matrixgrindhouse said:
I saw The Clone Wars's pilot film in 2008 and absolutely hated it. Remember, I'm the guy who saw Attack of the Clones in theaters four times. It was like a distillation of all the things I disliked about the prequels, with none of the redeeming qualities. I'm happy for fans of the show, but after that miserable experience, I just can't bring myself to ever attempt watching it.
The pilot movie was pure crap, indeed. The very fact that is was released in theater is still a totaly mystery to me because even without talking about the "story", the look of it was screaming "cheaply made for TV".
Season 1 had some good moments, but also some uninteresting craps as the "movie".
Season 2 and three had more and more goods. Still some episodes more "kids friendly" than "fans friendly", but it's well expected for a cartoon show.
In the next seasons they gone crazy good with some story arcs. Of course it's still in the "prequel world", so I understand some fans are not interested in, but to me those seasons made that prequel world better. Not saying they made the prequel movies better... but it is undeniable that George Lucas imagination was on "full display" mode during season 4, 5 and 6. The culminating point being the whole Darth Maul with sipder legs thing... I found that completely silly, and yet they managed to make good episodes with this characters later on. And of course the hidden planet where the Force is "balanced".
The strenght of the series, compared to Rebels, is that the episodes are not always following Anakin or Obi-Wan. There are complete story arcs about Clone Troopers with moral issues, Mandalorian tribes, Bounty Hunters. You never know what the next episode is about.
Side note: the quality of the visuals also improves a bit from season to season. It's still the same "angular" style of cartoon, but the lightning, the settings, the colors, everything is better and better.
Of course there are still episodes for kids, there are still some episodes about dispensable battles where the story does not move forward and you start checking your watch. But well... the lenght is only about 20 minutes, so if you like an episode then you want to watch the next one and if not then you just stop and try another few days later.