The 2008 Star Wars: The Clone Wars movie is currently Star Wars‘ lowest-rated movie according to Rotten Tomatoes, yet it deserves so much better. Although the Star Wars: The Clone Wars TV show is much better known, and is actually considered by many to be one of Star Wars’ best TV shows, the movie came first.
Unfortunately, the love that the Clone Wars show has earned seemingly doesn’t translate to the movie, even in retrospect. The Clone Wars movie’s current critic score is a dismal 18% on Rotten Tomatoes. The audience score is slightly better, but still not great, at 41%. By comparison, the show has a 93% critic score and 91% audience score.
I’m certainly not saying The Clone Wars is Star Wars’ greatest movie of all time, nor is it even close to the quality of Star Wars’ best movies, such as The Empire Strikes Back or Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge. However, there are several reasons why The Clone Wars movie deserves better than its current reputation and rating.
There’s One Simple Reason Critics Don’t Like The Clone Wars Movie
While neither the critic score nor the audience score for The Clone Wars movie is strong on Rotten Tomatoes, the critic score being so much lower suggests what’s really at the root of this issue: The Clone Wars movie has a very specific target audience, and it isn’t congruent with Rotten Tomatoes critics.
Rather, The Clone Wars movie, more than perhaps most other Star Wars shows and movies, is truly targeted to children. It’s true that Star Wars has always been ‘for children,’ and George Lucas himself has said so repeatedly, for decades. Yet, ‘for children’ doesn’t necessarily mean ‘and not adults.’
Movies like The Empire Strikes Back and Revenge of the Sith are in fact solid examples of that difference. Yes, those movies are beloved by young viewers, but adults continue to love those movies too, no matter how old they get. The same is not true of The Clone Wars movie.
Even The Clone Wars show offers older audiences a nuanced plot, thrilling moments, and dynamic characters, all of which keeps them engaged despite the show being ‘for kids.’ For better or worse, The Clone Wars movie just doesn’t have that same universal appeal—but that doesn’t mean it’s an awful movie.
On the contrary, The Clone Wars movie deserves significantly more credit, even for adult audiences. For one, this movie is an essential addition to the Star Wars timeline, and to Anakin Skywalker’s Star Wars timeline in particular, for myriad reasons, not the least of which is the introduction of Ahsoka Tano as Anakin’s Padawan.
This relationship becomes a defining step in Anakin’s fall to the dark side, and it ends up explaining his character so much more. Beyond that, Star Wars seems primed to make this movie even more important with the upcoming return of one surprising character who debuted in The Clone Wars movie (and, no, it isn’t Ahsoka).
The Clone Wars Movie Has A Lasting Legacy (All The Way Up To The Next Star Wars Movie)
The Clone Wars movie introduced a rather unexpected character named Rotta, who was revealed to be the son of none other than Jabba the Hutt. We were introduced to Jabba in the original Star Wars trilogy, and he certainly didn’t seem like father material at the time. Yet, The Clone Wars movie confirmed that he had an infant son.
Even more shocking was the news that Rotta will return in The Mandalorian and Grogu, arguably the most highly anticipated of all upcoming Star Wars movies. What exactly his role in that movie will be remains to be seen, but it seems safe to assume that he will be continuing his father’s legacy in some capacity.
Nevertheless, this news certainly suggests that the Star Wars: The Clone Wars movie will be more important than ever, which will hopefully mean more recognition for the currently very poorly-rated Star Wars movie.
Star Wars: The Clone Wars
5/10
- Release Date
-
August 5, 2008
- Runtime
-
98 Minutes
- Writers
-
Scott Murphy, Steven Melching, Henry Gilroy
