*** Official "STAR WARS EPISODE II ATTACK OF THE CLONES" Review Thread (1 Viewer)

[Mike St.Louis]

AOTC: Dull.

That about sums it up. I don't think I could even explain the plot to anyone.

 

[Bhagi Katbamna]

Saw it yesterday. Really enjoyed it. Hayden was very good and played it just right as someone who is unable to control his ego and mind.

 

[Kevin Alexander]

This movie was an absolute abomination. What has happened to Star Wars? If Lucas would've began the theatrical run of Star Wars in 1999 starting w/ Episode 1, instead of 1977 w/ Episode 4, Star Wars as we know it would not be. To me, this was the movie that should have redeemed Lucas from the Episode 1 debacle, but he blew it big time.

 

[Pete-D]

Saw it...couldn't believe it. So I saw it again.

Let me start by saying these prequels are definitely their own thing. The original three are a totally different beast.

Unfourtunately that's not a good thing for these movies. Episode II in a lot of ways was worse than Episode I.

Sure there's less Jar-Jar Binks (still damn irritating), but his role in "creating" the Empire is absolutely cringe-worthy. Jango Fett was a huge dissapointment in my opinion.

At least Darth Maul put a good fight despite having no lines (practically).

The romance didn't work for me at all. Not only was the dialouge absolute tripe (there were times when Little Nicky seemed like it would be the better written film), but worse

I know a lot of people were laughing in the audience at parts that were not intended to be funny. Also the dynamics of the romance didn't click at all -- particularily after Ani admits to slaughtering a whole village. That reaction was so

out of character and when Padme finally does "profess" her love it just comes out of no where; not to mention Portman's

dialouge is so terrible (fault the script not the actor).

The pacing for this film was just as bad as Episode I. There

is no tension. Nothing at stake. It's just a lot of dry

characters travelling from point A to point B. Count Dooku's

showdown with Yoda is cool; on a B-movie level.It's neat to

look at, but also silly and that's what this prequel trilogy

has been reduced to in my opinion.

It's just not epic. It's a exercise in clunky writing, life-less character relationships which are fleshed out by Lucas more through dialouge than any action for the audience to bond with.

Anakin's "dabbling" in the dark side doesn't connect the

audience to anything. It's an abrupt and awkward shift,

whereas Luke's journey I think brought out the "conflict"

between the light and dark side's of the Force. You never

feel the seduction of the Dark Side in any of these two films. Anakin needed a bit more depth as a character, that

would've made a huge difference. As it stands this seems like a bad Fox TV Special ("When Bratty Jedi Go Bad") and he

seems to end up with Padme more because Lucas has to get them together than any kind of chemistry between the two.

Unless of course Ani mass-murder escapades turned Padme on,

I just don't know what Lucas was going for with this film at

all. The ending Jedi battle was a let-down to me as well. Lots of things happening, but no focus at all. No one to care about. This is definitely a B-movie, as Lucas wanted to

pay homage to, but a bad B-movie. Even things that Lucas

shouldn't be able to screw up seem to come across terribly -- Padme getting up after falling off the ship on Genosis and

how she runs off...my goodness could that scene have been any more awkward.

To me Lucas is rusty. Really..really...really rusty. It's not just that I was let down by the film, it's that it was

poorly made. Some scenes drag on, others just end abpruptly

and suddenly. There is no pacing, no joy, no flow at all to

Episode II (much like Episode I).

My verdict:

2 stars out of 5

 

[Sean Laughter]

Just got back from finally seeing AOTC. Where to begin? Don't know, but none of it is too terribly good.

I guess I'll start with concrete things like FX, etc. Maybe I just play too many video games, but the movie frequently looked like a glorified Final Fantasy video game cut scene. Alot of it was horribly distracting to me, the muscles in the creatures, alot of the animation too. I know this probably isn't a good thing to say, but this is honestly the first thing I thought when I saw the scene with Anakin balancing on the creature in the fields of Naboo when on the picnic with Padme: "Anyone that complained about the animation of Legolas on the cave troll had better be in an uproar about this mess or else they're a huge hypocrite." The whole look is just not working for me, too clean, too CGI'd, not organic enough. This was particularly bad when Obi-wan went to the cloning facility and was interacting with those skinny aliens. I was amazed McGregor was able to act in the environment he was no doubt subjected to in order to do those scenes -- the blue-screen cubicle. I just like to know I'm watching Star Wars rather than Toy Story.

The dialog I won't even try and think of excuses for. Lucas is welcome to write the script, he just needs someone to go back and "naturalize" his damn dialog. How people involved in this film can sit down and watch these scenes in dailies and not be embarrased is beyond me.

The plot itself also seemed rather bleh to me. At least in TPM there was a kind of forward momentum and ultimate goal. In this film it seemed like a bunch of events strung together with no ultimate aim in site. Because I know the backstory the whole thing can be pretty interesting in the political sense, seeing how the whole thing is one big plot. But I honestly don't think many people less familiar with the story would know what the heck is happening. I certainly heard some confused conversations afterwards in my showing.

I don't know. I'm gonna let it veg for a little while and come back with some more thoughts. Sure, it was nice to see Yoda in action, but it wasn't worth the torture of the rest of the film in my opinion.

Oh one question though. This really goes back to my whole issue with the CGI thing. Remember the scene where Anakin and Padme are eating and he uses the force on her pear (or whatever it was). Well, when she bites into the pear at the end of that shot is the freaking pear CGI too?????!!!!! I mean, she didn't bite into it, it just kind of melted between her teeth. I nearly through my hands up at that scene, because if the man feels he needs to CGI a pear I really don't know what the heck is going on in his head (Lucas I mean).

 

[Fred Bang]

I saw it three times already and found it the third best StarWars after Empire and A New Hope.
The Coruscant chase, the Asteroid Field and the whole last half-hour were pure Star Wars.
I've been hearing about these Clones and gigantic Jedi Battles for 2 decades and I was impressed by what I saw.
There's only two scenes that I find horrible: Shmi's death, and the fireplace scene.
Anyway, I give it 9/10.

 

[Dan Hitchman]

Oh...my...God...

I will borrow the line my friend told me while we sat in the near empty theater while the credits rolled by: "it was written by an 8th grader for a 3rd grader."
What does George think this franchise is, a big video game? During the robot factory scene I was thinking Donkey Kong or the Mario Brothers might make a guest appearance.
The CGI environments, creatures, and human stunt doubles were completely cartoony and synthetic. During Anakin's bare back riding scene I wanted to shout out, "ride like the wind Bullseye!" I want to watch Star Wars not a poor excuse for Toy Story!
Pathetic.
Dan
P.S. The only saving grace was Natalie Portman and her skimpy outfits.

 

[Luc]

This in my opinion is the worst of Star Wars movies. I grew up with Star Wars and a big fan. The jedi/sith thingy is probably the coolest idea in science fiction until I saw this movie. It ruined it for me in multiple ways.
The Dislikes:
1. The story. It's all about Palpatine and how he will become the Emperor. The plots of the Epi I and II were about this and all else evolved around it. Even the titles suggest it's all about the rise of the emperor. But fine if all else around it is interesting.
2. The characters. Boy, no attachment with anyone here. Before going into AOTC, I told my brother who's also the fan that it's absolutely ESSENTIAL that we like Hadden as Anakin. We must see him as a loveable and caring person first in order for us to feel the tradegy of his turning to the dark side. And what did we get? Immediately when he first appeared with Obi-wan in the elevator, I hated his attitude. From then on, I couldn't stand his lines or his action. I also thought that OK, we had Natalie Portman who already appeared in Episode I so her character will just get further development and Portman is a great actress. How wrong was I. Bad lines and none of her interaction with Anakin made any sense to me. The way he yelled at him in the beginning suggested that he couldn't stand him but somehow between that time and many many scenes later, she "deeply, deelpy in love." In love with what? I can understand Anakin's infatuation with her since he's obviously a very immature person. The love story part got the be one of the worst I've ever seen.
Urgghh...those jedi at the end. They just looked really bad. What's with the "ya ya" when they fight? Definitely not how I imagine a battle with many jedi would be like.
And the list of bad characters go on and on.....
3. Bad editing of the film and the music. Too much jumping to another scene when it starts to get good. The best example is when Anakin took off in the speeder heading towards the Sand People and the cool Duel of Fate music kicked it. I started to get excited only to be interupted by the slow scene of Obi-wan going into the cave.
4. CGI were too CGI looking...It look like a computer game. I know some of you liked it but I personally much prefer all the fake sets and model monsters and model ships of the OT. For some reason, they just seemed more solid and worked within the laws of the universe (eg. gravity, lightings). Yoda just didn't do it for me. His fight scene which seems like a majority of people enjoyed, seem like a video game duel between two video game character. If there's a fighting game with Yoda again Dooku, it would look excitely like that.
I guess that's enough. I'm getting all upset and disappointed again. I rather just forget this one. I really really wanted to like this one. I really did :frowning:.

 

[Edwin-S]

I have watched this movie twice. Once in DLP and again as a transfer to film. The first time through I thought the movie was okay, better than "The Phantom Menace" by far. The second time through I have a lower opinion of it but it still beats "The Phantom Menace".
First of all I think that Lucas made a huge mistake filming with digital video. He should have stuck to film. The only thing that was impressive about the DLP version was the lack of dirt, specks and film damage. The quality of the picture was not particularly impressive. The picture quality was fuzzy at best and at times looked blurry. Middle and background objects had a major loss in detail. Characters in middleground shots sometimes lost all detail in the faces and a lot of times were just a blurred mess. The film version accentuated the loss in detail.
In the film version, a panning shot that took place in the clone lab was so blurred it actually hurt the eyes to look at it. The film version had what looked like video noise in some dark scenes. One other effect I noticed in the film version was that flourescent lights were flickering as if the film was picking up hints of video interlacing. It was strange. The DLP version of the film did not seem to have that particular effect. Overall the picture quality looked like a DVD being shown on too large a screen, for want of a better description.
I thought the attempts at comic relief, using C3PO, were pathetic. They were not funny in the least and actually degraded the scenes that they took place in. Then there was the "Sound of Music" scene that one just left me . The factory scene, the second time around, left me with the thought of two british gophers.....one of which would say "indubitably" time and again. I almost expected to see either Skywalker or Amidala get a bottle cap stuck on their heads. All in all, the movie was a bit of a disappointment.
One thing that was better in the DLP theatre, as opposed to the hometown theatre, was the sound. The sound in the sonic mine scene felt palpable in the DLP setup. At my hometown theatre that whole scene seemed anemic....sound wise. Three out of five stars, IMO and that is being generous.

 

[chris c]

I haven't read all the posts in this thread (I don't have hours here) but I'll add my $0.02. This movie sucked. It sucked hard. All the magic is gone. Most of it left after Empire Strikes Back.

The first 3/4 of this movie are so badly written and acted that I would rather watch a Dawson's Creek/7th Heaven marathon than repeat this viewing. I am utterly astounded by Lucas' ineptitude here.

The last 1/4 of the movie was good, mostly because of the action. It was nice to finally see Yoda kick some ass, but it did walk a fine line between rousing and laughable.

I was 7 years old when Star Wars first came out and I realize now that experience will never be repeated. Indeed, it appears as if Lucas is hellbent on ruining the whole Star Wars mystique. As for me, I am left with an attic full of Star Wars toys from the 1970's and a hangover.

 

[Xavior Smith]

I've seen Episode II 3 times now and will not see it a 4th time. After the third watching I've concluded that this is the worst of the Star Wars movies. The first time it was at a midnight screening and excitement just got in the way. It was at the second screening (DLP) where I finally noticed how awful this movie is. So I went a third time to make sure I wasn't just in a bad mood the last time but nope, it confirmed my true feeling about this film. It sucks!!!!

The first half to three-quarters of this film were just unbearable. The love story was just plain boring. There was really no chemistry between Padme and Anakin. Hayden Chistensen acted horribly in this film. I kept thinking thoughout the movie how much better it would've been if Leo was cast in the role. Natalie Portman didn't fair any better either. Remember when she fell out of the ship and landed on the sand? While she was on her back she "acted" like she was in pain and when the clone trooper came to her she suddenly jumped to her feet as if she didn't feel anything.
That made me cringe.

OK. I must admit the last 30 to 45 minutes of this film were entertaining. However, with the exception of Yoda's ass kicking, everthing else seemed like "been there done that."

The visuals are amazing especially when seen in DLP but too often it just seems to get in the way of good storytelling. George Lucas seems to be caught up in advancing film technology rather than telling a good story. This movie could have used a better director. I read the other day that Steven Spielberg offered to direct Episode III but Lucas said no. It's understandable why Lucas would say no since Star Wars is his baby, but it makes me wonder why Speilberg would offer to direct it?

It's funny that with each viewing of Episode II the worst it became whereas the more I watch Episode I the more I enjoy it (but that's just me). In terms of ranking the movies it goes like this:

1. The Empire Strikes Back

2. A New Hope

3. Return Of The Jedi

4. Tha Phantom Menace

5. Attack Of The Clones

Here's hoping the Episode III will rank in the top 3.

 

[Steeve Bergeron]

I kept thinking thoughout the movie how much better it would've been if Leo was cast in the role.

Thank God, that didn't happen! The chemistry between Leo and Kate Winslet in Titanic wasn't better.

 

[Carlo_M]

I saw this movie on release week, and had the same experience as most above.

At first I thought it was a good movie, much better than Ep1. Then I realized that that had to do more with how bad I thought Ep1 was and less about how good Ep2 is. I thought I was going to catch this movie in digital theaters when "the crowd died down." Well the crowd has died down and I am nowhere near motivated to go see this movie again. My opinion of it lowers as time goes by and I stop comparing it to 1.

My beefs:

1. No believable dynamic between Portman and Christensen.

2. Bad attempts at humor.

3. "SW Mystique" about the force and its spiritual nature is gone/diminishing.

4. Overly soft look of the film / overuse of CGI.

5. Killer action sequences not enough to overcome lack of anyone to really root for in the film. No emotional investment in any of the characters.

 

[Nicholas Vargo]

To the poeple who really disliked this film, my father is with you and in a way, so am I. When I say that my father disliked this film, I'm not just saying that. It is simply that my father did not buy one thing in this whole movie. We're both with you about Shmi Skywalker's death. It is contrived and unconvincing. We both watched that scene and thought "Are we actually supposed to buy this?". As for me, I enjoyed the film probably more than I should. There is way too much dialogue and not enough action. I think I enjoyed the film more than I should because when there was action, there was action, but there wasn't enough on my radar for a recomendation. The film ranks between a 6 and 7 on my scale of 0 to 10. As for my father, he ranked it a 0. Like I said, he didn't buy anything offered in this movie.

You know what would be better. Maybe George Lucas should do another nostalgic movie (ala "American Graffiti") instead of more "Star Wars". I think the series has run its course and if Episode 3 is better than this one, maybe I'll have faith, but then again, it's going to be a 3 year wait.