logo Sign In

So...today I bought Attack of the clones just to have a complete collection

Author
Time
Since i came across a cheap, used copy and already owning the phantom menace and Revenge of the sith it seemed like an acceptable thing to do.

What do you guys think of this second installment of the prequel trilogy?

Boyyy...some of the special effects look extremely dated and unpleasant already. I still find it weird that the original trilogy's effects almost haven't dated at all. That said, there are a few scenes here that are quite enjoyable, like the chase through the city at night, i also like the scenes with count dooku (christopher lee has a great pressence and seems to be the only one capable of making bad lines worth something, well, and maybe Ewan Mcgreggor too) and uhh...i'm sure there's more.

Sorry if this topic has been done to death, but i'd sure like to read some of your opinions about the film. =)
Author
Time
I agree, it does have some good moments but is overall flawed.
Author
Time
Episode II was a major improvement over Episode I for me. The tone was a bit more mature. But like any other Star Wars movie, this was "based on my previous Star Wars movies", as George might say. (Ever notice how all the Star Wars movies seem to take place in a parallel Star Wars universe, where things are just slightly different?)

No question that the romance aspect was botched. Padme is a strong, likable character, but she is lessened by falling in love with Anakin for seemingly no reason. If only we had some kind of reason. Something?!?

Seeing Yoda fight Dooku was painful for me, and it ruined any suspense we might have had about Yoda's big fight with Sidious in Ep III.

Inconsistencies (more to do with Ep III, but they still spoil my enjoyment of Ep II):
1) Anakin starts down the dark path in Ep II, only to again be Mr. squeaky clean at the beginning of Ep III. WTF?
2) Palpatine is starting to age and show signs of the Dark Side's influence. However, he is miraculously rejuvenated again in Ep III. Super WTF?

You know of the rebellion against the Empire?

Author
Time
You know I don't mind the prequels--i like ROTS for the most part and I think TPM, while dumb as a Star Wars episode, is a delightfully unique and sincere children's fantasy film. But AOTC just sucks on every level. It has some of the worst dialog, characters and acting in any summer blockbuster I have ever seen, even worse than Wing Commander. The script to the film really is embarrassing, and I am always just completely floored that Lucas deemed it acceptable for filming. The special effects and photography are really poor as well, as you noticed--the HD prototype camera simply wasn't ready for prime time and ILM was pushed way past their limits, the combined effect of which is an artificial look and feel to the whole movie which is already imbellished by the phoned-in performances of Portman and Christenson. The last 30 minutes are pretty fun however--though they are just mindless action and FX--and thankfully the whole Tatooine subplot is interesting. Personally I find the entire first half unwatchable--once the romance plot is left behind and we get to Tatooine there is at least some form of drama and interest but its average at best and still too frequently awkward. The plot also goes nowhere--its a mystery film without a conclusion. Everything about this film is just a train wreck--it looks like it was edited by a twelve year old who pirated a copy of Final Cut Pro, John Williams score recycles older music for haf the film, and the characters look like they are enjoying the film as much as audiences. Ugh. Every aspect of the film just has something fundamentally flawed with it; I'm not that picky a guy, but this film couldn't even match the standards of Godzilla or Terminator 3, both of which i enjoy as superficial summer flicks but unfortunately the prequels are supposed to be (and try to be) something more. Where the film does succeed is its intricate spiderweb of plots and themes that college fanboys uphold as proof of the underrated mastery of the film--but unfortnately any success is had at the expense of the foundation of the storytelling, namely character, plot and drama. Everything just seems dull and boring, and even the behind the scenes stuff makes me think that Lucas himself was bored by the material, and didn't know what to do with the second episode.

But Christopher Lee is pretty cool in the film. I wish i could say more but the more time goes on, and the more the superficial thrill of having a new Star Wars movie with cool special effects wears off, the more it becomes obvious that the film is a failure of magnificent proportions. Like I said, I don't mind the prequels, and TPM and ROTS don't share the fundamental weakness of AOTC (or I should say that they don't to such a severe degree) but Attack of the Clones really is a piece of shit. In my opinion.

The DVD is pretty good, not nearly as good as the TPM one but a tad better than the ROTS one.

Author
Time
Originally posted by: Erikstormtrooper
Episode II was a major improvement over Episode I for me. The tone was a bit more mature. But like any other Star Wars movie, this was "based on my previous Star Wars movies", as George might say. (Ever notice how all the Star Wars movies seem to take place in a parallel Star Wars universe, where things are just slightly different?)

No question that the romance aspect was botched. Padme is a strong, likable character, but she is lessened by falling in love with Anakin for seemingly no reason. If only we had some kind of reason. Something?!?

Seeing Yoda fight Dooku was painful for me, and it ruined any suspense we might have had about Yoda's big fight with Sidious in Ep III.

Inconsistencies (more to do with Ep III, but they still spoil my enjoyment of Ep II):
1) Anakin starts down the dark path in Ep II, only to again be Mr. squeaky clean at the beginning of Ep III. WTF?
2) Palpatine is starting to age and show signs of the Dark Side's influence. However, he is miraculously rejuvenated again in Ep III. Super WTF?



Inconsistency 2 is definitely a major problem. He looks much younger in Ep. III than his pale, wrinkled self from Episode II.

Episode II: Shroud of the Dark Side

Emperor Jar-Jar
“Back when we made Star Wars, we just couldn’t make Palpatine as evil as we intended. Now, thanks to the miracles of technology, it is finally possible. Finally, I’ve created the movies that I originally imagined.” -George Lucas on the 2007 Extra Extra Special HD-DVD Edition

Author
Time
Great responses so far, guys. Thanks for taking it seriously!

...but Attack of the Clones really is a piece of shit...


That is great, Zombie. You write a very, well, thought out piece about the matter, and then you just come out and say it straight. It's shit! hehe.

You know, I wouldn't feel so bad about the prequel trilogy if it just didn't take itself so goddamn seriously. Like it's fuckin' important or something. It doesn't help itself that it looks like a crazy cartoon while being overly serious... And the politics, the politics jeez!
Author
Time
As bad and boring as Episode II was, it could have been worse. While the droid factory sequence was silly in spots, it at least was more interesting than the cut scenes that it replaced.
Author
Time
Of the prequels, I actually thought Ep.1 was the best. It's not good, but of the three at least it had some imaginatively done scenes, and the battle at the end was spine chilling with the choir as musical backdrop. By contrast Ep.2/3 are just childish. Notice the formula - a scene with nothing but effects, then a scene with 3 or 4 people talking, then another scene with nothing but effects, then a scene with 3 or 4 different people talking, back and forth over and over (did anyone else notice that?). And the dialogue got worse and worse, the acting more and more painful, and the story became a laughable mess. In fact people did laugh in the theaters I went to, and not when they were supposed to.

And they missed the boat with Yoda's fighting. I was expecting a master of efficiency - a step here and a step there, a few perfectly timed subtle moves and the enemy is brought down. Instead he was like the old Daffy Duck films, rebounding off everything.

"Close the blast doors!"
Puggo’s website | Rescuing Star Wars

Author
Time
TPM fails somewhat as a Star Wars film. It feels like it does not belong, but by itself it has a complete story and does not need to be followed up by anything which makes me enjoy it even more by itself. At the end of the movie you could assume that Obi-Wan trains Anikan and he grows up to be a powerful jedi, and Queen Amidala goes on to rule her people in peace with the Gungans. This is one place that makes TPM stronger than the other PT films. Attack of the Clones however I hink functions very well as a part of the Star Wars saga. It continues the story from TPM with some flaws. Yes, the romance was stiff, but all young romance has some quirks and cheesiness. Anikan confessing to Padme that he slaughtered the Tuskens should have been cut. Anikan's temper and this dark secret could have been used to create misstrust between Anikan and Padme, and could have added to the reason why he eventually turns against Padme and the Jedi order. She knows Anikan is hiding something from her, and she draws the wrong conclusion about it. Anikan in turn thinks her tension towards him is because something else and he draws the wrong conclusion. This would have made his turn more tragic, because it would have been based on misstrust and lack of communication, and how one small things can destroy a beautiful thing. Bobba Fett being a clone was interesting, but could have been better. Rather than Bobba being a clone himself he should have been the person who the clones were modeled after instead of Jango, and he should have been a commandor of the clones in the clone war. It would have also been cool if Bobba had taken Cammandor Cody's spot, and had been the one who executed Order 66 against Obi-Wan. Even though I would have liked these to things happen instead of what did happen in Attack of the Clones I still enjoy the film more than ROTS. I can not stand ROTS. It presents the characters in a completely different way than the other two previous PT movies. Padme is not near as strong or intelligent. Mace is way to misstrusting of Anikan bordering on paranoy, whereas in Attack of the Clones Mace keeps telling Obi-Wan that he must have faith in Anikan and that he is the chosen one. Anikan is presented like a different character. Greivous would have been better if he had not had that stupid cough. Dooku should have been in his place. I also do not like the planets in ROTS. Coruscant took up way to much screentme. I got sick of seeing the senate, the jedi temple, and the Chancelor's office from a 100 different angles and the same rooms over and over again.

TPM: good film by itself, weak as a part of the saga.
AOTC: Feels very much like Star Wars, and has a mystery plot which I like.
ROTS: failed on almost all leves for me.


Author
Time
I agree with Zombie84 100%. AOTC, to me, fails on every conceivable level. Zombie already mentioned most of my gripes. However, the one he didn't mention is my biggest one. And that is that there is NO character developement. Yes, events happen, but the characters are all exactly the same at the end of the movie as they were at the beginning. Yoda senses something's amiss! Anakin gets pissed off a few times, but is still the same nice guy overall! Mace Windu kills some robots! None of them change at any point. Because of this, it's a complete and total waste of a third of a trilogy. At least in the other two, as awkward as it is done, the charaters have some arch to them.
40,000 million notches away
Author
Time
This reminds me. I probably hate every city/planet/architecture conceived in the entire prequel trilogy, hah. It all looks so fake, shiny and too planned out. Just the name alone, Coruscant, makes me shudder at the mere thought of it. And the jedi temple, ugh.

It's way too big of a contrast with the original trilogy. That design was off the chart, revolutionary and yet easy to consume and accept. Black and white ,a litty dusty here and there.

I know it was Lucas' intention to have a before the empire and an after the empire galaxy, but the before is just way to fuckin' strange and shall i say NOT COOL at all...

thought about this too please?
Author
Time
I agree with many of you that AOTC was the worst of the prequels. All of the fake, forced love scenes, the Yoda swordfight, the 3P0 slapstick, the giant tick (lol)......

I don't own any of the prequels on video. I fell under some sort of mass hypnosis and bought the ROTS DVD when it came out. It sat on the shelf, unopened, for a few weeks until I decided to return it.

If the ones in charge at LFL had been clever, they would have put deleted scenes from the OT on the PT DVDs. I would have bought all of them then.

Author
Time
I, however, thought there was some good in each installment of the PT, so I have all three on DVD
Does anyone think that ROTS is worse than AOTC?
Author
Time
Originally posted by: generalfrevious
I, however, thought there was some good in each installment of the PT, so I have all three on DVD
Does anyone think that ROTS is worse than AOTC?


Yes, ROTS is by far the worst of the PT for me, and I also own all the PT on DVD and TPM on DVD and VHS. I do not regret getting them they costed $15 - $20 each. That is not that much.


Author
Time
AOTC is not only my most hated SW movie, it is one of my all time least favorite movies EVER, and that says an awful lot for me. Some of you have touched on some of the reasons why I feel this way, and I am a bit too tired right now to list them all out right now....maybe at another time I will do so...

Lucas could have done so much more with this movie and he totally dropped the ball IMO; if you removed this movie from the series you would miss absolutely nothing in regards to the advancement of the story, and that is/was a major disappointment to me.
Author
Time
It's simply the BEST of the prequels. Yes, it has some pretty bad parts, especially the love subplot feels so fake, the droid factory scene is stupid etc., but still it is the BEST of the prequels. This statement says nothing about the quality of E2, but more how BAD the other 2 movies are.
Author
Time
Originally posted by: zombie84
You know I don't mind the prequels--i like ROTS for the most part and I think TPM, while dumb as a Star Wars episode, is a delightfully unique and sincere children's fantasy film. But AOTC just sucks on every level. It has some of the worst dialog, characters and acting in any summer blockbuster I have ever seen, even worse than Wing Commander. The script to the film really is embarrassing, and I am always just completely floored that Lucas deemed it acceptable for filming. The special effects and photography are really poor as well, as you noticed--the HD prototype camera simply wasn't ready for prime time and ILM was pushed way past their limits, the combined effect of which is an artificial look and feel to the whole movie which is already imbellished by the phoned-in performances of Portman and Christenson. The last 30 minutes are pretty fun however--though they are just mindless action and FX--and thankfully the whole Tatooine subplot is interesting. Personally I find the entire first half unwatchable--once the romance plot is left behind and we get to Tatooine there is at least some form of drama and interest but its average at best and still too frequently awkward. The plot also goes nowhere--its a mystery film without a conclusion. Everything about this film is just a train wreck--it looks like it was edited by a twelve year old who pirated a copy of Final Cut Pro, John Williams score recycles older music for haf the film, and the characters look like they are enjoying the film as much as audiences. Ugh. Every aspect of the film just has something fundamentally flawed with it; I'm not that picky a guy, but this film couldn't even match the standards of Godzilla or Terminator 3, both of which i enjoy as superficial summer flicks but unfortunately the prequels are supposed to be (and try to be) something more. Where the film does succeed is its intricate spiderweb of plots and themes that college fanboys uphold as proof of the underrated mastery of the film--but unfortnately any success is had at the expense of the foundation of the storytelling, namely character, plot and drama. Everything just seems dull and boring, and even the behind the scenes stuff makes me think that Lucas himself was bored by the material, and didn't know what to do with the second episode.

But Christopher Lee is pretty cool in the film. I wish i could say more but the more time goes on, and the more the superficial thrill of having a new Star Wars movie with cool special effects wears off, the more it becomes obvious that the film is a failure of magnificent proportions. Like I said, I don't mind the prequels, and TPM and ROTS don't share the fundamental weakness of AOTC (or I should say that they don't to such a severe degree) but Attack of the Clones really is a piece of shit. In my opinion.

The DVD is pretty good, not nearly as good as the TPM one but a tad better than the ROTS one.


I completely agree with everything you're saying here. I don't see any need to mention Christopher Lee since he did a good job, but he didn't really have much to do. Ewan McGregor is the actual star of the movie though. His scenes are watchable and he performs his horrible dialogue as well (if not even better) than Lee did.


Anyways, about people who think TPM is the worst, I'd question your perspective. If you approach the film as its own weird thing, and forget about what Star Wars is supposed to be, it is watchable in that lighthearted sense. It's a movie about sometimes using warfare to appose corrupt politics and evil. As bare-bones story ideas, the liberation of Tatooine works just as well as the destruction of the Death Star did in my estimation. The Death Star is simply a much more amazing concept, that's all.

Also, I can sympathize with those who think RotS is the worst prequel. It's so long and so disconnected . . . . It feels like I'm sitting in a boring history class without being taught any unifying contexts or perspectives. It's just a long series of historical events (with so many damn transition scenes!). Each event leads to the next of course, but not in any truly meaningful ways. This perspective often leads me to consider RotS as the worst film of the bunch. But, I focus on drama and acting more often than anything else, and I know it's far, far better than AotC in that sense, so it wins on that note for me.

"Now all Lucas has to do is make a cgi version of himself.  It will be better than the original and fit his original vision." - skyjedi2005

Author
Time
AOTC = POO


Actually I dunno, sometimes I watch clones and thinks it's ok, other times I just get bored.

I watched TPM (it was on sky movies so I watched the second half) the other day and I think it's an ok film. Just the acting is a little....shit...

But I do like ROTS...So can't say much about that. I just think it's a fun, nice to watch, Star Wars film. I think the reason being, is that it's more visual than the other two. Meaning that it's all music and visuals for the latter half, rather than bad dialog and shitty acting (aotc) - not that the cting is as bad in rots as in the other two..


I'm waffling now, trying t be quick as I'm at work, and my dickhead boss is hovering around

http://www.facebook.com/DirtyWookie

Author
Time
Among the prequels, I like AOTC the best (not saying much). ROTS is a better film in a technical sense, but Anakin's motivation and his turning scene - you know, the single biggest plot point in the six-part Saga from the perspective of "Vader=Star Wars" - were both handled horribly. Wretchedly. Inexcusably so. Basically, Anakin turns to the Sith (far too quickly) for Padme's sake, then chokes her, then, after turning into the familiar Darth Vader, asks if Padme's okay. I didn't buy any of it.

TPM just sucks. It feels like Bizarro Star Wars.

Want to book yourself or a guest on THE VFP Show? PM me!

Author
Time
Funny I just watched this the other day and I have say AOTC is just a horrible film. From the fact that is basically destroys Bobafett as "the man with no name" character now he is the "shoot him dad, shoot him kid", to the stupid Yoda fight scene. The fact that Count Dooku has force lightning basically destroying the surprise reveal in ROTJ Emperors powers. The crappy Dex scene with jawa juice is so silly and doesn’t fit at all. The fact that the main plot and the title of the movie is about a mysterious clone army, and who ordered it, and it this never resolved? What's the point of developing a detective/mystery story if you are not going to follow through with the revelation at the end? The audience invests an hour of time following Obi-wan only to not get any payoff. The terribly wooden acting and totally unbelievable love story. "I truly deeply love you", come on that's the best you can do. Also it makes sense to punctuate this moment with a helium voiced "Ha-ya". There is no build up to the their love, as the movie starts Anakin is already obsessively in love with her, which basically takes away the audiences ability to sympathize with his feelings as you should empathize with them as they grow. And why does he love her, he didn't seem like he did at the end of TFM, and if he did why when he was 7 he was more cool about it? Now he's like "You look beautiful, You're all I can think about, I am going to kidnap you!!" Why does she love him because he is always whining to her that he loves her? Because they have spent a week or two boringly discussing politics and mentors? I can think of 100 ways to make it work but look at ESB it is not hard to believe that Leah would fall in love with Han. The obstacle course factory scene is not really enjoyable on repeat watchings. I mean I can watch the trench run over and over but for some reason this scene seems like a video game, maybe because it is all CG, who know, who cares, at that point in the film I no longer do? Then there are the small things, she falls out of the hover craft and is fine and then inexplicitly knows that they are at a hanger. She was elected queen? Huh? At 13? What!!
Author
Time
So, I can count on you all to download 'The Clones Revealed', yes?

FINISHED:
The Sith Revealed - A Scrapbook
Episode III The Video Game - The Movie
24: The Missing Day
Star Wars - The Interactive Board Game DVD
Battlefront - Journal of the 501st
The Clones Revealed

email me for details daveytod AT btinternet DOT com

 

Author
Time
Could you enlighten me, dave? I'm not a heavy SW reader by all means, but persuade me. I might give it a go !