Star Wars: The Clone Wars (TV Series) The Zillo Beast (2010) User Reviews

Monster Fun

[A_Kind_Of_CineMagic · 8/10 · 14 June 2020]

This episode is inspired by the monster movies such as Godzilla and King Kong. It is a really nice reference to those movies which inspired so many science fiction fans through the generations. They manage to weave it into the world of the Clone Wars quite well and it is lots of fun. The animation also has some really lovely touches and the monster itself looks good.

The downside is that it is a little bit too contrived and on the nose as far as referencing those old movies and it is somewhat of a fun filler rather than a story of any significance but those are minor points not major criticisms.

My rating: 7.5/10.

Fun but unoriginal

[theoledoux · 8/10 · 10 November 2020]

Clearly, almost unapologetically inspired by Godzilla and King Kong... But a fun episode overall.

Another Homage to Japan's film industry.

[shawn-dulmage · 8/10 · 6 October 2022]

Like the previous episode which was dedicated to Akira. Kurosawa this episode pays tribute to another Japanese Icon as well as othe early Massive monster movies. I found it most enjoyable as a fan of these types of movies. Look how long Gojira has endured! It also shows the emperor's devious side as he changes his mind once he finds out how invulnerable the creature is.

I also found it refreshing that some Jedi are still holding on to some of their key values in this time of war and conflict. Mace Windu stands his ground on the issue of killing/destroying this life form. All in all an awesome tribute to some classic movies just like some of the previous episodes.

Much better than the average episode

[ttapola · 7/10 · 24 May 2010]

"One of the longest and fiercest battles of the war", booms the voice-over as the episode starts and immediately I feel less optimistic about this episode. A new super-weapon, "the electron-proton bomb", is introduced and yet again it's name is a combination of actual Physics terms that makes no sense in the real world, but in the Star Wars universe it turns to be an Electro-Magnetic Pulse (EMP) weapon - handy, since it shuts droids down. But why did it take so long to develop such a weapon? The scientists in the Star Wars universe have come up with Hyperdrive and Lightsabers, but not such a basic weapon as an EMP device! Implausible. The fact that the pulse from the weapon spreads waaaaay too slowly (it's obviously because it *looks* more cool than a quick flash) makes me also cringe. Direlogue such as "We have counted for every probable outcome", followed by Mace Windu's baffling "It's the improbable, that concerns me", doesn't inspire confidence either. But then the weapon is deployed and things actually improve despite the fact that there has already been *a battle* (a must in almost every episode), which is then followed by *a rescue mission* (gee, now there is a fresh idea!).

The bomb unearths an underground "Zillo Beast", which means this episode can basically be summed as "Star Wars meets Godzilla" (although, for obvious association reasons, the beast bears more resemblance to the Cloverfield monster). And it actually works! Much like the Cloverfield monster, the beast is confused like a child, not malicious. "Innocent", as Mace points out. The following discussion about the Jedi Code is kept short and natural. Even better, in the discussion between Palpatine, Windu, Anakin and that annoying padawan of his, characters for once at least, make reasonable arguments and intelligent observations. And the finale, while predictable, feels right and sets things up for a follow-up episode quite nicely. Not bad, not bad. Now I just hope that the name of the next episode doesn't turn out to be a bad omen - referencing one of the top 10 movies of all time (see IMDb Top 250) carries a significant risk of the episode faring unfavorably in comparison to the legendary movie... 7/10 for this episode.

The Zillo Beast

[lassegalsgaard · 7/10 · 21 February 2021]

This season was really the homage season, as many episodes took the premise of a well-known film and "Star Wars"-ized it. With this episode, (and the next) the universe takes on "King Kong" making a suspenseful and awesome action episode that was both focused on the politics of the war, but mostly on the big battles. The Zillo Beast is an interesting creature with a phenomenal design, and the way they used it in this episode was quite brilliant as it did come across as a beast that you felt slightly sympathetic for yet was still deadly afraid of. It is a nice homage to the monster film, but it works much better knowing the content of the next episode than it would have had this just been a one-episode story. Can't wait to revisit the next episode, which I do think is better.

King-Kong / Godzilla

[ZeTomes · 5/10 · 7 July 2012]

I would enjoy this episode if I hadn't seen Godzilla or King-Kong, if I didn't notice that several episodes are pastiches of other classics as this one, if I hadn't confirmed that many episodes are what we call in Portuguese "encher (fill) chouriços (sort of sausage)", metaphorically meaning to fill something just for the appearances. As a 4 years old veteran fan of the original theatrical Star Wars, my heart was broke when the new episodes came to cinema, when noticing my imagination created from the missing links of the original story were filled as I said, as a "chouriço" with pastiches of other movies. It's not a Tarantino's recycling geniality, it's the inability of creating a strong plot in dedication to the genial original Star Wars storytelling what was missing from the original beautiful and old Greece mythological and Freudian story. Perhaps for the young jedi fans it seems innovative, but for this old jedi the force isn't indeed with the cloak of the new special effects.