Review: Lego Star Wars Episode 3: “Attack of the Jedi”
Spoilers!
I do love the scrolling text at the beginning of the special, especially since they don’t take themselves seriously. The episode starts out with what seems like the end of the battle of Geonosis. And as with the one huge gripe I had with Chima, the Legos look like Legos! Everything looks like Legos! On Mustafar, Dooku is plotting out his next move. He thinks that it was a good idea to start a Sith Academy, going against anything said about the Sith, ever. I could be wrong, but it’s supposed to be a Master, and an Apprentice. The kids, known as Badawans, are doing nothing but causing trouble at the expense of Darth Maul. Commander Cody sees all of this, and radios back to Obi-Wan.
The delegates are trying to plan a party for winning the war, with the delegates from Planet Funk in tow as well. Obi-Wan tells Palpatine that the Sith base was found, and that the Empire can wipe them all out with a surprise attack. Palpatine makes it to his chambers, and calls Dooku. Poor Palpatine, he is so disgusted with the school, he is coming himself to check things out. The funniest thing so far is Palpatine’s lyrics to the Imperial March. He makes it to his ship, where Anakin, Obi-Wan and Yoda show up. Anakin and Obi-Wan hop aboard the Emperor’s ship. The kids at the Sith Academy are scared, because Darth Sidious is coming. Frustrated with his no-show, Dooku send Grievous out to find him and bring him back. Back in space, Palpatine is stuck in the ship with Anakin and Obi-Wan, when Grievous shows up. This prompts Anakin to take over, and flies off after him. Grievous loses them in the asteroid field, just for him to fly into hyperspace. Yoda forces them all to try and launch as well, only to speed right into an asteroid.
Yoda and everyone is buried in the wreckage, except for the kids. Palpatine is anxious to go back to Coruscant, so he volunteers to pilot the kids there, but to no avail. They make mention of a man who can help put all of the ships back together quickly. On the dreaded forest moon of Endor, everyone gets caught in a net looking for this guy. Turns out this guy is Jack, and he is not a Jedi or Sith, but a middle ground, grey force user. After denying Yoda, he says yes to one of the kids. They make it back to the wreckage, and Jack makes a super ship. Grievous checks in with Dooku, who tells him to get do Palpatine, because it devolved into “jungle-time sing along.” Palpatine was abke to hi-jack a ship, and is mistaken for a clone trooper by Grievous. Back at the asteroid, the big ship is ready to head off to Mustafar. Speaking of which, Palpatine makes it to the Academy, and shocks the hell out of one of the students. After about five seconds of fighting, it gets broken up by Akbar shooting them apart. Just as our heroes were about to meet their end, Jack shows up, and wrecks everyone, and part of a building. Back at Coruscant, everyone is having a funkadelic good time, dancing to Star Wars’s version of disco, except for Palpatine and Anakin.
This was supposed to be a super cute entry into the Star Wars universe. While it was funny and enjoyable at times, there were a couple things that stood out that made me cringe. For instance, there are only two types of Sith, master and apprentice. I know it’s a kids special and all, but if you’re trying to reel in the big Star Wars fan, that’s something you should adhere to. Also, for most of the story, the episode just dragged on, going nowhere. There were a couple times where I was sitting there, waiting for something important to happen, but it never did. For instance, why was it necessary for Palpatine to get to Mustafar the first time and again at Endor? The Ewoks and Endor were the main reason no one liked Return of the Jedi in the first place. Again, I get that you’re going for cute and funny, but going there did absolutely nothing to advance anything. You could have just as easily have Jack on Corusant or something. And for being one of the main characters, they sure screwed with Yoda. He is supposed to be the smartest people in the galaxy, and yet they just have him as a bumbling idiot sometimes.
However, there were some funny moments. Whenever Palpatine should have gotten caught as Sidious, and he panicked, I laughed rather hard. If you think about it, there’s no way that you couldn’t figure it out in the movies, and they play on that to the extreme in this special. The Planet Funk people were awesome, as well as their dancing scene at the end. Also, thank you for not making Anakin a focal character in this special. I understand that he’s Vader and all, but not everything needs to revolve around him. I can see on its surface that a lot was put into the specia, but as aired, there wasn’t a whole lot of substance.
