Latest Updates: Monday, October 20, 2008
Reviewed by Andrew Liptak.
The Clone Wars series has finally reached a level where it is not only tolerable, but fairly good, meeting my somewhat higher expectations.
Up until now, I’ve been disapointed by some of the more juvenile attempts of humor and more illogical points in the story. This third episode has restored my confidence somewhat. While this episode is not perfect, it is by far the best episode of the series thus far.
Episode 103 takes place shortly after the events in Episode 102, which was a nice surprise, as there seems to be some effort at continuity between the episodes. Grievous’s ship is still on the loose, destroying battle groups, and after recieving new intelligence, towards a vital Republic medical station. At the same time, Anakin and Ashoka are tasked with taking out Greivous, and take a small task force of Y-Wing fighters against the ship in an effort to destroy it, passing through a nebula along the way as a shortcut. In the ensuing battle, they are able to drive the ship away, saving the medical station.
Like the Star Wars movies, the real strength here is the space battles. From the opening moments of A New Hope to the final space battle in Return of the Jedi, these have been some of the more exhilerating moments of the Star Wars Saga, and this episode certainly goes a long ways towards proving this point. There are some breathetaking scenes here, and some real attention to detail as far as tactics and fighters go. Additionally, there are a number of subtle nods to A New Hope, in the dialog and camera movements, which looks very good. There are also a couple of scenes that are very majestic looking, combining some of the better moments of the series score and camera work. At other times, the battle scenes are exciting and energetic, seeing the battle from the cockpit.
Even some of the more annoying aspects of the show didn’t surface to their more annoying levels - the battle droids don’t talk as much and the dynamics between Anakin and Ashoka, while there are a couple painful moments, have improved much since the initial episodes.
There are some other little things here and there - the notion that the Republic would only have one vital medical center being the first and foremost, but also that ships are being crewed by Clone Troopers - given how few clones there were at the onset, it seems weird that they’re not on the front lines, with non-clones working on the ships, but overall, these are minor problems.
There are times when I really want to dislike this series, but this episode has really made that hard - there are some very good moments here that make the show worth watching.
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