‘Clone Wars’ episode 3 ups the ante, delivers an action-packed 22 minutes of television

Mild spoilers for the recent season of “Star Wars: Clone Wars” on Disney+

“On the Wings of Keeradaks” picks up with the rescue of clone trooper Echo who has been used by the Separatist forces to extract battle plans and strategy information while grafting cybernetic components to his human body. Anakin, Captain Rex and the Bad Bunch have to fight their way out of the Techno Union facility and protect the natives, who are now very upset that war has indeed been brought to them.

First off, this episode is gorgeous. They have really upped their animation for the new season, and this episode features one of the best combat sequences I’ve ever seen in Star Wars. The camera moves around the action like a steady-cam, ducking obstacles, tracking along as characters rappel, leap and fly from great heights, all the while under heavy fire from the droid forces. And speaking of, we’ve seen a new type of droid trooper in this arc and — guess what — they can fly! Clearly their design was inspired by the native keeradaks, reptilian creatures our heroes piloted to safety upon their escape.

We also get some fun comedic relief that any Lord of the Rings fan would also enjoy. Wrecker takes it upon himself to toss the team around for various reasons, much to their chagrin. Anakin, of course, needs no assistance jumping. Jedi stuff.

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