"One of the longest and fiercest battles of the war", booms the voice-over as the episode starts and immediately I feel less optimistic about this episode. A new super-weapon, "the electron-proton bomb", is introduced and yet again it's name is a combination of actual Physics terms that makes no sense in the real world, but in the Star Wars universe it turns to be an Electro-Magnetic Pulse (EMP) weapon - handy, since it shuts droids down. But why did it take so long to develop such a weapon? The scientists in the Star Wars universe have come up with Hyperdrive and Lightsabers, but not such a basic weapon as an EMP device! Implausible. The fact that the pulse from the weapon spreads waaaaay too slowly (it's obviously because it *looks* more cool than a quick flash) makes me also cringe. Direlogue such as "We have counted for every probable outcome", followed by Mace Windu's baffling "It's the improbable, that concerns me", doesn't inspire confidence either. But then the weapon is deployed and things actually improve despite the fact that there has already been *a battle* (a must in almost every episode), which is then followed by *a rescue mission* (gee, now there is a fresh idea!).
The bomb unearths an underground "Zillo Beast", which means this episode can basically be summed as "Star Wars meets Godzilla" (although, for obvious association reasons, the beast bears more resemblance to the Cloverfield monster). And it actually works! Much like the Cloverfield monster, the beast is confused like a child, not malicious. "Innocent", as Mace points out. The following discussion about the Jedi Code is kept short and natural. Even better, in the discussion between Palpatine, Windu, Anakin and that annoying padawan of his, characters for once at least, make reasonable arguments and intelligent observations. And the finale, while predictable, feels right and sets things up for a follow-up episode quite nicely. Not bad, not bad. Now I just hope that the name of the next episode doesn't turn out to be a bad omen - referencing one of the top 10 movies of all time (see IMDb Top 250) carries a significant risk of the episode faring unfavorably in comparison to the legendary movie... 7/10 for this episode.
The bomb unearths an underground "Zillo Beast", which means this episode can basically be summed as "Star Wars meets Godzilla" (although, for obvious association reasons, the beast bears more resemblance to the Cloverfield monster). And it actually works! Much like the Cloverfield monster, the beast is confused like a child, not malicious. "Innocent", as Mace points out. The following discussion about the Jedi Code is kept short and natural. Even better, in the discussion between Palpatine, Windu, Anakin and that annoying padawan of his, characters for once at least, make reasonable arguments and intelligent observations. And the finale, while predictable, feels right and sets things up for a follow-up episode quite nicely. Not bad, not bad. Now I just hope that the name of the next episode doesn't turn out to be a bad omen - referencing one of the top 10 movies of all time (see IMDb Top 250) carries a significant risk of the episode faring unfavorably in comparison to the legendary movie... 7/10 for this episode.