic Game. Which was more faithful to the oot than lucass prequels.

 

Lucas thinks he can always fall back on "well its for kids" so they won't know it is complete garbage and an ad for hasbro action figures.

Wall-E is for kids and it is a great film. Miyazaki has also made films like Totoro that were for kids but are not complete garbage.

Iron Giant was made for kids and so was Toy Story, so Was Lion KIng. They are not videogame cutscenes pooped out of someones ass.

“Always loved Vader’s wordless self sacrifice. Another shitty, clueless, revision like Greedo and young Anakin’s ghost. What a fucking shame.” -Simon Pegg.

Author
Time
Post link

If it doesn't do well, then whether LFL wants to release one every year or not won't matter.  Warner Bros. is distributing this and even if it breaks even, they may decide that that isn't enough to warrant a new one every year.  At that point, the rest will be straight to TV or LFL will have to start distributing it themselves.

Let's wait and see how it turns out.  My gut says that even with a $20 mil opening weekend it's seen as a failure, even if it does make a profit at that amount.  You can't seriously just be expecting only the people that love the PT to come see this.  Star Wars is a franchise that covers the OT and PT and if you don't have the OT fans, you won't have a lasting audience.

One final note is that kids don't actually have their own money to spend to go see this.  So if their parents, who are fans of the OT and maybe can't stand the PT, don't take them, then they won't be seeing this anyway.  So again, you can't just draw in kids without drawing in the parents.  I'm sure there are some that don't care about the quality of the movie and just see it as a 1.5 hr "keep em busy" piece of entertainment, but those surely won't last past opening weekend and they won't keep going back to see it again and again.

F Scale score - 3.3333333333333335

You are disciplined but tolerant; a true American.

Pissing off Rob since August 2007.
Author
Time
 (Edited)
Post link

Lucas must be so envious of Christopher Nolan and his film Dark Knight. He wishes he could make a movie that good, LOL.

The funny thing is Dark Knight is being compared to Empire Strikes Back the best star wars film by far, the one on which lucas said to kersh " your ruining my movie".

I even think the dude censored it because it believe it was "Kersh your ruining my fucking movie". That is when he had a temper tantrum and took the film away and recut it.

Kershner, Kasden, and Kurtz all sat down and told Lucas his cut was shit and eventually they recut the film to what we have now. A couple of scenes were reshot to placate Lucas. Other than that the attitude must of been if you don't like the fucking movie as i shot it then you should have made it yourself you godamn prick.

Gee i wonder why Kersh turned down Jedi, hmm. And Lucas fired Kurtz because Kurtz allowed Kershner to go over budget and make a better movie than his fucking low budget star wars film.

 

Kershner should totally take his name off of the special edition because that is not the film he shot, It should get an Alan Smithee director credit. The only reason i can think of why he has not is because Lucas would probably cut and paste his own name into the credits.

I think i read a couple of years back that Lucas actually submitted for directing credit on the special editions of empire and jedi to the motion picture association of america.  What happened i guess he was turned down, LOL.

“Always loved Vader’s wordless self sacrifice. Another shitty, clueless, revision like Greedo and young Anakin’s ghost. What a fucking shame.” -Simon Pegg.

Author
Time
Post link

Well as I said I enjoyed taking my son and I didnt really have that big a problem with the movie-mostly because my son enjoyed it.If I didnt have kids I wouldn't have gone as I am in my mid-thirties so why would I go on my own at this age to something like this?

Now as some of you know I am a big fan of ROTS and I can take or leave the other two prequels (I really am not keen on AOTC and it wears on me more as time goes on) and ANH is my favourite movie of all time.Nothing surpasses it-bottom line.That being said I tend to view myself as a rather realistic fan.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.

Image Hosted by ImageShack.us

<span style=“font-size:14pt;line-height:100%”></span>

http://www.bigbaddaddyvader.com

Original Star Wars Props and Production Material

Author
Time
 (Edited)
Post link

well for me its:

1 a new hope

2 revenge of the sith

3 empire strikes back

4 return of the jedi

5 attack of the clones

6 the phantom menace

7 the clone wars*

*- but can you really count 'clone wars' with these? it wasn't meant to match the budget,

the style, or the usual things that one associates with a major star wars movie, if you

compare it the other releases of the same type, (ie. the tv shows), for me it ranks

much higher than the cartoon network 2d series..............

 

 

later

-1

[no GOUT in CED?-> GOUT CED]

Author
Time
Post link
bigbaddaddyvader said:

Well as I said I enjoyed taking my son and I didnt really have that big a problem with the movie-mostly because my son enjoyed it.If I didnt have kids I wouldn't have gone as I am in my mid-thirties so why would I go on my own at this age to something like this?

Because it's part of the Star Wars mythos?  Seriously, animated or not, if this was actually good and not targeted strictly at kids, why wouldn't someone want to see this?  I've wanted to see everything that Pixar has put out, whether I had kids or not.  Why?  Because they aren't made strictly for kids.  Sure, they're good kids movies in their own right, but adults can enjoy them as well.

Why do we expect less from Star Wars?

F Scale score - 3.3333333333333335

You are disciplined but tolerant; a true American.

Pissing off Rob since August 2007.
Author
Time
Post link

Because Pixar movies are well done and made in a more sophisticated style that can be enjoyed by adults. There is a difference between making a film for kids and a film that panders to them. Wizard of Oz, Wall-E, and Star Wars are all examples of great kids films. Clone Wars is an example of a film that panders to them.

Besides which, its not even a well-done one. Surely you cannot be comparing Wall-E with Clone Wars? The difference between the two films is the difference between Star Wars and Wing Commander.

Author
Time
Post link

But that's my point.  Why is pandering to children suddenly accepted for this movie?  I'm certainly not comparing Wall-E (or any Pixar movie) to Clone Wars.  I'm genuinely curious why it's acceptable for this movie to be considered good "for a kids movie" when it's just pandering to them.  If it's "here today, gone tomorrow" then why even bother with it?  It has no lasting impact, unlike the OT which is still being referenced in TV shows and other movies 30 years after it was released.

Sorry, I guess I just don't get it.

F Scale score - 3.3333333333333335

You are disciplined but tolerant; a true American.

Pissing off Rob since August 2007.