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Review: Star Wars Episode II, Attack of the Clones
Much of the cast from Menace is back. Unfortunately none of the major actors manage to pull of a standout performance. Anakin is little improved from menace. I know he's supposed to be full of anger and angst, but mostly he just comes off as constipated and bitchy. Amidala seems to be taking a bit of a nap. Their romantic scenes together are the Jar Jar binks scenes of this movie: It just pauses the action, and the acting is so bad that the movie stalls until something interesting happened.
The rest of the cast is much better. Ewan McGregor has finally grabbed onto the role of Obi Wan. He's a bit preachy, but it works. Samuel L Jackson is the badass Jedi we want him to be. Senator Palpatine is pretty much the same guy as last time around. And Dooku, the flick's major bad guy is pretty excellent too. Its nice having villians with faces since they actually get to act a bit. The Fett family felt a little forced, but it was interesting.
Most notable this time around is the CGI characters. Episode I of course had Jar Jar, Watto, and many other CG chars, but Menace is literally crammed full of them. And the technology and animators have improved substantially since the last showing. No longer do they stick out like sore thumbs- now they merely stick out like a thumb with a little bit of a sliver. Yoda is of course the most important of the CG chars- everyone probably remembers the horrible animation on his one CG scene in Menance, but in Clones he is CG all the way. This is a huge deal since unlike most of the CG chars we've seen so far, this one works almost perfectly. There are a couple of shots where it doesn't seem quite right... but those are the exception, and not the rule.
What I'm saying is that CG characters have finally come into their own. In Menace, all I could think about is the fact that they were CG. The fact that they didn't looke quite right. This time around they are just part of the show. Another cast member delivering mediocre dialog. Ironically enough, several of the CG chars outshine their human counterparts.
The movie as a whole looks great. Many of the costumes look a lot more like Star Wars. From the clone army, to Amidala wearing a white costume for the last act, things just look like I would expect them to. We get to see some sets familiar from A New Hope as well as Menace, and that all really contributes to making the movie feel like a Star Wars flick. It also helps that the CG has continued to improve.
I'd also like to note that I didn't get to see it on the digital screen. I plan on seeing it digital in the next week or 2... I figured I'd see it at the local theater and make sure it didn't suck before I bothered driving to Southfield to see it in full digital splendor.
The rest of the review will focus a little more on plot. You've been warned. The story is of course largely a love story. There has been a threat on Amidala's life, and her old friends Anakin and Obi-Wan have been assigned by the Jedi Council to protect her. Investigating the asassination attempt leads Obi-Wan to a far away planet where he discovered a clone army being constructed, and a conspiracy to suppress information about it. Anakin and Amidala spend time together and get closer through a series of awkward pseudo romantic scenes where they both look like they would rather have been in different movies. Their utter lack of chemistry is almost amusing.
Obi-Wan gets into some smack, and so Anakin and Amidala go to rescue him, only to end up compounding the level of smack around for the good guys. Meanwhile the Senate does its thing and a major shift in power occurs. We learn who is responsible for the clone army, and what the plan for it is.
The last hour of Clones is the Payoff. A battle worthy of the original trilogy. I'm not going to go into it becuase that might spoil it, but let make the following points. First, we finally have enough light saber action. The massive jedi fight that we all knew these prequels could offer us. And my god was it ever worth the wait. But we also have Mace Windu kicking ass, and at long last, Yoda gets his chance to prove why he is so highly regarded.
The parallels to other movies in the SW Series, especially Empire Strikes Back are many. I'm avoiding mentioning them here, but I will say that the film tries to end on a dark note which is cool.
The packed theater that I saw this really seemed to feel the same way as me. A few awkward laughs during the romance scenes- even snickers during the sound-of-music picnic sequence. But when the final battles came around there were cheers around.
And that really sums it up. It took 3.5 hours of prequel film to get us to the payoff. For some it might not have been worth the wait... but for me, I'm just happy to finally to see most of what was promised delievered. And I'm reinvigorated towards Star Wars. If Episode III can pick up where II left off, III should finally be the Star Wars Prequel that we've been waiting for.
the long lines, the sound systems cranked up, the beach balls...
I had almost forgotten what Star Wars could be like.
But the first flight of fancy in the buildings of Courissant (sp?) - i was hooked!
I'm sorry - but this was almost the best of the movies to date - just below Empire, of course..
It FELT like a Star Wars movie again.. when you were first taken to strange new worlds (sorry) and got to see aliens and battles.. villians who's asses you want to see kicked...
this movies has it all back.
I think one of the best things that Lucas has done with this one is the fact that there are actual twists and turns!
I mean, is the good-guy a bad-guy? Are the good guys fighting against the wrong person? The Good Guys fighting along side StormTroopers!?!
I won't give spoilers - but I will say that this movie does bring back everything I loved about seeing the first movie when i was 5 with my dad at Big Newport (70mm of holy-crap-its-so-freaking-big screen)... and maybe part of why I loved it so much WAS getting to see this one - opening night - in the same theatre...
i could be misguided.. but i'll be seeing this movie time and time again... just like the original 3.
guns kill people like spoons make Rosie O'Donnell fat.
Episode II was light years better then Episode I...while there were numerous scenes in PM that made me cringe at how bad they were, there's very little of that here...
some things to look forward to if you haven't seen it yet...
- Yoda's climactic fight scene...everyone has heard it's coming, but you can't be prepared to see Yoda in a lightsaber duel...the crowd in my theatre was literally cheering the whole time, at how cool it was...
- Mace Windu also has some quality Lightsaber action, and some pretty bad-*ss scenes...only thing that would've made it better was if his lightsaber said "Bad A** Mother F*****" (Pulp Fiction Reference)...
- Hayden Christenson is a huge improvement over Jake Loyd as Anakin (then again it would be hard not to be)...he's brilliant in the scenes where he has to show flashes of evil and flashes of the dark side...
- From the trailers, i thought that the romantic part of the movie was gonna be super cheesy, but it's actually not as bad as i expected...though, there is one point when they're in that big field on a picnic, when it looks like a scene out of "Sound of Music"...
- The worst part (IMO) was Lucas' attempts at some uneeded humor (much like Jar-Jar in Ep I)...in Ep II he uses C3P0 and R2D2 to deliver this humor both physically (in a ridiculous sequence with C3P0) and also in a series of bad puns involving the two of them...
- Natalie Portman looks great in the movie...and if you've seen the trailers, you know the tight white top that she wears...well, let's just say, that it must be cold on Tatooine...
well, that's my thoughts...
"Facts are meaningless. You could use facts to prove anything that's even remotely true." - Homer Simpson
Shush! Flannel Man will hear you!
"I have a sneaking suspicion that if there were a way to make movies without actors, George (Lucas) would do it." -- Mark Hamill (source, imdb.com)
El riesgo vive siempre!
[obligatory spoiler warning]
It was better than I expected, if you can ignore the terrible dialogue and total lack of any reason at all being demonstrated for Anakin or Padme for having any kind of feelings for each other outside of their obligation to fulfil what we already know will happen. Oh you killed all those innocent people, how sad, now get over here and make love to me you bastard. Where did this deep undying love come from? They had a brief encounter 10 years ago, she was a pretty girl, he was 9 years old. Suddenly 10 years later, after a brief meeting, and his raging hormones, they're in love? psh.
There were a few CG scenes that looked a bit cheesy too, mostly involving the mounting of large animals or trying to stand up while riding them.
Perhaps my favorite line was something along the lines of: "You'll always be that little boy from Tatooine."
My biggest complaint about the dialogue was that we aren't allowed to think for ourselves or draw conclusions. They might as well said something like, "and now I am wielding my light saber so that I may kill you, don't I look dashing?"
It was still entertaining, but I liked Spiderman much better. There are many many better movies, I couldn't dare to list them all, but it isn't the worst movie ever either.
What?
Lucas has been over in the UK promoting Episode 2, and in the middle of defending Episode 1 in a press conference, let slip that an episode 7 might be in the works... It's near the bottom.
Also, there's an interview with Lucas here.
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Bleah! Heh heh heh... BLEAH BLEAH!!! Ha ha ha ha...
Think about this.
Left in Latin is "sinister". Anakin gets his right hand chopped off. What's left (pun intended)...
his sinister side.
Some people think so.
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Choose the force. Choose a lightsaber. Choose a career as a Jedi. Choose no family. Choose a fucking big space cruiser. Choose washing droids, speeders, death star plans and blasters
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First off, I am not usualy one to point out flaws in movies, but this one has just been stuck in my mind since I heard it. When Obi Wan was talking about where the planet should be he said "South of..." Can someone tell me how south relates to planets in space, South is a compass direction, influenced by the magnetic polls. Is there some sort of Force or galactic polls that give people in space a way to dissern North from South, if they even exist in space?
This is actualy the first time I have had a second thought about validity of things in science fiction, but it just kind of stuck out in my mind. Did they screw up, not realize it, or is there something I am not understanding.
On a different Note, Yoda in the Light Saber Battle was deffinately the saveing grace of the movie for me. I loved it when the entire theater exploded into applause when Yoda reached for his light saber and proceeded to do... whatever you want to call all that juming around and kicking ass.
-- Any comments seen here are not mine, but a mixture of alchohol and lack of sleep.
Back in 1977, after watching years of cheezey films I sat in a theater in Midland, Michigan to see a film people were completely at a loss to describe, other than, "You just have to see this man, just go see it." I nearly dropped my popcorn at the start when the corellian(sp?) ship rumbled overhead firing away. The fairly new theater had Surround and Lucas put it to good use. Not since Tora Tora Tora had I been so impressed by a film, and George Lucas knew what few other filmmakers understood, effect when managed carefully can make up for a lot of short comings. I didn't pay much attention to some of the sets (which look pretty camp now) because I was so impressed, not hard when compared to a lot of films in the mid-late 70's. Now they put piles of money into flicks so overdramatic and littered with acting they make 50's B movies look like Shakespeare. The impression has lasted years and for that I'm content.
Kids today missed out, maybe Spider-Man or Independence Day would be their defining moment in cinematic memory. We'll have to ask them in about 25 years.
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
**sorta spoilers included**
/.'er requires electric shock therapy to feel love. (But I liked Jar Jar and the Ewoks, if that gives you any impression on the type of person I am.) And yeah, the dialogue leaves something to be desired.
I got the big privilege to see it this morning in DLP here in Cleveland. The digital system is not exactly earth shattering, but it is impressive (and I don't think I would even try going to see it on regular film.) There are no specks in the screen, and colors are indeed super bright (though the light sabers don't seem any more brillaint than they would be otherwise. I was disappointed by that.) Roger Ebert said that it looked disappointing on regular film, and I could how that would be , though I can't explain why.
One thing that bugged me is that, and I dunno if this was the result of dlp, or it just happened that way, i could see that some of the scenes were not of tremendous quality. Standing in Palantine's office, you could see the entrance way (a door or two and a little room leading to his office) is computer generated, and lacks depth. Also, when Amidala is in the factory and stuck in a molten core barrel, you could sense how it was done in a studio--it lost the factory's touch.
On an incidental note, I was a bit more touched by the romantic scenes, I'm just that type of person--I think the average
I saw the first Star Wars movie opening night when I was 16 years old. I was honestly perplexed that anybody thought that it was other than shallow, contrived shit. I persevered, watching every SW film afterwards on opening night, wanting to understand why this derivative garbage had so captured the pysche of the nation. I wanted to belong, damnit!
For Phantom Menace, I attended just because I'd seen the other three. Of course, I was disappointed. Last night, I went to see Clones, KNOWING that it was going to be trash.
Happily, for the very first time, I was wrong. Lucas finally presented to me a world that I had never seen before. Sometimes the CGI was disappointing, but only occasionally and never to the point of distraction. It was fast-paced, but still contained enough of a story to hold my interest. The eye candy was fantastic. Almost every alien and every craft and every city was amazing.
Omit the Anakin masturbation scene, and the Sound of Music scene, and much of the dialogue between our two young lovers (no chemistry, and that is hard to imagine considering that Natalie is HOT and a capable actor), and the movie was the second best I've seen this year (Brotherwood of the Wolf being the first).
Of course, I was disturbed that Natalie's character simpers so often, and, even after Anakin reveals that he is a mass murderer of women and chidren, she still marries him.
Still, I enjoyed it more than anything I've seen Lucas direct since American Graffiti or THX 1138.
Thank you, George.
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I just have one complaint about the Yoda fight: instead of stopping the column in mid-air, why not simply yank Obi-wan & Anakin out of the way? Seems to me that would take less Force energy then suspending several tons of rock or whatever in mid-air...after that, he could have continued to kick the dooky out of Dooku (sorry, couldn't resist :)).
I thought that there were nine movies in the original "arc" envisioned by Lucas. Now, I've heard from many sources that the series will conclude with Episode 6. Anyone know why?
Maybe Lucas maybe should push filming with digital cameras and put the digital set creation on the backburner for now. There may very well be something to filming in real instead of virtual sets, I can see the actors performance being affected by their environment and the "atmosphere" a period set might create, as opposed to a sterile blue screen set where the actors have to imagine the world they are acting in.
If directors see the advantages during production and post-production to filming in digitial, and the image quality of the end result up there on the theatre screen is as good or better than film, then digital filming/projection will gain ground, and the use of virtual sets will grow in situations where they are appropriate.
Obi Wan leaping through a window and catching the flying droid thingy
Many many many Jedi, each with a unique fighting style battling it out in an arena
Psyco kitty trying to kill Amidala
Clone army fighting with the Jedi
Obi Wan saying to Anikin "Why do I feel you'll be the death of me."
Chasing the female bounty hunter
C-3PO & R2-D2 as the comic relief
The battle sequence between the Count and Anikin
Yoda kicking ass in surround sound
And of course, Amidala demonstrating just how cold it is aboard a starship
How many more memorable moments could you ask for out of a movie? Why don't you all get off your high horses and stop expecting an age defying, world shatering myth. That's not what Star Wars was ever about. Star Wars was about the story. A battle between good and evil. No more, no less.
T Money
World Domination with a plastic spoon since 1984
Steven Spielberg !!
OK...so I'm gonna say more...but do we REALLY need to sit through 3 movies to see if Lucas can really his his directing stride again?! I mean...come on....the dialog is so freakin boring and VOID of emotion it's ridiculous !! In the first 3 movies (for the most part)you always had tension between the characters in one form or another, even among the good guys!! And THAT'S what drove those films!! If I want to watch bad acting and sterile performances...I'll watch an Aaron Spelling show!!
The bottom line is we shouldn't have to sit through 2+ hours of movie which only saving grace is CG characters and special effects !!
We need engrosing and engaging dialog along with a real story driven by real characters ! All the other stuff should just be gravy on my KFC mashed potatoes (Mmmmmmm.....*drool*)!!
And if not Spielberg...then how about Irving Kirshner....or would THAT be too much of a blow to Lucas' ego?!?!? Hey....it's not Kirshner's fault he directed the GREATEST Star Wars film of them all...at least HE could get an honest performance out of his actors and showed them a great deal of faith in their abilities !
The film was wondrous, and delivers big-time as a fantasy adventure. I was astounded at how completely the movie immerses you in a vivid fully realized fantasy universe. This film builds out the details of the Star Wars universe in a way I found mind-boggling. Creative and artistic people labored over every frame to breathe the realism of life into the story, and they succeeded brilliantly because you buy into most every scene without even thinking about it.
The practical limits of older movies are simply gone, and there are none of the gratuitous CG showoff scenes that marred Lord of the Rings. Remember the camera flying through the evil factory in LOTR? A cool shot, but totally incongruous. In Star Wars Episode II everything is subordinate and appropriate to the story; the story flows with an effortless and beautiful freedom that must have been incredibly difficult to achieve behind the scenes.
As an adult I have to admit there was one significant flaw -- the entire love storyline between Padme and Anakin felt forced and mechanical. There was some spark and chemistry between Padme and Anakin, and it certainly made sense that they would fall for each other. There were revealing scenes with insight into their emotional bonding showing why they would care for each other. However, the overall feel of the love storyline was amateurish; you never felt the passions of the characters, never empathized with their dilemmas, and never really believed these were real people with real feelings falling in love. Lucas is very clumsy with human emotions both as a writer and as a director. Lucas should simply admit this and have someone else write and direct the scenes for this critical plot line; the movie would be significantly better for it.
To a 10 year old the love storyline might be acceptable, but to an adult it seems artificial and half-baked. I felt the love storyline was far and away the least polished aspect of the movie; I wished the same degree of intense creative artistry had been applied to the love storyline as was applied to the visuals.
Fortunately, flaws in the love storyline were not fatal to enjoying the movie. Because the universe was so rich and fully realized and the story was so involving and revealed so much about the Star Wars universe, the whole thing just worked as a pulse-pounding fantasy adventure.
Go see it, enjoy the exciting rich fantasy world as a kid would, and don't overthink the whole thing. It was good fun!
This was covered in the script (and probably wound up on the cutting room floor)... Unfortunately the script fleshed out the movie so much more than the 2 hour timeframe would allow... There were a lot of scenes that would have explained so much more if they were left in, perhaps they'll make it into the DVD version...
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So lets go back to the theater. I'm sitting there, watching the reversal. Ani is missing an arm, Obi-Wan is chopped up pretty bad, and Dakoou is readying the death blow. The camera pans to the shadows and what do we see but the shadow of a short, stout little green man making his entrance to the sounds of the clicking cane. Dakoou and Yoda have a Jedi "pissing match" aka, who can throw the bigger object, and the shit is delt. Yoda extends his saber, and pow, collective orgasm within the theater. People go crazy and we see just why Master Yoda is said to have the skills. Short little gimpy man is suddenly bouncing off the walls, doing back flips and opening up a can of serious whoop ass on Dakoou. And those exact two words sum up my feelings on the movie. COLLECTIVE ORGASM .
Flip side: granted Natalie Portman is in her early twenties. But Amidala is pushing thirty, and is probably just a little on the frustrated side after having been in politics for so much of her life, having gone from kid to grown-up without much chance at being a teenager (in that regard, just like her daughter). She's getting to the point where bells are going off, making her think that her life is passing her by. Anakin makes her feel younger and takes her away from being neck-deep in her responsibilities.
Keep in mind as well -- Anakin is not above messing with people's heads to get what he wants. Who's to say he's not flipping a few of her switches without her knowing about it?
I have yet to see the movie, but I did read the book, and there does seem to be an undercurrent of "Amidala's getting old -- go for it now" to the story.
Incidentally, I thought AotC (the book) did an excellent job of showing how Anakin could turn to the Dark Side -- it's exactly the same as any other zealot whose desire to do good is corrupted by a destructive streak. Think perhaps abortion clinic bomber. Anakin becomes Vader, not because he wants to be evil, but precisely because he believes that he's doing the right thing. He just doesn't realize what it's gotten him into until the end.
/Brian
The most implausible scene however was Shmi's death. She was holding out in captivity for a month waiting for a rescue she never knew would arrive. Yet after surviving for that long she then just magically dies a minute or two after Anakin rescues her. The timing of that is beyond coincidental.
A more plausible, and perhaps more fitting, scenario would have been for Anakin to try and carry her out of the camp, only to have a signle Tusken Raider catch them and shoot her.
For added dramatic emphasis, Anakin could reach out with the force in a moment of rage and strangle the Tusken, causing the trademarked cluthing of the throat and falling to the floor. Having quietly dispatched the opponent, Anakin could then have a few minutes for his mom to give him her dying speach before he goes on his rampage and kills everyone.
Along with showing more clearly his fall to the dark side, it would also make his failure to rescue her more pronounced.
(And on a sidenote, where are all the Jedi? If 10,000 systens is only minority of the Republic, there must be at least 100,000 systems. At a billion people each(?) that would be a population of 100 trillion. Yet there are only a hundred or so fully trained Jedi?)
This Space Intentionally Left Blank
My criticism of these movies lies only with their success... please let me explain:
PEOPLE ARE EXPECTING TOO MUCH, and YES, this has been said before, so again, let me explain:
Star War Episode IV was the first Star Wars that was released for a reason! Give or take a few details (OK, maybe more than a few), the overall story was already formed before shooting of the original Star Wars began. But just like Back to the Future, the total concept for the plot and the characters and their adventures and the ultimate finale simply couln't fit into one movie -- this is why there was a Back to the Future I, II and III, and this is why we are still waiting for more Star Wars. So why was Episode IV released first, and why was it so much more positively received by the critics?
Episode IV was a success because of one simple fact: it had clearly defined "good guys" and "bad guys". The Empire was already formed, and it was bad. Darth Vader was bad. Luke was good. Leia was good. Obi Wan (Ben) was good. Simple.
But even still, there were hints at a greater scheme -- there was a history, there was an anxiousness at the end that made people wonder "whats next"? Well, with these "prequels" we already know "what is next" (in the long term anyhow), and although we in the audience really know who is "bad", it isn't really clearly defined. This is a much more subtle arena -- the title of Episode I was very appropriate, and for that reason (and yes, of course, even PeTA members would like to kill Jar Jar) it was highly criticized. I think Episode II answers a lot of questions, and given the enormous story that Lucas is trying to tell, I commend him for his efforts -- this has all the heart of the originals despite not having a cowboys vs. indians black and white story from the get go. We all knew there was a back story, and it amazes me that some critics have the nerve to complain that the material isn't "fresh".
I have read reports (Rex Reed, for example) that claim this is a boring movie. Get off the Vicodin -- this has more explosions, fight sequences, chase scenes, thrills and surprises than any other action movie I can think of. Sure it has its flaws (read: "love" scenes), but the movie's greatest flaw is that it is the latest in a series of wonderful movies -- I can't think of an easier and more obvious target for a mainstream critic.
Luke senses the good that remains in Vader. The Emperor can't sense Luke because he represents pure evil. Good is aware of good, evil is aware of evil. In the new trilogy, only the Trade Federation is aware of the existence of Sidious because it is the allegorical representation of greed. The Jedi Council is blind to the power of evil because it is represents everything that the Sith do not - evil, hatred, greed, lust etc.
But not for long... because the new films are all about this fall from grace. Anyone else do a double-take at the cognitive dissonance of seeing Yoda fight alongside a bunch of stormtroopers? Lucas had me grinning ear to ear!
Anyone notice how Dooku and Anakin say almost exactly the same thing? "I am the most powerful Jedi in the galaxy". I guess it's expected, but I didn't think it would be so blatant, and Palpatine tells Anakin, "You're the most talented Jedi I've ever met".
I though the romantic scenes were a little sappy (but I always do, seen too many Hindi movies). But, they are much better the second time around, and you catch a few more nuances (they're there). I wanted to see whether they would be as embarassing the next time around, and they really weren't.
I could hear Lucas in the director's chair saying:
- Natalie, you're still thinking, is this the little 10 year old from Tatooine.
- Natalie, you're tocuhed by his declaration, but wiggle your shoulders a little more, and edge away from him on the sofa.
- Hayden, you're willing to tell her *anything* to her, you're 20 years old and you've been a monk for the past 10.
- Hayden, keep staring at her, you know she likes it.
None of the actors have the presence of Alec Guinness, Harrison Ford, or James Earl Jones' voice. Ian McDiarmid (Palpatine) and Christopher Lee (Dooku) probably come closest.
-- Equity lord of the Trill Consortium
David Weber and Lois McMaster Bujold write far better space opera. Lucas should outsource the plot and concentrate on what he's good at: effects and production.
It's amazing how much the fantasies of one man, and the elaborate scrutiny of others. Who try to find connections between what is real and what is made-believe, and in most ideals that would appear to be slightly 'deranged' to others!
But when looking back to what I know of the ST series, and the events of the past year, I had to look up and wonder of the what if's? Plus the fact that the writer of this piece took a insight of a world from GL (you know who?), and took it to another degree.
In anway you look at it, this piece of written text is very thought provoking, and funny - Others may not look at it this way. But to me you've done a fine job...