Saw a screening of the latest Star Wars film last night.

The quality of the animation is good, very good. It was obviously painstakingly done. The camera moves throughout the animated scenes in a way that lends some reality to what we are seeing. It feels like the quality of animation you get from CGI films but everything looks hand-drawn, which is kinda neat.

The voice actors are fine although it is a little bothersome that very few of the "real" voices could appear in this film. Samuel L Jackson, Christopher Lee, and Anthony Daniels are the only ones who voice their characters. I guess Hayden Christiansen is too big a star now



The storyline wraps in many familiar characters from the Star Wars films. Jaba the Hutt plays a very prominent role and Senator Amidala comes in to play late in the film. Mace Windo, the chancellor, and Yoda have small parts. Anakin, Obi Won, and Count Duku are the main players along with a couple new female characters who are new to Star Wars mythology. I found the new characters somewhat annoying though. I was bummed that there was none of General Grievous in this film. He played a very prominent role in the original Clone Wars animated TV series and I had hoped he would be involved in this as well.

The plot itself is very simple and felt like it may have been aimed at 7-10 year olds. There was lots of action/battle sequences but they were so big in scope that I did not get a sense of what was going on or who was fighting. The battle scenes largely involved clone warriors or droids meaning that no one cares if anyone dies. Yawn. I found that the action scenes went on too long and rarely led us to anything important in the plot.

I think it will do fine with kids, though my kids (boys 9 and 11) were just so-so on it. Star Wars die-hard fans will likely be disappointed, as I was. There just is not enough meat on the bones here to keep your interest. Lots of "stuff" happens but none of it feels like it matters. The attempts at humor (mostly involving a senior member of the Hutt clan or driods talking to each other) largely fell flat to me and took me out of the drama of the action and the story... though there was not very much drama there in the first place.

The real pity is that there were some elements of the story and characters that could have been really fun to explore. Count Duku's new assistant could be a very compelling bad guy. The story centers on a plan by Duku to get the Hutt to hate the Jedi which could have been a lot more compelling. Oh well.

The Star Wars magic is probably over for me. This film bored me and I almost fell asleep a couple times. I had expected to enjoy it and then dive into the Clone Wars TV series. Now, I am not so sure.

--Jason "gotta run now, seeing Tropic Thunder tonight" Evans