Star Wars: The Clone Wars – Final Season Review
Disney+ has certainly been offering Star Wars fans a wide variety of content since its launch with all the episodic films available to stream and introducing everyone to Baby Yoda in the television series The Madalorian. But what is arguably their best offering to fans is giving them the seventh and final season to Star Wars: The Clone Wars after a nearly six year absence to finally wrap up the award winning series. But do the final episodes give a satisfying conclusion or do they fall short to the dark side?
The season is made up of three story arcs. The first follows Captain Rex (Dee Bradley Baker) and Anakin Skywalker (Matt Lanter) as they team up with a group of experimented clone troopers called The Bad Batch on a secret mission. The second focuses on Ahsoka Tano (Ashley Eckstein) after she leaves the Jedi Order and unexpectedly aids sisters Trace and Rafa Martez (Brigitte Kali and Elizabeth Rodriguez) on an assignment. And finally, the third one takes place on Mandalore as Ahsoka and Captain Rex reunite to take down Darth Maul (Sam Witwer) once again.
The first and third arcs are by far the strongest with both storylines giving Rex and the Jedi characters emotional depth and conflict that has made the show such a dramatic and action packed series, especially with its connections to the events in Revenge of the Sith. Unfortunately, the same can’t quite be said for the second arc and this is mainly due to the new sisters introduced. It’s great to see some new faces in a show that is filled to the brim with recognisable and compelling characters, but unlike the new clone troopers introduced in the earlier episodes, they don’t resonate so well with the overall plot nor do they have compelling chemistry with the main characters involved. The show has always given their characters time to grow and develop to make them stand out from everyone else, but we just don’t get that throughout this particular storyline despite the good performances from the actors.
Despite the bumps in the narrative, the rest of the production can’t be questioned.
The animation is simply one of the best out there and flawlessly returns to its signature look and colour palette. From the character animations to every detail in the ships to the gorgeous backgrounds, Lucasfilms certainly gave it their all to give fans moments that will be remembered and cherished alongside the best episodes from the previous seasons for years to come. Even one fight scene between Ahsoka and Darth Maul is just a piece of art with motion capture performed by Ray Park (the on-screen Darth Maul from The Phantom Menace and Solo: A Star Wars Story), detailed effects flying across the screen, sweeping camera movements and lighting to create such drastic tension. It’s simply worth investing in The Clone Wars for this scene alone and the team should be proud of this and many other moments throughout.
There’s just so much work involved throughout the production that paid off in splendid fashion: Kevin Kiner returned to compose some of the most dramatic music heard for some time on a television series; the directors were able to recreate the show’s drama and action with some new visuals; and all the actors gave it their best to conclude their characters’ arcs. This is easily one of the finest pieces of animation that you are going to see on Disney+ for some time.
Whether you’re a long-time fan of the show or a fan of the franchise, the seventh and final season of Star Wars: The Clone Wars delivers! Despite the season’s less polished episodes, it is still able to offer a brilliantly satisfying conclusion to a show over ten years in the making.