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The downward spiral of the Star Wars series seemed to recover somewhat with episode three. Still not that great, but not a complete suckfest. However, the latest movie had disappointment written all over it.

I’m not spending money to be disappointed– I do that at the pump all too often.

Thing is: that ’77 phenomenon was just SOOO good. Even the movie that followed was amazing–in spite of its slow, cerebral pace.

Return of the Jedi…you know, it had some let downs, but hey! Still fun and nicely done.

Episodes one through three weren’t that good. Like a 50-year-old stripper, they’re eye catching, but not wisely inspected for flawlessness.

And here Lucas is — at the bottom of the rabbit hole — trying to dig a way out, instead of enjoying a little substance abuse.

That’s how I view their Clone Wars cartoon series (Cartoon Network). It breaks new ground, by examining parts of the story, but never gets into what’s behind the people. It’s what I like to call poor story telling.

Because when it comes down to it, they’re just rehashing old ideas badly and not really building towards the larger storyline. Just clawing at the surface concepts, which really just cave in on them.

We’re back to the bold, brash Jedi! Well, it’s the little girl, though.

Anakin, the same guy who becomes Darth Vader, is now the teacher. And HE’S teaching HER how to be good. Sounds like a great set up, right? But no. He’s consistent about it. He always seems to be paying attention to exactly what a Jedi should pay attention to. He’s more consistent than the other guys.

It adds to the poorly done back-story explaining why Anakin becomes bad. If he’s nicer, and has more charity in his spirit than Obi-wan, then how DOES he become bad?

Anakin hides a marriage between himself and another character. Neat idea. Lots of secrecy, right? No. It’s supposed to be a well-kept secret. However, he keeps calling her by pet names…in front of his fellow Jedi. Who wouldn’t catch on?

All the other Jedi characters (excluding Yoda) are so inconsistent, it’s absurd. Dialogues only reflect the situation and/or next plot point, not supporting character development.

For example, when the crux of the episode is about learning to stay calm, you can bet that some random Jedi master will NOT be calm. He or she will tell someone else to be calm. Then do something completely freaky or collude in the craziness, which makes them seem whiney.

It’s weird. There’s nothing healthy to be learned from it all.

It takes away from the fragile plots of episodes 2 and 3. And again, it can be visually appealing. However, it’s just not satisfying.

It’s all up on Cartoon Network, so I breezed through it. Free. I’ll do it for free. And at my leisure.

I’d say four of the ten were great. Can’t look at them too closely, but they told a good story. That story falls apart in the larger picture…but hey. They were likeable and visually fun.

The other six? Not so much. Two of which, were painful.

All the tongue-in-cheek stuff is just too much for me. Those little ‘droids making off the cuff remarks about their bad situations, poor programming, and fear of the Jedi: it doesn’t make sense. It has humor in it. But because it doesn’t make sense, it fails to be funny.

I really could go on, but why.

It seems more like Lucas is just tinkering away. It’s something artists are wont to do. Taking apart their masterpieces, because they HAVE to make them perfect.

Again, that’s how it seems to me.

It’s hard to tell what’s really going on. Not just in the overall story arc. But, you know…

Do they HAVE to make these bad, in order to lower expectations of the final part of the trilogy? Is Lucas so visual that he doesn’t get the contextual flaws? Do they have a Hasbro/Transformers like zeal to keep interest up to sell product–so much so, that the stories become Kafkaesque?

Thank goodness they’re not as bad as the Hasbro/Transformer thing. That franchise is so jacked up it’s crazy.

Star Wars is not that bad. Not yet.

Cartoons are already in the mix, anyway. They’ve actually had several. It seems like none have tried so hard to relate to EXACTLY what the Jedi are all about.

So the stories were inconsequential adventures for less important characters. However, they were beloved. We didn’t want anything bad happening to them.

Does anyone really feel that much for Anakin? Jarjar? Exactly.

Oh well . . . still, check it out for yourself at: http://www.cartoonnetwork.com/tv_shows/starwars/index.html?episodeID=0.