Episode 2.5 v. 2.0’s immiment release looms before us. A few items have already leaked, but most of the new merchandise drops a week from Saturday (or Friday if you plan on attending your local Midnight Madness), trailers have been in the theaters since May, there’s a spiffy new design for starwars.com, press attention is picking up, and early reviews of an episode of the television show are mostly positive. I’m thrilled with how the whole thing looks and I’m confident the show is being done with a great amount of care. This year’s Comic Con promises to be a CW fest. This is the most excitement we’ve had in SW fandom since 2005. Naturally I can’t wait to see the darn thing but I’m also trying to keep my expectations realistic.
For one thing, I do not expect ROTS-type numbers at the box office. This will not attract the kind of crowds a brand new live action SW movie would bring because even with the best animation, everyone knows it’s just not the same thing. While anticipation is growing, the level of hype and excitement doesn’t yet match what we’ve seen with new movies before or the Special Editions 11 years ago. There’s no one camped outside of theaters yet, is there? That said, I think the numbers will be better than what a lot of box office speculators will say. George Lucas recently said he expects the movie to rack in about $100 million, modest for a SW release. Keeping expectations low is a smart strategy. Always better to be pleasantly surprised than disappointed.
I’m also not expecting Darth Media and Darth Fanboy to magically change their opinions of the PT or Papa George because of CW. If they like CW, they’ll say it’s because other people made it (see, Lucas should’ve just handed the reigns over to someone else to make the PT and it would’ve rawked!) and Lucas’s involvement was minimal enough to not ruin it. If they hate CW, they’ll say it’s all Lucas’s fault and it’s another nail in the SW franchise’s coffin. Mark my words. Some of the early reviews seem to bear out my predictions.
Don’t expect it to win an Oscar in the animated film category either. Between “Kung Fu Panda” and “Wall-E,” it has a snowball’s chance in hell of even getting nominated much less a win no matter how good it may be.
It’s not fair to CW to consider it a seventh SW movie. It’s either a new way of weaving new canon or the greatest expanded universe undertaking yet (my thoughts on that are coming soon). The CW release is above all else an experiment in transitioning the telling of the SW saga from the movie theater to the t.v. set. It’s a promotional run to get people to watch the program when it debuts this fall. If it succeeds and I think it will, look for everyone and their dog to try the same thing.
Tags: Clone Wars
July 20, 2008 at 7:52 pm |
I absolutely agree with this. Clone Wars isn’t the 7th part of the SW saga; the saga is and always will be 6 films. This is a movie for the fans, to give them a little more Clone Wars goodness and keep all our favorite PT characters alive and swinging (literally) and to expand the story beyond the main characters.
I share your pessimism about the media as well. They seem to have a template they all crib off of whenever a Star Wars story comes down the pipeline. In the first or second sentence, it’s required to make some snide comment about the prequel trilogy. It’s utterly baffling. Especially since both Attack and (especially) Revenge were critically well-received.