I finally got around to seeing it and I enjoyed it well enough. It's not great, but it's a serviceable story as a lead in to a TV show.
I was expecting Ahsoka to be Jar Jar annoying after some descriptions of her but she actually came off as a fairly decent character and a pretty genuine depiction of a young teen's desire for independence and respect from their elders (albeit with Force powers). There were a couple of slightly annoying comments, but nothing too egregious.
Despite dealing with the crutch of having main characters we know won't die, they did a fairly good job at creating concern for the secondary characters. I genuinely wanted to see Rex survive when he was put in peril (and liked how Anakin was upset that he couldn't assist him - very nice characterization there), and while it was obvious Ahsoka will survive for a while at least, I too was concerned for her character (as was my daughter, especially, since I think she relates with her character).
I liked the relationship between Anakin and Ahsoka and how it started off in the cliche way you would expect with him rejecting the idea of having a Padawan outright and chastising her repeatedly but soon developed into a grudging respect and playful competitiveness. Anakin has learned from Obi-Wan and altered his methods accordingly while having his own style of mentoring at the same time.
I thought the battles were fairly exciting and creative if not a further example of Jedi tactical stupidity. Why not simply land on top of the large vertical pillar of death where your destination is instead of letting the enemy rain fire down upon you as you climb? It's not like there were that many droids on top and they could have easily been picked off with the dropship guns. Likewise, why didn't they simply move the artillary cannons inside the Seperatist shield and commence firing from inside it? Why not have Clonetroopers up in those nigh invincible buildings raining fire down on the droids instead of engaging them at ground level?
But I guess you can't expect much tactically speaking from a group of monks who once thought moving into a tight group in the very center of a stadium surrounded by battledroids, hostile aliens, bounty hunters, and giant maneating creatures was a good idea.
The Capote the Hutt sequence seemed completely superfluous to the story except as a way to pointlessly feature Padme.
It wasn't terribly impressive, but I was reasonably entertained and it held my interest enough to see the show (which will hopefully be better). I'd give it a "B-" grade.
I was expecting Ahsoka to be Jar Jar annoying after some descriptions of her but she actually came off as a fairly decent character and a pretty genuine depiction of a young teen's desire for independence and respect from their elders (albeit with Force powers). There were a couple of slightly annoying comments, but nothing too egregious.
Despite dealing with the crutch of having main characters we know won't die, they did a fairly good job at creating concern for the secondary characters. I genuinely wanted to see Rex survive when he was put in peril (and liked how Anakin was upset that he couldn't assist him - very nice characterization there), and while it was obvious Ahsoka will survive for a while at least, I too was concerned for her character (as was my daughter, especially, since I think she relates with her character).
I liked the relationship between Anakin and Ahsoka and how it started off in the cliche way you would expect with him rejecting the idea of having a Padawan outright and chastising her repeatedly but soon developed into a grudging respect and playful competitiveness. Anakin has learned from Obi-Wan and altered his methods accordingly while having his own style of mentoring at the same time.
I thought the battles were fairly exciting and creative if not a further example of Jedi tactical stupidity. Why not simply land on top of the large vertical pillar of death where your destination is instead of letting the enemy rain fire down upon you as you climb? It's not like there were that many droids on top and they could have easily been picked off with the dropship guns. Likewise, why didn't they simply move the artillary cannons inside the Seperatist shield and commence firing from inside it? Why not have Clonetroopers up in those nigh invincible buildings raining fire down on the droids instead of engaging them at ground level?
But I guess you can't expect much tactically speaking from a group of monks who once thought moving into a tight group in the very center of a stadium surrounded by battledroids, hostile aliens, bounty hunters, and giant maneating creatures was a good idea.
The Capote the Hutt sequence seemed completely superfluous to the story except as a way to pointlessly feature Padme.
It wasn't terribly impressive, but I was reasonably entertained and it held my interest enough to see the show (which will hopefully be better). I'd give it a "B-" grade.
