Star Wars - Episode II, Attack of the Clones (Widescreen Edition)
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Movie Reviews of Star Wars - Episode II, Attack of the Clones (Widescreen Edition)
Movie Review: Poor Acting and Dialogue Hurt An Otherwise Entertaining Movie
Summary: 3 Stars
"Star Wars: Episode I- The Phantom Menace" was one of the most hyped movies of the late 1990s, yet managed to disappoint countless Star Wars fans. With the annoying Jar Jar Binks, a child actor who was in over his head, poor pacing, and wooden acting and dialogue, I was less than impressed, despite being a big Star Wars fan. Apparently, so many others were let down that it somehow resulted in "The Matrix" being lauded as the "new hope" of epic sci-fi, despite that movie falling far short of the standards set by Star Wars. When George Lucas promised (or threatened?) that Episode II would be "Titanic in space", my interest waned even more. However, as the promotional media emerged, my interest picked up again as it appeared that there would at least be some good action sequences. So how did the unfortunately named "Attack of the Clones" fare?
First the bad news, and it's not pretty. The dialogue is, for the most part, not good at all, with some terribly blatant exposition that is not needed at all. The acting doesn't fare well either, generally speaking. Anakin Skywalker(who is now 10 years older) is now played by Hayden Christiansen, instead of Jake Lloyd. Unfortunately, while his efforts are commendable, Hayden obviously is ill at ease in this role, and co-star Natalie Portman exhibits zero enthusiasm during the movie. As these two are supposed to be the "romantic leads", the resulting lack of chemistry cripples the emotional core of the movie. Samuel Jackson's performance as Mace Windu is similarly off, and there is some other poor acting by various bit players. Thus, the weight of the movie ends up having to be borne by the acting chops of Ewan McGregor, Temuera Morrison, Ian McDiarmid, and Christopher Lee, who all do manage to perform in a professional manner. (Of particular note is the initial terse face to face meeting between Obi-Wan and Jango Fett). Still, there are also some lingering pacing issues, most notably related to scenes surrounding Anakin and Padme in the middle of the movie.
The good news is that the movie works on a "macro" level, as far as the over-arching Star Wars storyline and universe are concerned. Helping this aspect are several dynamic action and set pieces, which include a "car chase" in the skies of the city planet of Coruscant, a trip to the rain-drenched water planet Kamino, complete with a faceoff between Obi-Wan and bounty hunter Jango Fett, a spaceship chase through the rings of Geonosis, a confrontation between a couple hundred Jedi and an army of droids, and a massive battle sequence between the Separatist droid army and an army of clones. Topping off the movie is a lightsaber battle involving Christopher Lee's Count Dooku and Yoda.
The movie's primary strength is developing the events which lead to the much stronger Episode III. In the 10 years since the Trade Federation's blockade of Naboo was foiled, a Separatist movement has gained traction among hundreds of worlds in the Republic, fueled by the enigmatic Count Dooku. While Chancellor Palpatine presides over a divided Senate, assassination attempts against former Queen (now Senator) Padme Amidala lead the Jedi to assign Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker to protect her. A bounty hunter's failed attempt on Padme's life leads Obi-Wan to the distant world of Kamino, where he finds a surprising development: an army of clones is being raised for the Republic, as per the orders of a now-dead Jedi Council member. Meanwhile, Padme and Anakin head to Naboo, where Anakin's nightmares eventually lead him to take Padme to Tattoine with him to find his mother. Anakin's search leads him to the Lars homestead, where his mother's husband tells him that the Tusken Raiders kidnapped her. When Anakin finds his mother dying after being tortured by the Sandpeople, his anger results in a wanton act of mass murder. Obi-Wan's investigation leads him to the world of Geonosis, where he discovers that Count Dooku has enlisted the forces of an old foe, among others, to help the Separatists prepare for war on the Republic. With this threat looming, the Chancellor is given emergency powers (proposed in the Senate by none other than Jar-Jar Binks, who is mercifully absent for most of the movie), and the available Jedi scramble to Geonosis to try to stop Dooku. The final 40 or so minutes of the movie manage to make up for the shortcomings liberally sprinkled throughout the proceedings.
Visually speaking, this movie is incredible, albeit a bit artificial looking. The live action characters don't always seem to mesh with the computer-generated backdrops, but the color saturation is brilliant, and sets the tone well. The transfer to DVD was done very well, apparently being a direct digital print. The music alternates between magnificently appropriate, and ridiculously purile. The sound effects are fairly standard Star Wars, although there are a couple of really bizarre and out of place sounds. The DVD release itself has the typical wealth of Star Wars extras, including deleted scenes and trailers. The commentary track is remarkably boring, to the point that a friend of mine actually said it literally puts him to sleep.
It does pain me to give this movie only 3 stars, as I enjoyed it, especially when the Battle of Geonosis erupted. The slow unfolding of the plot to turn the Republic into the Empire is an important arc in the Star Wars saga. But objectively speaking, the acting and dialogue were bad enough to cripple the film in a number of ways, and I have to try to be honest with viewers. If you're a Star Wars fan, you probably should get this, if you haven't already. For everyone else, it will be a matter of whether they can deal with bad acting and dialogue in exchange for the excellent visuals and rich universe the film presents.
Movie Review: Enjoyable. Even though It's Politic Heavy.
Summary: 4 Stars
I did enjoy this movie. I may be the only person who enjoyed the first a little more but I did enjoy this one. Being a fan I was pumped to see this. I even read a book based on the movie beforehand. The movie is faster paced than the first one but the simplistic nature of the first one really intrigued me.
What I did like about this is the action scenes, a definite upgrade from the first, secondly, the characters (except for Hayden Christensen) really matured with this movie. I loved Liam Neeson in the first but the others made up for the loss. The inclusion of shots like the Death Star and Count Dooku really made this special.
The DVD itself is a definite must have. A busy commentary track, deleted scenes just for this release and plenty of featurettes for your liking.
Definite Must Have.
Movie Review: It's not my favorite, but still very enjoyable.
Summary: 5 Stars
It's not my favorite, but still very enjoyable.
I enjoyed 'Star Wars' (a.k.a. Star Wars IV: A new hope) when it came out and I was 7 yrs old and I still love all the Star Wars Movies today. My son has loved all the Star Wars movies as well
Movie Review: Attack of the Clones is worth seeing (once)
Summary: 3 Stars
I'll start off with the positive. This is a significantly better film than Phantom Menace. That's because Jar Jar is what he should have been all along: a minor character that we see very little of and hear even less.
The action sequences are as good as always. My favorite part is, like usual, the big lightsaber fight at the end. Yoda with a lightsaber may seem out of place to some but he was refered to as a "great warrior" in The Empire Strikes Back. Now we get to see why. And the end is enjoyable (save the stupid R2D2/C3PO "losing my head" skit).
Now for the bad stuff. There are parts of this film that are no where near pleasurable to watch (and these parts take up a big junk of the movie). The most painful thing to watch in this film (for all the wrong reasons) is the "love" story between Anakin and Padme. Hayden Kristen is, I believe, the worst actor in the Star Wars movies (old and new). There is basically no chemistry between Anakin and Padme even though they're supposed to be madly in love with each other by the end of the movie. There are some lines between these two characters that are just embarrassing to quote ("your skin is softer than sand").
The banal dialogue, the worst supporting actor "winner" Hayden Kristen, CGI in basically every scene, the botched love story between Anakin and Padme, R2D2/C3PO's "comic relief", and on and on and on. This film is, at best, a mixed bag. Though it's worth seeing at least once (and some parts more than once), my advice is to buy the first trilogy (if you haven't already), pray that someone someday remakes the prequels, or buy The Lord of the Rings Trilogy.
Movie Review: MST3K Fans Rejoice -- Rifftrax is Here!
Summary: 3 Stars
It's Binks-ian fun for the whole family as George Lucas empties the contents of his brain onto film one more time! This go around, the part of the annoying kid is explored more deeply by a new annoying kid, Hayden Christensen, in a performance so jaw-droppingly wooden and laughable it's got to make Keanu Reeves feel pretty darned good about himself. Ewan McGregor returns as that one guy who was once played by that other British guy, and he's apparently become comfortable enough with his green screen acting that he no longer even pretends it matters whether he puts in effort or not. And returning for the role of Padme Amidala is Natalie Portman, looking cute but losing her bid to keep her voice from grinding into her audience's skull like a buzz saw.
All of this would be a RiffTrax dream come true - but making it even dream come true-ier is that Mike and Kevin are joined by none other than Chad Vader, brother of Darth and star of his own colossally successful internet series. It is quite simply a RiffTacular RiffStravaganza!