Did anyone else think that the movie was rather dark (the luminescence of the movie, not atmosphere)? I didn't see it in a DLP theater (that will be this weekend), but the darkness of some scenes almost spoiled it for me!
One point got me from my midnight showing that I am hoping you can help clear up (have an 11:45pm showing tonight, DLP this time!).
Mucho spoilers, so I'll protect them...
Spoiler:
Why try to kill Padme from the beginning of the film? Assuming that Palpatine is playing both hands in this card game, he needs a few things to happen:
He needs to create a separatist movement - He recruits Dooku to do this.
He needs to build a droid army for the separatist - Again - Dooku is heads this up.
He needs to alert the Jedi to the clone army he has created under the 'dead 10 years' guy's name.
He needs a senator to give him emergency powers - He tricks Jar Jar into this by mentioning that the missing Amidala would have voted for it.
He needs to get the clone army and the droid army to fight.
I can't help but think there is an easier way. Apparently, he specifically hires Jango Fett to assassinate Amidala. He hires him because he was the template for the clone army he is building. But isn't it remarkably tenuous to assume that the Jedi will find a missing planet from minor evidence collected by the assassination of a second tier bounty hunter that could only be found because Obi Wan "knew a guy"? What if Amidala was really killed? Jedi aren't supposed to seek revenge, so they may never have found the true killer.
The next question is why not position Amidala to grant Palpatine the movement for emergency powers? She was already for the creation of an army, so I would have thought she would have fallen for the bait easily. Instead, he has to trick Jar Jar?
I get the feeling that he intentionally set up the Geonosis battle to both deplete the Jedi and get the Clone/Droid conflict started. To do this, he is relying on setting up a crisis with some Jedi hostages as well as Amidala. Would all the Jedi have shown up if only Obi and Anakin were take hostage? The only reason the Jedi are there in the first place is because Obi Wan was able to track Jango there secretly, which is also really fragile. Would the Jedi have ever found Geonosis if Obi didn't track Jango there?
The only reason I can figure that he specifically puts Amidala in jeopardy was to appease the Trade Federation, who were really keen on killing her. Retribution was their obvious motivation, but it still seems silly considering how easily Palpatine has manipulated her in the past. I can't see how it wouldn't be in his own best interests to continue to keep her around.
Anyway, I did love the movie, and I think it will be well regarded in the years to come. But I think the whole detective sequence was really tenuous considering how crucial it was to the overall plot.
Thoughts? Things I should look for in tonights showing to answer some of these?
Terrific movie!! There were times when the corny dialogue (especially between Anakin and Amidala) took me out of it but there were more than enough scenes to make up for it! A few of my fav's:
1) Absolutely loved the lightsaber battle between Anakin and the Count. The dark shadowing and expressions on Anakin's face SCREAM Darth!! Absolutely, positively, perfectly made!
2) The scene on Tattoine with Anakin and his mother--great job of portraying Anakin's "dark side".
3) C3PO was terrific!! The one liners were well placed and not overdone IMHO.
Yes the contrast/brightness issues seem to be linked to the HD cam and DLP. I think this will be perfected in future, I think it may even be a non existent problem on the DVD transer, but certainly in both 35mm and DLP I noticed it looking a tad too dark in the coruscant night time interior scenes near the start of the movie. It didn't bother me to a huge extent, it just really seemed to lower the detail in the image.
It must be said that shots at the best of times look absolutely beautiful in DLP.
I'm not so sure the accelerated growth rate has anything to do with the "altered" state of the clones. They refered to being independant as something that was altered, implaying mental faculties were adjusted to make them followers instead of leaders. I think the accelerated growth rate may be inherent in the cloning process, regardless of any alterations, in order to make clones as fast as possible. They don't exactly make it clear when in the course of the 10 years of cloning that Boba was created.
I LOVED this movie. This easily rights the flaws with Phantom Menace (an enjoyable flick but a let-down)
Now we've been accustomed to storm troopers that run around franticly, can't shoot straight and ultimately meet their demise. Yet in AotC they are superior warriors and simply crush opposing forces.
My THoughts:
Spoiler:
since they are genetic clones of the great bounty hunter Jango Fett, they get all their skills from him, thus making them supremem fighting machines. It must be rational then that at some point there is a defect in their genetic structure thereby making them useless and bad aims.
I just felt that so much of the movie felt like a retread of the earlier films. Of course, some familiarity is to be expected, but this one played out like a "greatest hits" reel.
I'm very annoyed at the use of the music. Cutting up unrelated sections - and tracking in old cuts is not the way to go. It's obvious from listening to the CD that Williams wrote a very organic and connected score. Lucas and Burtt just chopped it to shreds, basically turning it into "needle-drop" music. Also a bad idea to bury the music so far down in the mix, especially during the "Zam" chase.
The movie was fun, in a way, but there is certainly very little "fun" up there on the screen. The C3PO destruction gags are just as forced and lame here as they were in ESB and RotJ.
Christopher Lee is very clearly the best thing in the film - he, as an actor, knows what this stuff is all about in a way that few of the rest of the cast do. Great to see him using his Errol Flynn saber training again after 40 years.
Visuals are outstanding (aside from a few "howlers" in the effects shots, mostly during the Arena scene). Ten times better than Phantom Menace. State of the art all the way.
Film projection was bright and clear - at least on the 40-foot screen I saw it on. Your mileage may vary. Will see it again if only to see the DLP presentation.
It was ok, pretty much a dead heat with RotJ and TPM for the bottom of the pile. Star Wars is at the top, Empire well below, and the other three come in last.
When "Senator" Palpatine suggested that old friends, Obi-wan Kenobi and Anakin, protect senator Padmé, is it me or Yoda gave a suspicious look back at Palpatine ? What was up with that look anyway i wonder what it meant.
I wonder how much Yoda is aware of what is going on in AOTC. Maybe he knows more than he is letting on ?
Everything going on on Tatooine was really great, and finally a lightsaber duel with some "trash" talk
Uh, they call them themes for a reason. They are used to establish the tone for certain characters/situations, including foreshadowing (or perhaps postshadowing) and involves repetition.
I'm aware that there are themes and they are called that for a reason. However, there is a difference which perhaps you are not aware of between a "re-orchestration" and "looping" existing cues over the onscreen action. I own the Star Wars Trilogy Soundtrack Anthology, as well as the Two Disc hardbound Special Edition Versions, the single disc Phantom Menace and two-disc, and the Attack of the Clones Soundtrack. I have read all of the booklets several times, and refer back to them when I listen to them if I think I hear a specific theme repeated.
Where was the music that was on the CD in the movie? Why was it cut, only to loop existing cues over the clones embarking onto their transports on Kamino (that was the Droid Army music from the first movie). Where was the beautiful, engaging music Williams wrote called "The Arena" or "On the Conveyor Belt"? I'm disappointed because from what I heard, it is Williams best work since Empire, and almost none of it is in the movie. They replayed the "Zam the Assassin and the Chase and The Chase Through Coruscant" towards the end of the movie. However, I did enjoy the "Return to Tatooine" music with its "Duel of the Fates" interlude.
