George Lucas has turned to the Dark side, he has

STAR WARS: THE CLONE WARS (2008)

Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

Many have accused George Lucas of directing his actors to deliver wooden performances in the "Star Wars" prequels. Nothing could be closer to the truth than in the animated "Star Wars: The Clone Wars," which not only contains wooden performances but animated figures who seemed to have been carved out of wood.

Sandwiched in between "Star Wars: Episode II" and "Episode III," this Star Wars adventure finds Anakin Skywalker training a smart Padawan pupil named Ahsoka Tano while his mentor, Obi-Wan Kenobi, continues helping the Rebellion fight the Separatists. Meanwhile, the slimy old Jabba the Hutt is tricked by Jedi Master Count Dooku and others to join the Separatists while trying to find his baby son, a slimy little version of Jabba himself. Anakin and Ahsoka are asked to help rescue Jabba's son since Master Yoda hopes that forging an alliance with the giant slimy weasel will help protect Jabba's trade routes or some such thing (we can thank the prequels for dwelling on political mumbo-jumbo). Unfortunately, since Jabba is tricked by the Dark Siths into believing that the Jedi kidnapped Jabba Jr., a war involving thousands of dumb droids and clone troopers escalates. Oh, are the droids ever so dumb. I did like one moment where a droid is thrown from a cliff and it screams, "Whyyyyyyyyyy?"

This is the first "Star Wars" flick I've seen that is boring. B-O-R-I-N-G. There is no real exposition - the narrative is framed by one lightsaber battle and laser blast sequence after another. Simple platitudes are exchanged and then it is off to war. Baby Jabba is missing and sliding away, followed by another battle. The action sequences are well-done and well-staged but there is no thrust to them because the characters are zilch in terms of personality or even the slimmest of shadings. Where is the slow simmering madness of Anakin? Here, he is just some annoying twentysomething who doesn't even know Ahsoka might be flirting with him. Master Kenobi is the same old, same old but by animating him without any real expression (like all the other characters), one misses the live-action performance of Ewan McGregor. Only Ahsoka Tano has humor and some measure of a dimension beyond looking or appearing stoic. The rest of these characters look like blank automatons from "Final Fantasy", and they are saddled with dialogue that seems to have been written on the back of a napkin and carved into a piece of wood. When Yoda appears to be a dim clone of his once sprightly self, it is clear that George Lucas is not even trying anymore.