Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) Review

The movie before the show.

The film starts out with the Jedi preparing to stop a droid army from taking over the city. The clones are working with them, and they attempt to do a stealth strike on the droids, but they were ambushed and forced to retreat.

They couldn’t call for reinforcements at the time because the enemy was jamming their signal and they were left with the troops remaining.

One new character, Ahsoka, was snuck in past the blockade to aid the jedi. She was tasked as Anakin’s padawan learner like Anakin was Obi Wan’s. He did not want to train someone, but together they took down a shield the droids were protecting, and saved the city.

The rest of the film is a search and rescue. A crime lord’s son was kidnapped, and the jedi go searching for him to get in good favor and be able to travel in their territory freely.

Jabba’s son was taken by the leader of the droid army, in an attempt to frame the jedi from kidnapping him when they rescue him, and turn them into an enemy of Jabba. The deception fails though, and it is revealed that Jabba’s weird uncle was the one who aided in the kidnapping.

He’s kinda a weird dude, and seems like the only one of his species that speaks English. Padmé find him living in the lower levels of Corusant and gets him arrested and confesses to Jabba the truth about the kidnapping.

The jedi are free to travel in their part of space, and Anakin and Ahsoka share a new bond over this adventure.

Movie Thoughts

I think that this movie was actually kind of slow and boring. It also seems to be two different stories in one because the first 30 or so minutes were about the raid on the city with Ahsoka, and the rest of the plot had nothing to do with that planet, and focused on Jabba’s kid. This was a decent introduction to this era in Star Wars, though. It introduced Ahsoka, the clones, and was an introduction into the war between the jedi and the droids. I think this was a television movie when it was released, and was not in theaters, so it makes sense it feels like multiple television episodes.

The next thing I am watching in this timeline is the Clone Wars tv show which came just after this film, and when I get through that I think it will be a good complete story between the movie and tv show.

Baby Jabba

So far in the movies, we didn’t even know Jabba had a son. We only saw Jabba briefly in Episode I when he was hosting a podrace event. Jabba’s son is just a ball-shaped slug and kind of gross looking.

Jabba having a son could imply a lot of future content with him as the new boss. Baby Jabba could even get his own spinoff show learning how to take charge and become a mobster.

I’m going to finish this Clone Wars movie review with a series of baby characters across multiple franchises. Please let me know in the comments who would win in a fight.