Begun, For The Third Time, The Clone War Has

Well, fall is in the air, after about ten hours (none of them consecutive) of summer in this part of the world, and this means a crappier streak of films will begin to trickle in and out of theatres. Which is why I'll skip thru the crisp fall air to see Vicky Christina Barcelona today and call the summer season over and done with.
I don't imagine Woody Allen's latest will reek of the August Release, however, as much as Star Wars: The Clone Wars did, which I lollygagged into last night. I'm sure it's not news to anyone that this isn't exactly a masterpiece; what bemuses me are all the reviews which seemed to expect it to be a quality release from Lucasfilm rather than three episodes of a cartoon series cobbled together in order to promote its fall premiere.
I expected as much, and sat through this with the same half-engaged attention span that I had for the old Droids Saturday morning cartoon (not for me was Ewoks, its companion series). It ain't your father's Star Wars, as a guy in front of me felt compelled to explain to his utterly confounded girlfriend during the closing credits. Sure, I recognized all the characters and tweaked-out robots and technology from the prequel trilogy, but was also resigned to the fact that this is what Star Wars has become for kids today. I must say that when I was a kid, I did wonder exactly where the 'wars' were... I guess my answer lies here, as roughly 60% of this consisted of hundreds of little raindrop laser beams being deflected by two lightsabers as battle droids advanced methodically through a variety of landscapes. I would imagine the 'plot' of this film demonstrates a rough formula for the series to follow- Some Jedi get a standing order to do something or other in Palpatine's office, they go do it, then stand in a victorious line, and then we swipe to credits. But I'll only have to guess- I won't be watching. I'll only be recalling how the Ziro the Hutt character sounded and kind of looked just like Eric Cartman and going "oh, right- I'm thirty-four years old- maybe I'll watch South Park this week instead so I actually have something to talk about with my Media Professor Friends."