Clone Wars Press Screening

The 501st Carolina Garrison was asked by Warner Brothers to supply some characters for a Charlotte, NC, press screening of Star Wars: The Clone Wars on Monday, August 11th, at Regal Phillips Place Stadium 10. Ironically, I didn't see anyone who really looked like press, but, as an extreme anti-bootlegging measure, WB supplied three very intimidating bodyguard types who wanded everyone entering theater number 8.



The small crowd seemed to enjoy the Clone Wars-era characters as they mingled with guests, but R2-KT was the real star of the evening as she gleefully accepted hugs from kids of all ages.


Now the meat of this post...my review of The Clone Wars.

(SPOILER ALERT!)

Likes: Nicely colored and textured marionette-like "Thunderbirds" style animation, some new Clone types, reasonable derivative design elements (as opposed to all new droids, ships or objects that don't look "Star Wars"), vintage newsreel-style introduction vs. the "opening crawl" that we're used to seeing, realistic ambient lighting from lightsabers (jeesh, did we have to wait until an animated film to get it right?), parts of the musical score, R2-KT guest appearance in the film

Dislikes: Battle Droid antics, Rotta the Huttlet (really?), Ziro the Hutt (seriously?) , no mention of the 501st Legion by name (although mentioned in the Karen Traviss novelization and on related toy packaging)

I can't really tag this blog entry as a "tour of duty" but it was a fun evening hanging out with the Carolina troops in and out of costume, and I got to operate R2-KT once again. I was talked into helping load her back into her chauffeur's vehicle after the screening, and that pink astromech really needs to lose some weight! Thanks to Cockroach for the photos.