Star Wars the Clone Wars is due out this August on the big screen to be followed on the small screen by a regular TV series this Fall. The Clones. The cool looking clones with the retro "Rocketeer"-meets-the-Fetts helmets and big plasma rifles that can blow a hole through a super battle droid. One of Lucas' descriptions of the film and series has been (paraphrased) "Band of Brothers, but with clones." How freakin' sweet is that?
The sound is spectacular, which goes without saying. The imagery and animation is absolutely gorgeous -- the characters are rendered into 3D from the animated Cartoon Network mini-series 1 & 2. The story will flesh out the relationship between Obi-Wan and Anakin which will give Anakin's fall that much more impact in Episode 3. As a lifeling fan -- i.e. a fan old enough to remember seeing it for the first time in 1977, how do you ask for more than that? Another chance to go back into the Star Wars Universe with the master himself at the helm!
The preview videos are available at StarWars.com and YouTube (naturally).
I say: "how can you ask for more than that", knowing full well that for as many rabid fans that are out there like me, the number of whiners is legion.
For the whiners my age and older, I can only offer a measure of pity. They seem to suffer under the illusion that the original films were somehow different, had a different feel, were better somehow... No. No such difference exists. Not in the terms they describe anyway. The differences in scale and tone and overall feeling are all relevant to the story telling and with the two (current)digital revampings of the original trilogy films, the sweeping, massive scale introduced in the prequels is revisted to illustrate how the actions of a few key figures affects the overall story arc on a grand scale. The major difference the older whiners fail to recognize is they're older now -- the movies haven't changed, but they have. For those that have lost that spark and childlike acceptance and joy of being able to dive back into the Star Wars Universe, they have my pity.
The biggest pile of whining maggots are the the next couple generations down, the "Y's and the Millenials"; the people that grew up with the "EU" as (shudder) "Canon". I try and see their point of view in regards to the Star Wars Universe, but at my age and weight, I'm unable to get my head that far up my own ass. The arguements they spawn over what's (shudder) "Canon" and what's not and the different tiers of this timeline vs the canonicty of this comic and the feasibility of this novel vs. what the movie said... it would be impossible to address it all here or anywhere for that matter. Until these people accept the Wookie Lifeday Special and the original comic seriel that ran in the newspapers and the anti-smoking commercial from 3PO and Artoo as canon, they have nothing to say that interests me. When they're able to accept that in 70's, we already knew the Stormtroopers were clones... oh, that's right, they're not clones in the EU...
The EU, to me, is a disasterous soap opera. An out of control hydra that should have had it's heads cut off a long time ago. A collection of really talented authors that would be better served, and better serve the SciFi consuming fans by writing their own fiction and creating their own mythos. Luke, Leia and Han can't take a crap or get an oil change without a book being written about it. When a committee has to sit down and decide a major character needs to die to provide more validity to a storyline, there's a problem.
Lucas identifies 3 different worlds for Star Wars, his, the licensing world and the fan's world. For me, the first and third are synonymous. Despite my negative sounding take on the EU, I don't begrudge any SW fan for following it, but when the creator of the SW Universe himself writes a new chapter to the tale, I can't stand the whining.
