A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away......

• 20Aug 08

  Movie Review - Star Wars: The Clone Wars

  

  Star Wars: The Clone Wars is the latest entry in the continuous saga involving the Star Wars universe. Though this entry is not an actual new movie rather an animated primer that sets up the television series that will debut on the Cartoon Network this October. The events in this new series is suppose to take place between "Attack of the Clones" and "Revenge of the Sith". The first thing I noticed when the movie started was the absence of the famous words scrolling up the screen which precedes in every Star Wars movie detailing the story up to that point. It was then when I thought to myself that this may be no longer the Star Wars that I fondly remembered. Most of the characters in Clone Wars are familar to fans and there are a couple of new characters that are introduce. One such main character is a Togruta Jedi Knight named Ahsoka Tano the newly appointed Padawan to an reluctant Anakin Skywalker. The creation of this character in my opinion was clearly meant to drawn in the more younger fans. She and Anakin butt heads throughout most of the movie and she even refers to him during the movie as "Sky-Guy" and in return he calls her "Snips" which after a while was beginning to get on my nerves. It will be real interesting to see how her character progresses in the television series especially since there is no mention of her in Revenge of the Sith.

  The story basically involves the kidnapping plot of space gangster Jabba the Hutt's son "Stinky", nicknamed courtesy of Ahsoka, and the quest in rescuing him and returning him back home to Tatooine. Jabba the Hut son is kidnapped by Count Dooku in a ploy to convince Jabba to provide access to routes for the Driod's army to the war that is going on in the Outer Rim, the same routes that the Jedi Council are trying to obtain for the Republic's own armies. Ahsoka and Anakin are sent to Teth to rescue Jabba's son and once there they encounter the kidnapper Asajj Ventress, Count Dooku's apprentice,and her driod accomplicces.

  There are plenty of action sequences that will satisfy most Star Wars fans that includes a couple of mandatory lightsaber duels and the 3-D animation is top notch. None of the characters are voiced by the actors that portrayed them in the movies but they did sure did a great job in getting voice talent that sounds practically identical to the original characters. We even get a chance to meet Jabba the Hutt's Uncle Ziro which happens to be a southern sounding Hutt with the voice of Truman Capote. There are some moments of humor which mostly is provided by the droids unfortunately. It very hard for me to recommend this movie to anybody who is not in-tune with the Star Wars universe. This is one of those movie that will be mostly appreciated by the die-hards only. As for myself I enjoyed this movie and look forward to the upcoming Cartoon Network series. May the force be with you!

  • Posted Aug 20, 2008 5:06 pm GMT
  • Category: Movies
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• 20Aug 08

  Meet Yoda The Four Eared Cat!

  

  Shhhhh....be very quiet he can even hear your thoughts!

  • Posted Aug 20, 2008 4:50 pm GMT
  • Category: Pets and Animals
  • 1 Comment
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• 1Aug 08

  The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor is One Mummy That Should Stay Under Wraps!

  This is the third Mummy movie and it should be buried in a tomb and hopefully no one will uncover it again in my lifetime.

  I highly enjoyed The Mummy and The Mummy Returns, so I had some high expectations for the next Mummy and boy did it disappoint. Brendan Fraser returns as Rick O'Connell and is join by Maria Bello playing his wife Evelyn a role that was played by Rachel Weisz in the first two installments. They are also joined by Luke Ford playing their grown-up son Alex and John Hannah reprising his role as Evelyn's brother Jonathan.

  The story takes place in 1946 and involves the resurrection of the newest mummy threat, the evill Han Emperor played by Jet Li. The beginning of the film we see in flashback how Han conquers China and shortly after builds the Great Wall of China, burying the dead of those he had conquered underneath the wall. We also discover his attempt at immortality by enlisting the aid of a witch played by Michelle Yeoh. But instead of performing a spell that will make me live forever, she curses him to spend an eternity in clay. Fast forward to 1946 and that's when a Chinese army general decided to free him to once again conquer China and its up to the O'Connells family along with the witch's 2,000 year old daughter to put a stop to Han's attempt of gaining immortality once again.

  Here's what I thought was wrong with the movie. First the performances by the actors seem to be mailed in. I never seen lifeless acting running rampant in any other movie that I have seen in the past. The actors seem bored with the material and even at times their acting came off as forced just to justify collecting a paycheck for this movie. It didn't help much that the dialog in the movie was just horrendous. Several scenes where humor was attempted instead came off being brutal. Secondly the movie several actions sequences just fell flat. It was as if the action sequences were there just to fill out this listless movie which runs at almost two hours.

  As I sat there I couldn't help feeling like I was watching a poor man's Indiana Jones but in this case it was more like Indiana Jones on welfare. I say skip this flick and wait for it to come out on network television sometime in the next two years. At least then you can change the channel.

  • Posted Aug 1, 2008 6:44 pm GMT
  • Category: Movies
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