Star Wars: The Clone Wars - Episode III: Children of the Force

As with previous reviews this is so far the best of Smudgers Clone Wars edits.
The video and audio editing are flawless, and it is incredibly enjoyable.

The only reason why I rate this slightly lower than a perfect score is because of the overarching narrative. Yes, the story flows perfectly fine. Yes, I understand that it is difficult if not impossible to create a movie story from a TV show. And yes, I still found it enjoyable. However, in reviewing this film I find there to be a lack of an overall plot, the first half is the Ryloth arc, and the second half is the Bane Holocron arc, but the movie itself doesn't have an overarching goal or theme.

To express my point I recognise Smudgers two previous films.
Army of the Republic was very much themed around the army of the republic (obviously) as it started and ended with the same group of clone troopers brought together as the story progressed (Fives and Echo on Kamino, and Rex with Anakin on Chrisophsis. Both meet up in the climax).
With A New Threat it was focused on introducing new threats to the republic such as; the malevolence and Grievous' growing strength, boba's crew, and a betrayed guard at the start
(although this did make the movie feel too diverse with villains).
However, with Children of the Force an overall theme is lost and the movie becomes very much copy and paste of two or three episode arcs.
By the end of the movie with the Children Rescue climax I felt as though the entire Ryloth first half was pointless as it had nothing to do with the ultimate plot and climax, instead it meerly served as filler to the time period of this movie and felt as though the movie needed a battle and a beginning so it was put in.

I know I am looking at this way too in depth and am being really critical, but I still give it a 10/10 enjoyment. I only bring this up as one of Smudger's intentions is to create a classical Star Wars structure which I feel is especially lacking from this movie. Ultimately I hope this issue is addressed with future edits as I am really enjoying these movies. Unfortunately right now it feels very much like a copy paste work of different and unlinked stories with fancy editing to tie them together.

If you haven't seen the clone wars TV series, or are looking at rewatching them, these edits are amazing and are an excellent alternative to the childrens show.



Additional. I don't know if its because Smudger is trying to fill in as much 'no kiddy' parts of the show he can into these movies, but it does feel a little long and as almost every scene is some kind of action sequence it can feel tiring. For example, I liked how the hostage rescue was cleverly edited into the holocron heist, but it seems unecessary as it didn't contribute towards the heist and seemed to only serve as extra Bane time (although I am all for developing Anakin and Padmes relationship which I consider to be important).



Overall, 9.8/10. Can't wait for the next one!

Star Wars: The Clone Wars tells a universal story of war between good and evil, and in that turmoil the daunting challenge to not become that-which-you-fight in Anakin's efforts to stop the Dark Side. A scope that cries out for feature-length presentation on the big-screen.

The storytelling gap between Star Wars Episodes II and III is big enough to fly a Star Destroyer through, the Corellian type. Clone Wars fills that gap.

Smudger9's selection of story-arcs remains outstanding. These are the gems of the series, even if they aren't always easy to integrate. It might be easier to integrate one or two filler stories with one strong story, but then Smudger9 would be making Clone Wars movies for many years. So thumbs up for sticking with the most important narrative, even if that means storylines in an edit can feel like twin suns vying equally for attention.

If you haven't the time to watch the feature film plus 6 seasons, settle in with Smudger9's movies instead.
If you want to find out why (and how) the clones turned on the Jedi, insert these Clone War stories in your Star Wars movie line-up.
If you enjoy animated Star Wars and are sad that Rebels is ending, watch Smudger9's Clone Wars.

Smudger's Clone Wars fanedits are probably the most enjoyable fanedits all around I've seen so far. I've watched the first two parts and this 3rd part continues strong. However I don't personally think it's as good as the first two are.

The first part (Ryloth) is nearly perfect. I've always enjoyed the grand battles in Clone Wars and it's amazing how well they're done. Pacing, dialogue and the edit overall is very good. However after the strong start the Bane story starts to cut in and takes over for the latter part of the fanedit. The story is good, Bane is a great character and all but I felt exhausted towards the end. I feel the Bane story could have worked better as a separate fanedit or at least needed a bit of trimming.

Smudger has been doing good job editing out childish/stupid dialogue and character and the trend continues strong in this one as well. However there are some lines I personally would have edited out. For example at 00:08:02 when the admiral says "It's too late" and Anakin yells "Run for iiit!". The latter part feels a bit too childish for me. But then again the whole Clone Wars has full of those upbeat liners :)

There are some very small nitpicks about the video and audio. The scene transitions were quite good in this one. Only once or twice I felt the image cut too fast or in the wrong time. HD video quality and file size are great. So often the HD fanedits are too low in quality.

The audio somehow seems to lag a bit in the .m4v version at least, some ~100ms to be more precise. It's the same in the previous fanedits too. It may not be the same for everyone as people have different video players. It's all ok though as I'm used to shift the audio in my player. This really is a very small nitpick as it's barely noticeable.

Overall I'm very happy of smudger9's Clone Wars fanedits. They are so good and I wish that all Star Wars fans who didn't like Clone Wars initially could see these. They really make already a great series even better.


In a nutshell Episode III: Children of the Force was a lot of fun but a bit overwhelming experience due to its length and extensive Bane story arc.

Another great edit from Smudger. The visual and audio edits were all top-notch with a few noticeable but not distracting line replacements. I felt that this edit ran a little too long and could have used some more trimming, especially in the opening Ryloth scenes. The attempt to tie Hostage Crisis and Holocron Heist together felt to me a bit forced and very disjointed. Especially the scene where Orn Free Taa was sent away to do seemingly nothing. But these are minor gripes, overall I enjoyed this edit and am very much looking forward to his next instalment.