I watched Empire Strikes Back this weekend. I just wanted to. Sometimes that happens to me at three in the morning after a bottle of Saki. I still have whatever connection to those films that I had a kid, and a young college student who went to see the reissues a number of times. And the same person who bought the laserdisc box set when it first came out, and then only the two disc editions of the OT because they had the original cuts.

A couple years back I tried again with the PT, some time before the third film final sealed the deal. The first time I saw Attack of the Clones I thought someone had shit in my mouth. With a repeat viewing, the film played better on a widescreen TV than it did in the theater (partly due to some late stage tinkering by Lucas), and I grew to enjoy it ironically. But I had something of a soft spot for the slow but occasionally excellent The Phantom Menace. At least it had something. But by the time of Sith, after waiting and watching it, I knew that I would never watch nor care for anything PT again.

And yet Clone Wars was a theatrically released Star Wars film, and I am still a fan. And so I waited for the Blu-ray.

And you know what? It’s better than either of the Ewoks movies.

On the big screen the originally intended-for-TV narrative probably played a little cheaper than it does at home. But here, I was able to enjoy the film for it’s modest pleasures. Even in the PT series, there were great design elements, and the lighting design of the Star Wars films is still apparent here. There’s beautiful colors, and the CGI animation is good enough to enjoy.

The story involves people getting into fights every ten minutes. Sam Jackson shows up as Mace Windu, and then Anakin and Obi Wan are sent out to stop Count Dooku, and then Jabba’s son is stolen, and so Anakin is sent away and is to work with an apprentice. Fighting, a Sith apprentice, a gay Huttese modeled on Capote and more battling ensue. I’ve had this film on twice now, and other than the look and feel it’s left no impression. Perhaps because it’s four episodes of the TV show woven into a feature length film. The CGI look is good, and all that, but the story is between two episodes of real films, and nothing important is going to happen dramatically. It’s painless, but it’s for people who the sounds and looks are good enough.

And when it comes to the design of the PT, for me, that’s just not enough, not without a controller.

Warner Brothers presents the film in widescreen (2.35:1) and in 5.1 Dolby Digital and TrueHD. Extras on the disc include a video commentary with Director Dave Filoni, producer Catherine Winder, writer Henry Gilroy and editor Jason W.A. Tucker. Boring. “Star Wars: The Clone Wars - The Untold Stories” (25 min.) is basically a preview of the upcoming TV show, while “The Voices of Star Wars: The Clone Wars“ (10 min.) talks about the voice performers and shows Seth Green, who must have showed up as a favor. Composer Kevin Kiner gets his moment to shine when he talks about tweaking John Williams for “A New Score” (11 min.), and then there’s a still gallery. There’s four deled scenes (11 min.) which are mostly action-based, and on involves a rancor pit, while there’s six webisodes (21 min.) and three trailers. Also included is a game, “The Hologram Memory Challenge,” which if you win gives you a sneak peak at the new TV show.