Clunky Clone Wars

David Cox of The Guardian insightfully acknowledges the "biggest single influence on attitudes to war and peace during the last few decades" -- George Lucas' original Star Wars trilogy. But that's really just a warm-up to his takedown of Star Wars: The Clone Wars. Money quote: "The Star Wars prequel series was but an enfeebled shadow of the original trilogy. Nonetheless, Star Wars: The Clone Wars is far, far worse. The grungy realism that changed the coinage of celluloid sci-fi has disappeared; in its place, we are offered the flat gloss of a bad comic-book. Drained of wit, charm or intelligence, (un)animated avatars of what were once, figuratively as well as literally, flesh-and-blood characters drag their way through an opaque and tedious farrago, uttering lines that would disgrace a speak-your-weight machine. As such, they are incapable of inspiring anything in anyone." Ouch. (Hat-tip to Garth Jowett.)