Bunuel1976

After a lengthy hiatus from movies reviewing - broken in July 2015 by my still ongoing marathon tribute to Christopher Lee - I return intermittently to both with this, ironically my first ever STAR WARS-related write-up. Obviously, I came to this in the wake of the latest entry in the saga; I must admit that, while I enjoyed the initial movies in my childhood days, they had lost much of their charm growing up - and the notorious tweaking done to them by George Lucas did not help, either.

The second trilogy to be filmed (which actually comes first in the chronology of the saga - you know the drill, by now!) was justly lambasted by critics as a massive come-down from the originals (save for the third, which possessed some undeniable gravitas amid the gadget-laden action). Incidentally, the movie under review could well have been titled "Episode 2.5" - which rather begs the question as to why return to a goodly Anakin Skywalker at all, having witnessed his definite crossover to The Dark Side 3 years previously; with this in mind, I sure hope we do not get to see Kylo Ren's own 'transformation' - from EPISODE VII - somewhere down the line, which would simply amount to a mercenary act in order to pump some more money into the already over-burdened franchise! Another link between THE CLONE WARS and EPISODE VII is the fact that we have a female heroine - here an aspiring Jedi taken (initially reluctantly) under his wing by Anakin Skywalker.

The hardly-exciting plot involves the kidnapping of the slimy Jabba The Hut's infant son (unamusingly dubbed "Stinky" throughout) by Count Dooku, who then conspires to frame Skywalker for the deed - so that Jabba's loyalty within the intergalactic arena lies with the Separatists rather than with the Resistance. While the animation is certainly no great shakes, the film is not unwatchable for what it is - though I can see how a fanatic of the series, who even likes the middle (i.e. 1999-2005) trilogy, would be disappointed by the inherent dullness and utter lack of purpose of this particular venture! For the record, only 3 actors from the series accepted to also lend their vocal talents to this, namely Anthony Daniels as the ubiquitous C3PO, Samuel L. Jackson as Mace Windu and Lee as Count Dooku; the latter is typically authoritative but, apart from one lightsaber duel with Skywalker, he does little more than connive or otherwise coach and chide his would-be deadly underling. On a final confusing note for the uninitiated, there were similarly-titled TV series in 2003 and - immediately following this - in 2008.

While I am usually a sucker for fantasy adventure movies, we the audiences have been so flooded with them ever since the "Lord Of The Rings" trilogy emerged at the start of the century that one tends to greet a new one with a gasp rather than a cheer! With the film under review, it was similarly planned as a three-part saga but which got stalled after merely the first entry in the wake of its disappointing reception.

Having watched it for myself, I can say that I was not particularly engaged by the unfolding narrative - which was, at once, muddled and undernourished anyway. It feels like the film-makers were taking it easy here, hoping to be able to expand on the themes at its core in subsequent 'episodes' - but, since this was not to be, the end result unfortunately never gathers much in the way of momentum and strides along solely on the strength of its star cast and the undeniably spectacular visuals (the Visual Effects were even rewarded with an Academy Award).

Incidentally, given that I have once embarked on an infrequent review for this particular viewing, hints at the participation therein of the late great Sir Christopher Lee: at age 85, however, his contribution is restricted to one very brief exchange towards the beginning of the picture! Not that the rest of the name actors get to shine much, apart from slinky villainess Nicole Kidman (whereas ostensible leading man Daniel Craig barely registers, despite the prominence given him on the posters!). Though Sir Ian McKellen's unmistakable vocal rendition of a heroic polar bear is typically commanding, others like Sam Elliott's incongruous cowboy routine and Eva Green's surprisingly benign witch come across as eccentric while boasting little substance (read: apparent purpose) to the uninitiated. In fact, the real protagonist proves to be a child actress - who does reasonably well under the circumstances - but, as I said, she is defeated by the plot never standing a chance because it is kept so much in the background (the over-abundance of such colourful high-falutin' terms as "Magisterium", "Daemons" and "Gobblers" notwithstanding)...