Star Wars: The Clone Wars (TV Series) The Zillo Beast Strikes Back (2010) User Reviews

Unoriginal but still entertaining...

[kriskagie-14012 · 8/10 · 1 December 2020]

I feel like even though I saw many big beast vs a city movies I was left entertained and had fun from this episode.

It's literally a Godzilla movie but re-imagined for Star Wars and so as a fun of those types of movies I truly enjoyed this episode as I did the last one.

Predictable but well executed

[theoledoux · 8/10 · 9 January 2021]

Great music, especially towards the end of this episode. Story is predictable and has been done before but it is still well executed and entertaining to watch. I must say, personally, I don't really like the design of the Beast. I think it looks like a creature made of spaghetti, more than an actual tangible being. But oh well, I got over it quickly.

The Zillo Beast Strikes Back

[lassegalsgaard · 8/10 · 21 February 2021]

This was the episode was really brought all the ingredients. This was an homage to "King Kong," which sees the Zillo Beast in a foreign environment that it begins trashing out of frustration and fear, mixed in with a little hatred for Palpatine. I found this episode to be filled with great action and amazing cinematography. This is the real heart of this two-part story arc and it really uncovers some of Palpatine's shadier sides that we did not get to see a lot of in the prequels until "Revenge of the Sith." It felt ripe with political intrigue that was then fueled by a lot of intense and awesome action. I love the episodes that take the best ideas from the prequels and really make them great, so once again, I am so happy with what this show is giving us as fans.

Manic Monster Mayhem

[A_Kind_Of_CineMagic · 6/10 · 9 July 2020]

After decent previous episodes led to this story of a massive beast being brought to Coruscant this episode takes it a little too far for my liking.

The beast inevitably escapes and wreaks havoc after being briefly experimented on under orders from Palpatine. It is a continuation of the tribute to monster movies like Godzilla and King Kong from the previous episode and it takes it to a close match of when those movies set the monster loose in a big city. It is okay to pay tribute although this is a little too closely copied to feel very original. It is quite fun though.

My real issue here though is when the action goes a bit over the top and too much into cartoon silliness with C3P0 sliding down the senate roof before clinging to R2D2 and then falling hundreds of feet undamaged. R2 also flies with Palpatine on his back which just feels wrong haha. It all takes me out of the Star Wars universe and more into a feeling of watching a regular kids cartoon. I am not a fan of this series doing that kind of over the top stuff so those apects detract from it for me.

Some good themes are explored of ethical treatment of the unique life-form and there is fun to be had in between the over the top bits.

My rating: 5.5/10.

Curse of the Sequel Strikes?

[ttapola · 7/10 · 29 May 2010]

Okay, the first part was good (7/10), so how does the second part measure? The start is not promising: When the Zillo Beast is brought to Coruscant, a simple needle is shown to be able to penetrate the scales of the beast whereas in the previous episode Anakin's *lightsaber* couldn't cut the beast. Hello, Continuity Department, anyone awake? This is then followed by lots of talking as Dr. Boll explains that if they can synthesize material that has the properties of the scales of the beast, they can make armor for clone troopers out of the material. Boll says they need to remove the scales. Palpatine orders her to kill the beast since it is an easier solution. He concludes that hastening the discovery of the synthesizing process will help end the war faster, which means less casualties. Dr. Boll then claims that the beast is indestructible, even though it was stated in the previous episode that his people had successfully killed all the other Zillo Beasts in the past. Padme then tries to argue with Palpatine against killing the beast, to no avail. All this talking could have been portrayed in a though-provoking way, but here it is just falls flat.

Luckily the Zillo Beast then escapes (surprise, surprise). It is somehow able to zero in on Palpatine, and rampages to his location very Cloverfield-style - it even attacks their ship like the Cloverfield beast attacked the helicopter. What then follows is actually a quite thrilling battle sequence which also happens to have a genuinely emotional ending, a *rare* thing for this series indeed. The coda suggests that the story is not over yet, but the final reveal is not actually surprising anyone, is it? All in all, the second half redeems this episode, but thanks to several clichés and the non-sensical "indestructible but can be killed" part, this is still far from *excellent*. A little more logic and emotion in the first half would have fixed a lot. Now, "just" a solid 7/10.

Seriously,

[twentynine_cims · 4/10 · 3 June 2021]

You'd think at least one of the Jedi would have tried to 'reach out' to the obviously intelligent beast?

I hate this episode

[Katka-Boskova · 1/10 · 6 January 2021]

Too bad it wasn't Palpatine who paid the ultimate price.

Didn't like this one at all.

[draftdubya · 2/10 · 6 February 2019]

If the chancellor was so smart, why he didn't just use the beast as a biological weapon. Why even tell the Senate or bring it to your home world? Why even take a chance on losing you chancellorship, by taking a chance on the beast getting lose.

King Kong or Gozilla

[ZeTomes · 5/10 · 7 July 2012]

I would enjoy this episode if I hadn't seen King Kong or Godzilla, if I didn't notice that several episodes are pastiches of other classics as this one, if I hadn't confirmed that many episodes are what we call in Portuguese "encher (fill) chouriços (sort of sausage)", metaphorically meaning to fill something just for the appearances. As a 4 years old veteran fan of the original theatrical Star Wars, my heart was broke when the new episodes came to cinema, when noticing my imagination created from the missing links of the original story were filled as I said, as a "chouriço" with pastiches of other movies. It's not a Tarantino's recycling geniality, it's the inability of creating a strong plot in dedication to the genial original Star Wars storytelling what was missing from the original beautiful and old Greece mythological and Freudian story. It's the proof that imagination is lacking. How could it be, with so many years separating the 2 trilogies. Unacceptable. Perhaps for the young jedi fans it seems innovative, but for this old jedi the force isn't indeed with the cloak of the new special effects.

(update): For now, in general, I'm frankly surprised with the great quality of the third season

End all sympathy for every Star Wars

[hotelbaron · 1/10 · 21 January 2024]

Wow. It's as though some Star Wars' hater got hold of, and controlled, the script. A senseless destruction of a sentient being is carried out and just about every beloved character in the Star Wars universe is involved in way way or another. Not in a good way. To be fair, the extent to which each of our former heroes is responsible, varies. From direct and complicit involvement through to enabling and then to wilful ignorance and naïveté. Watching this episode equates, I imagine, to opening a door and, unexpectedly and unwillingly, seeing your parents naked and then realising you can't unsee it and that it will haunt you every day until you die.

If the intention was to get you to hate Darth Vader, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Padme Amidala, R2D2, C3PO and Yoda, then mission accomplished. Congratulations. In less than 30 minutes I now hate something I have loved for most of my life.