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Star
Wars Episode II:
Attack Of The Clones
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6
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10 |
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10
= Highest Rating |
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First
off, I'm approaching this review from the vantage
point of someone who's not a Star Wars fanboy.
I wasn't a kid when the 'first' (actually fourth)
chapter of George Lucas' epic space fantasy debuted
in 1977. A high school sophomore at the time, I
remember queuing in a very long line to see it.
Fortunately Star Wars Episode
IV: A New Hope (as it later came to be called)
was an 'event' movie that lived up to the hype.
A fun, thrilling experience, it was a Saturday afternoon
Buck Rogers serial writ large — only this time you
couldn't see the strings on the spaceships. But
I didn't feel that it was a great film; a
'Monster Kid' of the Old School, I still preferred
Ray Harryhausen movies and Planet
Of The Apes to the adventures of Luke Skywalker,
Princess Leia and Han Solo. Even after seeing the
superior Episode V, The Empire
Strikes Back (1980), the Star Wars saga remained
no big deal to me. And I positively hated 1983's
Return Of
The Jedi. (Ewoks
must die!) I certainly never imagined that a
huge, global cult of Star Wars freaks would spring
from these movies, one strong enough and loyal enough
to facilitate the creation of an elaborate prequel
trilogy. Given the near universal — and deserved
— critical drubbing received by 1999's Episode
I: The Phantom Menace, you'd think Lucas,
who has more money than God, just would've said
to hell with it. But when even a bad movie rakes
in nearly a billion dollars worldwide, I suppose
mustering the incentive to continue wasn't much
of a challenge.
Attack
Of
The Clones,
while hailed as a stunning technical achievement,
also took a critical beating. That's the main reason
I skipped it during its theatrical run — I could
do without another Phantom
Menace experience, thank you very much. The
great majority of print and TV critics slammed Clones
as stiff, vacuous, and horribly acted. Some
of these criticisms are valid, to one degree or
another. But, now that I've seen the film, I think
these assertions were overblown. I actually had
a good time with it.
The plot, such as it is, involves
a brewing civil war that threatens to rip asunder
the 1000-year old Galactic Republic. Powerful trade
and corporate guilds are aligning with an enigmatic
former Jedi Master, Count Dooku (cult film legend
Christopher Lee), in the formation of a separatist
movement opposed to the policies of the governing
Senate. Padmé Amidala (Natalie Portman),
the former queen of Naboo and now her planet's representative
in the Senate, is opposed to the raising of a huge
Republican army to counter the separatist threat,
preferring a diplomatic approach instead. An unknown
party, fearing she may sway other senators to her
view, has targeted her for assassination. After
a bomb blast kills a number of her retinue, the
Jedi Council assigns Obi-Wan Kenobi (Ewan McGregor)
and his 18-year old apprentice, Annakin Skywalker
(Hayden Christiansen), to act as Padmé's
bodyguard. They thwart another attempt to kill her,
picking up clues which point to a mysterious bounty
hunter named Jango Fett and the cloning facilities
located on the 'missing' planet of Camino. The leaders
of the Jedi, Yoda (voiced by Frank Oz) and Mace
Windu (Pulp Fiction's
Samuel L. Jackson), dispatch Obi-Wan to track down
Jango Fett while Annakin secretly escorts Padmé
back to Naboo for safekeeping. What Obi-Wan discovers
on his mission will shake the Republic to its very
core. Someone even more powerful than Count Dooku
is manipulating events...
As
mentioned, many of the criticisms leveled against
Clones upon release
are valid. Much of the dialog is pretty wretched,
particularly the sappy Hallmark Card
sentiments exchanged between Annakin and Padmé
as their forbidden romance blossoms. But have any
of the Star Wars movies featured good dialog? Yes,
the script could be better, but keep in mind that
the Star Wars saga is nothing more than a Flash
Gordon serial of the '30s updated with modern special
effects. (Those hoary pulp adventures of
yesteryear aren't exactly Shakespeare, you know.)
As for the acting, it's not near as bad as I'd been
led to believe. In the pivotal role of Annakin (later
to become the dreaded Sith Lord Darth Vader), Christiansen
is awkward at first — which, on reflection, is actually
in keeping with the character — but grows into the
part, particularly when his rash, headstrong actions
open him up to the influence of the "Dark Side"
of The Force. (In any event, he's nowhere near as
bad as that horrible kid who played Annakin as a
10-year old in Phantom Menace.)
The pros here all acquit themselves well, whatever
the shortcomings of the dialog. Even in the twilight
of his career the elderly Lee effortlessly projects
a commanding sense of menace; Jackson, while seemingly
out of his element (not a single curse word passes
his lips), still channels that badass vibe which
would make one think he's the only Jedi with the
words "Bad Motherfucker" stitched on his
wallet. And the infamous Jar Jar Binks — praise
be to Zardoz! — only has about five minutes of screen
time. (And actually plays a pivotal role in the
eventual destruction of the Republic...)
Where the movie really shines
— and makes it worth seeing — is in the action scenes.
Some work better than others. The Speeder chase,
the dogfight in the asteroid belt and the factory
conveyer belt set pieces have exciting moments to
be sure, but are rather like watching someone
play a video game. Despite the incredible effects
and John Williams' rousing music, these sequences
leave one feeling detached from the action. But
the tense duel between Obi-Wan and Jango Fett on
the Camino landing platform, the gladiatorial combat
in the arena, and the final Droid-Clone battle for
Geonosis are absolutely first-rate; they more than
compensate. There's also great fun to be had watching
the 80-year old Christopher Lee kick the crap out
of Obi-Wan and Annakin with a light saber, then
square off against Yoda in the ultimate duel of
Jedi masters.
Now
people gripe —
often rightly so —
about the 'phoniness'
of CGI. (The Mummy Returns
being a primo example.) Here,
the new technology is utilized to the very limit
of its capabilities. Quite simply, Clones
is overflowing with some of the most amazing special
effects I've yet seen in a motion picture.
The film's final act is a rollercoaster thrill ride
of eye-dazzling spectacle. Had it not been for the
intrusion of some lame comedy bits with C-3PO (tossed
in for the kiddies, I realize), I would've been
completely enraptured. The incredible CGI-rendered
monsters in the arena sequence are straight out
of an Edgar Rice Burroughs pulp novel. Unlike the
computer-generated beasties in so many other flicks,
these look like they have mass —
I can easily imagine stop-motion maestro Ray Harryhausen
crying with joy upon seeing them.
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The
2-disc DVD release of Star Wars
Episode II is the first ever digital-to-digital
transfer. It's available in both anamorphic widescreen
(2.35:1) and full-screen (4:3) formats, with the widescreen
version being the one reviewed here. I've been watching
DVDs since 1999 and hands down, this is the best looking
one I've ever seen. It is flawless. The 5.1 Surround
audio mix is superb. In every technical regard, if
ever a DVD title was the perfect demonstration disc
for the superiority of the medium, this is it.
In addition
to the film, Disc # 1 contains an audio commentary
by writer-director George Lucas, producer Rick McCallum,
picture editor/sound designer Ben Burtt, animation
director Rob Coleman, and visual effects supervisors
Pablo Helman, John Knoll, and Ben Snow. It's really
a case of too many cooks in the kitchen but series
fans should thoroughly dig it. The bulk of the extras
—
and I'm definitely talking BULK here —
are
crammed onto Disc # 2. There's just too much material
to describe and not enough space here to do it properly.
Were I a better wordsmith perhaps I could craft a
smoother means of doing so, but a simple listing of
the bonus features will have to suffice.
These
extras include: Eight deleted scenes with introductions;
From Puppets to Pixels: Digital Characters in Episode
II, an all-new documentary about the creation
of the film's digital characters; another full-length
documentary, State of the Art: The Previsualization
of Episode II, detailing Lucas' high tech, 21st
Century method of storyboarding; Films Are Not
Released: They Escape, a sound effects documentary;
three featurettes examining the plot, action scenes,
and love story through behind-the-scenes footage and
interviews with the cast and filmmakers (i.e., inconsequential
puff pieces to promote the theatrical release); the
"Across the Stars" music video, an original composition
by John Williams crafted exclusively for this DVD;
trailers, TV spots, and a production photos/promotional
materials gallery; R2-D2: Beneath the Dome,
a 'mockumentary" trailer; a visual effects breakdown
montage; and a 12-part Web documentary which originally
premiered on the internet. Whew!
Oh
yeah, I almost forgot...
The
disc also comes with some DVD-ROM content, which
I haven't bothered to look at yet. 11/20/02 |
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