Bounty Hunters begins with a dedication to director Akira Kurosawa, whose work has been an inspiration to the Star Wars universe since the very first film. This episode is an homage to one of his most well-known and imitated works, The Seven Samurai.Anakin, Ahsoka and Obi-Wan find themselves marooned in a remote area of Felucia, in the middle of a conflict between pirates, a local farming community, and some hired guns (the Bounty Hunters in question). Obi-Wan isn't eager to get too involved in the dispute, but when push comes to shove, and their old "friend" Honda Ohnaka shows himself; the Jedi partner with the Bounty Hunters to protect and train the less-than-imposing Felucians.
The episode itself is fun, light, and the action sequences especially stood out. The new Bounty Hunters we meet are Embo, Rumi Paramita, and Seripas. All three are welcome additions to the growing cast of the Clone Wars. Embo, especially, makes a smashing impression as a silent, Samurai inspired bad-ass.
Bounty Hunters did, though, feel a bit truncated. Some of that is simply knowledge of the source material. The Seven Samurai is a nearly four hour epic. At 22 minutes, a single Clone Wars episode can pack a lot of punch, and even show us the Cliff Notes of a classic, but there's not enough time to really feel the learning curve of the farmers or the hard-won camaraderie of our heroes. The Felucians go from terrified to bringing the full Ewok seemingly overnight. It's not that it's a bad story, it's just hard to make it believable in the time allotted.
Still, raise your hands if you wouldn't watch The Adventures of Embo?
*looks around the class*
That's what I thought.
Rating (out of five): *** 1/2
3 comments:
My problem with this episode was Hondo. Last time we saw him he was an honorable pirate who may steal and cheat, but always does so graciously. Here, he starts out nice enough, but then he does the whole invasion thing. When he pushed Anakin into the tank I was like, "come on Hondo, you're better than that!" Hopefully when he appears again in the season finale they'll get his character right.
I agree with the anon. Hondo was a gangster, almost like Jabba (but soooo nicer!) and yet in this episode, he was suddenly a ruthless pirate.
Confused? I think so.
Why only 3 1/s stars? It was better than that. It was a nice homage to Seven Samurai.
I also get the feeling Embo resembles Capt. America and Seripas resembles iron man. But the rest of the bounty hunter group don't scream out I'm an avenger too.
Post a Comment