‘Star Wars: The Clone Wars – Season 5’ Review
In its Emmy-award winning fifth season, the gripping Star Wars story moves closer to the grim events of Star Wars: Episode III: Revenge of the Sith and several major players face their destinies as the galaxy plunges into darkness. Planets are rocked by revolution, ancient Jedi secrets are explored, and Ahsoka Tano – the spirited Padawan so central to the series – faces a major crisis that will change her forever.
I was a late-comer to the Star Wars: The Clone Wars party – it wasn’t until the show had aired three entire series until I finally sat down to watch the first, and since then I’ve ploughed through four years of the show, the last in order to specifically watch this, the fifth and final, season. One thing that has always marked out the Clone Wars animated series for me is the wildly varying quality of stories within each season. Some episodes can rival the greatest sci-fi whilst others stoop to the most craptacular level of bad cartoon storytelling – all the while retaining the same great fantastic CG-animated “look”.
And the fifth season is no different…
Consisting, as in previous years, of a number of different story arcs, season five of Star Wars: The Clone Wars has more lows than highs – the arc featuring the Droids should have been relegated to a skit in one episode and rivals the risible 80s Droids cartoon for terrible plotting; whereas the arc featuring some young Jedi on a quest to acquire lightsaber crystals and the final story arc which brings the focus back to Ahsoka Tano she goes as on the run to prove her innocence after being framed for murder, sees some of the series best storytelling and more than makes up for the rest of the lacklustre season.
A disappointing end to an almost-great series, Star Wars: The Clone Wars – The Complete Season Five features all 20 episodes, two as director’s cuts never seen on TV, and a host of extras including behind-the-scenes bonus materials, cast and crew interviews, and deleted and alternate scenes.
Star Wars: The Clone Wars – The Complete Season Five is released on DVD and Blu-ray on October 14th.
