Well, well. Look at A New Hope hogging all the Star Wars attention this month. I suppose it’s a big deal that the landmark film is celebrating its 40th anniversary, but like Luke and Han bogarting all the glory from Chewie at the Yavin ceremony, something’s being forgotten. Because there’s another Star Wars anniversary that no one’s talking about:
The 15-year anniversary of the release of Attack of the Clones.
If you’re still reading this, know that I’m being facetious—at least partly. Because, no, Attack of the Clones isn’t equivalent to A New Hope. I’m not a crazy person. But I do love the prequel movies. I love them for the way they expanded the Star Wars universe, I love them for their ambition, and I love them for the tragic story they weaved. I’d even go so far to say that, in a world where tent-pole summer blockbusters couldn’t be more formulaic, the prequels are more deserving of praise than ever. It’ll be a long, long time before we see a big budget franchise display the kind of boldness George Lucas did in those three films. I mean, let’s face it: he could have just remixed the original trilogy. He could have taken his success and replicated it. But he didn’t. For better or for worse, Lucas gave us something different, something unique, and that alone will always be worthy of admiration in my opinion.
That said, while Attack of the Clones isn’t the landmark that A New Hope is, it is a terrific installment in the Star Wars saga, and it deserve more recognition—and not just as a punchline (Have you heard the one about sand being rough? I don’t think we’ve gotten quite enough mileage out of that one yet).
So, to celebrate this much-maligned second episode of the prequel trilogy, here’s 10 reasons why Attack of the Clones is better than you might remember:
The Unseen Adventures of Obi-Wan and Anakin
One of the best things about the original trilogy, everyone says, are the things we don’t see. The references to places and events that aren’t explained, the characters who look awesome but never introduced—there’s so much going on within the tapestry of this universe, and it not only helps to make the world feel real, but what was unseen sparked the imaginations of countless people (like me) who had their own Star Wars universes playing out in their heads. When Anakin and Obi-Wan muse about their adventures en route to meeting Padme, I get that same vibe: Anakin and Obi-Wan’s relationship seems lived in, and I want to know more. I want to see Anakin and Obi-Wan trapped in that nest of gundarks. These moments that open up and inspire the imagination, to me, will always be a big part of the Star Wars magic.
Count Dooku: It’s Christopher Lee.
Enough said.
Jedi Noir
While Anakin and Padme were off…er…romancing on Naboo, Obi-Wan was following the trail of the assassin who tried to kill Padme. Like a Jedi Sam Spade, Obi-Wan operates in the shadows as he follows the trail of the assassin and uncovers a plot that’s bigger than he ever could’ve imagined. In the process, he fights Jango Fett in the rain, gets captured by Count Dooku, and come this close to being fed to the arena beasts on Geonosis. All part of the job for Obi-Wan Kenobi, P.I.
The Nuances of Anakin’s Downfall
This is an aspect of the entire prequel trilogy that I think is criminally underappreciated. Yes, yes, yes—Anakin’s dialogue is painful at times and Hayden Christensen’s performance doesn’t do much to make the wooden script better. But, there’s some fascinating things happening in Anakin’s fall from grace. I’m of the mind that the Jedi Order is, at its core, problematic; it’s centered on the suppression and denial of very real emotions—love, fear, anger—and when confronted with Anakin, who’s almost all emotion, none of the Jedi have any idea what to do with him (other than tell him to be happy about people dying and to drop the people he cares about like a bad habit, which is what Yoda does in Revenge of the Sith). We forget that Anakin was forced to leave his mother behind when Qui-Gon whisked him off Tatooine—and, oh yeah, she was still a slave. Bye mom! That’s asking a lot of a nine-year-old, and when the only advice you’re given for dealing with your turmoil is to bottle it up, well, that bottle will eventually erupt. Just ask the Tusken Raiders, who became the targets of Anakin’s wrath after they murdered his mom. Not only was Anakin emotionally unprepared to deal with the trauma of violently losing his mother, he had no one to help him with the aftermath. From a certain point of view, the Jedi made Anakin leave his mother behind and, in his absence, she’s brutally murdered. So, yeah, I’d say that Anakin has some complicated emotional issues going on, more than he’s given credit for.
Those Arena Monsters
Say what you will about the use of CGI in the prequels, but the three monsters who are unleashed on Anakin, Obi-Wan, and Padme in the arena on Geonosis looked terrific. And that scene is vintage Star Wars.
Jedi Battle
If you’re a fan of Star Wars before circa 1985, you can’t tell me that you didn’t pine to see a bunch of lightsaber-wielding Jedi taking care of galactic business. Granted, the climactic battle in the arena on Geonosis lacked a certain spark—the battle droids never really cemented themselves as an interesting or worthy adversary—but it was still a thrill to see all those lightsabers flashing across the screen.
Ewan McGregor
Everyone knows Obi-Wan is the best part of the prequels. He combines dignity, wit, and charisma, and McGregor is pitch perfect in every scene. Please, Disney/Lucasfilm, give us an Obi-Wan/Ewan McGregor anthology movie. We’re begging you.
Kamino
Kamino has always stuck out as one of my favorite locations in the Star Wars galaxy. It’s also, to me, the place where the prequel aesthetic—which carried directly into the animated series, The Clone Wars (more on that soon)—really cemented itself. In The Phantom Menace, the universe doesn’t expand all that much. We return to Tatooine, and we’re never given much of a sense of Coruscant. Which leaves us only with Naboo, which was fine, but it was nothing like Kamino. Kamino exposed us to something new and, quite frankly, super weird and cool. That city on stilts in the ocean—occupied by tall, lithe aliens who specialize in making clones—kickstarted a fresher take on the look and feel of the Star Wars galaxy.
Coruscant Nightlife
While George Lucas might struggle with dialogue—and he freely admits that he does—he will never lack in his ability to captivate audiences with rich, exuberant visuals. And his depiction of Coruscant at night, via Anakin and Obi-Wan chasing Zam Wessell through the skies and carving through the cityscape, is a testament to Lucas’s fertile imagination and his unparalleled ability to visually tell a story. Coruscant comes alive in this scene, and I personally can’t help but lament what Lucas’s proposed TV series, Underworld—which supposedly focused on the Coruscant criminal element—would have delivered if it had ever gotten off the ground.
The Clone Wars
Spanning one movie and five riveting seasons (well, six, if you count the truncated Lost Missions season), The Clone Wars expanded the Star Wars universe in ways fans had never seen before. Yes, there have been novels and comics and Ewok adventures, but nothing to the scale of The Clone Wars, with a budget (this show was gorgeous) that made every episode feel as epic as any big-screen adventure. Because so much time passed between The Phantom Menace and Revenge of the Sith, The Clone Wars had tons of fertile ground to cover. And boy, did that show ever. I don’t even have the space to list all the amazing things The Clone Wars gave us, but here’s a few: the Obi-Wan/Maul feud; Ahsoka (!!!); Asajj Ventress; the Nightsisters, an awesome version of Anakin; Rex; that H.R. Giger-inspired General Grievous episode; and so much more. None of which would exist without the story and aesthetic established in Attack of the Clones.
There you have it. Are the prequels perfect movies? Nope. But they’re also not worthy of the derision that internet groupthink has poured all over them. There’s a lot of cool things happening in these films—a lot of ambitious things—and with a little bit of patience and an open mind, those aspects can be better recognized. Once that happens, Attack of the Clones transforms from an object of ridicule into a unique and entertaining piece of the Star Wars saga.
I await your pitchforks.
And a small P.S.: All my points are based on canon. You may have the urge to refute or argue what I’ve said with a novel, game, comic, whatever, but for this discussion, if it ain’t canon, it doesn’t count.
Michael Moreci is a comics writer and novelist best known for his sci-fi trilogy Roche Limit. His debut novel, Black Star Renegades, is set to be released in January 2018. Follow him on Twitter @MichaelMoreci.
And here I thought I was the only one who honestly kind of enjoys the prequels …
Bravo sir.
Well, I’ll say this: I liked the story in this movie but IMO the execution was horrible. I found everyone to be wooden and looking like high schoolers doing Shakespeare, Hayden and Natalie being the worst. I will disagree on Ewan though – the way he chews the scenery made me cringe. However, the absolute worst part of the story was the romance between Anakin and Amidala. It didn’t feel realistic in any way and the acting just made it worse.
And here I thought April Fools was last month!
If I have to give an example of something I disagree with from the column, it would be “The Nuances of Anakin’s Downfall”.
I don’t think the movie was nuanced about this at all. We’re bludgeoned by it actually. It happened so fast. And so darkly. I could not see him as a protagonist at all after this.
No, I did too. I don’t consider ‘The Empire Strikes Back’ the best of the original trilogy either. I have a weakness for Lucas’s own version of his universe bad dialogue and all.
And okay, Liam Neeson and Ewan MacGregor might have had a little to do with it…:D
Sure there were lots of great ingredients, but the finished meal was not enjoyable to me. I only semi-enjoyed one of the prequels and that was The Phantom Menace.
Re: the Jedi suppressing emotion, I’ve always read this as more of a Buddhist-like urging towards moderation (ie: don’t let overly strong emotions control you and cloud your judgement), or a Taoist-like following of the Way (ie: accept the world as it is in this moment; don’t uselessly fight against something that already is)
I watched this not too long ago with my son. I found that if you just skip any scene where Anakin and Padme are the only characters on screen, the movie loses nothing, the pacing improves, and it make for a very fun Star Wars movie.
If one takes Jar Jar out of the first movie and eliminates all dialogue from AotC, the prequels are awesome.
Attack of the Clones is, in my opinion, pretty damn underrated, though that’s mostly the movie’s own fault. The B-plot–Obi-Wan Kenobi tracking an assassin back to Kamino, stumbling upon a clone army, and confronting a Sith Lord–is aces. The problem, of course, is that the movie drags to a halt and starts sinking into the mud every time it switches to the A-plot, Anakin wuvs Padme; although there are still some wonderfully striking visuals when the Anakin and Padme stop talking (Anakin’s murder mission against the Tusken Raiders is beautifully done–it also has nearly no dialogue and is practically a montage).
Two things I’d add to a list of AotC‘s almost-redeeming qualities:
1) John Williams’ work on all of the prequel soundtracks was just phenomenal. “Across the Stars” may not be “Duel of the Fates,” but it’s pretty damn good and rates with his best work.
2) The art design for the ships, vehicles, weaponry, and landscapes at the Battle of Genosis could have been taken from any number of ’60s SF magazine covers in the best way possible: the live actors and CGI may not quite mesh, but I’m willing to forgive that to see a multi-legged robot in a desert using a raygun with a parabolic deflector to shoot down a globular landing craft in what looks like an If or Analog cover from my grandparents’ attic come to life….
Ewan McGregor would be great to see again as Obi-Wan in a Rogue One kind of spin-off film. And I definitely appreciate the Clone Wars animated series. But this isn’t a movie I do much thinking about beyond wincing.
Point taken about how Lucas was intent on presenting something new rather than fan service. He would have gone that direction again if he’d done the sequel trilogy himself. I’m not sorry that didn’t happen, to be honest, but I have to confess it would have been better art than the fan service box office pandering that we’ll never escape from now.
I completely agree with this essay. Watching Obi-Wan in this movie is also kind of tragic when you see the kind of carefree attitude he approached life with in this movie and hold it up to everything he went through after. You see some of that attitude in Alec Guinness’s Obi-Wan, but with a layer of sadness.
@9, Thank you for bringing attention to the battle between the Geonosians/Droids and the Jedi/Clones. That scene is full of really great sci-fi war imagery. I actually like it better than the arena scene.
Those Anakin/Padme scenes are a turd sandwich though.
This picture of Hayden Christensen says it all:
Play the mind game of swapping Ewan and Hayden’s roles. Even Ewan couldn’t have saved those romance scenes. Well, okay, he would have done the eyes and suggestive looks things better. I guess he might have planted the pauses in better places, been stronger on the body language. Probably could have been warmer in the humour, more tragic in how Anakin confronts himself after the tusken camp episode … more emotional on the whole, actually … he might have even convinced me he genuinely hates sand, turned that line into something … where was I going with this?
AOTC is the worst. I think most of the blame for why the prequels do not work can be laid squarely at its feet. It neither resolves any of the problems or questions raised by TPM, nor does it set things up for a satisfying conclusion in ROTS. But even worse, it just doesn’t work as a movie. What the heck is the plot here? Even moreso than most Star Wars movies, the pieces don’t add up. Is the mystery of the clones intriguing? No. Are Anakain and Padme believable as a couple? No! Does the film at least add up to a satisfying climax or conclusion? No!!
The job of this movie was to show that Anakin and Padme were a believable; that the Jedi and the Republic actually represent something worth saving; that there is anything worth caring about when the inevitable tragedy comes. It fails, and it’s not even entertaining doing it.
Which is a shame, because the landscapes and cityscapes of Coruscant, Kamino, and Geonosis are haunting and fascinating, and the music as always does a good job of delivering. But we would have been better served by a Star Tours ride than the movie that we got.
As a movie, it’s a pretty good first draft of a screenplay. Any time spent revising this thing could have made it better.
For one thing, the title is all wrong. It should be called Attack of the Separatists. The clones are on the protagonists’ side. Or there should be clone armies on both sides to make it an actual clone war.
Most of the fighting in the last half of the movie happens among droids, clones and characters who go unnamed — basically people we have no reason to care about.
Obi-Wan’s mystery doesn’t amount to anything. He tracks down a clone army and doesn’t have time to figure out what it’s all about before Yoda drops by and commandeers it. Does anyone wonder where this army came from and why the clone template is now working for the bad guys? Nah…
Anakin should be trying to return to Tatooine to free the slaves, like he dreamed of in The Phantom Menace. It should be his main goal now that he has his Jedi powers. His violation of Jedi orders to do should drive him towards rejecting their ways and embracing Palpatine’s teaching. A more explicit demonstration of the Jedi path’s flaws and deficiencies would go a long way towards illustrating the conflict Anakin feels and might help explain Padme’s attraction to him. As it is, he starts off creepy, has a weird political argument with her and then slaughters some people. After all that she falls in love with him.
Given that I once defended TPM on a post bashing it and Tor.com didn’t post my comment, it’s kind of amazing Tor even let this piece get published. Maybe one day someone can unapologetically get through a piece about the prequels without trying to simultaneously appease its haters.
I loved AOTC from the day it came out and I loved everything about it. I still do. Epic, romantic, strange, and dark all at the same time. This movie said “You think you know Star Wars? Guess what, you don’t.” I liked that five movies in, Lucas could still throw curve balls.
@12—It’s a bit too smiley, but otherwise spot-on.
From the article:
Absolutely. They’re just not explored very well—or at all.
I keep finding that folks forget how all three prequels got 4 or 5-star reviews when they hit cinemas, and didn’t do too badly in that regard on their home releases either.
Personally? AOTC I’ve always felt is just a slight reshuffling of some of the middle scenes from being something special….
@16: Just to clarify: it’s possible that you may have had trouble successfully leaving a comment on the site, but for the record there are no unpublished comments associated with your email, and no unpublished comments on any of our posts about The Phantom Menace from recent years (here, for example, or here), so moderation does not seem to have been the reason your comment went unpublished. Feel free to try again!
Ah, two of the reasons why this film is better than we remember are things that are not actually in this film? The Clone Wars deserves credit for being good, itself. It’s a different beast from the actual films, and it (the series) deserves credit for overcoming its inherent handicap; it succeeded in spite of Attack of the Clones.
And as far as the Jedi, I’ve rewatched this film in recent years, and other than the main characters, the Jedi gathered on Geonosis look like second-rate cosplayers. Very little effort was put into that little aspect of the film, even from a pure VFX standpoint.
This film does contribute some nice Obi-Wan sequences, but I agree with Colin R that Attack of the Clones is the prime culprit in the prequels not working as a whole. Anakin and Padme are the core of that, but the setup of the war, the origin of the clones, it all could have been so much better.
Thank you for pointing out for my memory all of those things that Hayden Christianson’s acting had made me forget. . . Oh and Jar Jar.
So when are we getting “100 Reasons Attack of the Clones Is Even Worse Than You Remember”?
No, I think Attack of the Clones is as bad as I remember it. I do agree that it does have its moments- like you I love most of the Obi-wan stuff. But I think there are few things in film more excruciating to watch than poorly executed oh-so-earnest romance, and given the Anakin-Padme romance is meant to be the heart of this movie it wrecks the whole thing.
Like the other two prequels there’s a lot of awful dialogue and character-writing in this movie. As one example, in the opening scene Padme’s decoy is mortally wounded in an assassination attempt on Padme’s life. As Padme cradles her dying decoy, the decoy apologizes and says she failed. WHAT!? She was a decoy. The whole point of her being a decoy was so that she could take the hit if somebody tried to kill Padme. Which is exactly what happened. Padme is safe because the decoy-ploy worked. So why is the decoy apologizing?
I do agree that Lucas deserves more props than he gets for trying to tell new stories with the Prequels. They are not rehashes of the Original Trilogy (see Force Awakens), and I respect him for that. If only Lucas could have just come up with the outline and handed over directing and screenplay writing to someone who could write believable dialogue and knew how to direct actors (Ewan McGregor, Christopher Lee, and Ian McDiamard will always have my admiration for being able to pull off good performances even when saddled with Prequel-trilogy Dialogue).
I think the OP makes a solid case that AotC does more than Eps. I or III to establish the look-and-feel of the dying Republic, and thus the film perhaps deserves a bit more credit than it usually receives at least with respect to worldbuilding. Yet thinking about it in those terms seems to reinforce why it failed as a movie: it is two hours of plot points, attempts at character moments, and set pieces that never really come together into a coherent narrative.
(Here’s a good exercise to illustrate the point: try to come up with a brief, TV-Guide-style synopsis of this movie. I propose that it is much, much more difficult to do so for AotC than for any of the other films.)
Reading over supplemental vignettes to fill in a backstory—say, the appendices at the end of The Return of the King or the bits and bobs that pop up on Pottermore—can be great fun, but compiling them into a unified story is more difficult. AotC has that sort of feel, a bunch of story ideas that Lucas felt needed to be on screen to fill in some blanks; I wonder if it might have worked better as more of an anthology film, tied together with a framing story centering on Yoda, or Mace Windew…or maybe Palpatine if Lucas had been really adventurous?
@23 Knotwise, I think the fact Corde has not failed at all but done exactly what a decoy and bodyguard is supposed to do, take the bullet, is what makes the scene so heartbreaking. She dies thinking she’s failed her lady, Force knows why. Possibly she’s delusional and doesn’t realize what’s actually happened.
Here’s a counterpoint published today: https://www.bustle.com/p/watching-star-wars-episode-ii-attack-of-the-clones-as-adult-made-me-realize-its-actually-really-gross-weird-56630
My wife had never seen a Star Wars film until shortly before The Force Awakens came out. We watched the original trilogy, The Force Awakens, and Rogue One (she enjoyed them all), and she was open to trying the prequels afterward. We made it through The Phantom Menace, but neither of us could get past the first half of Attack of The Clones. It’s a cringe-worthy experience, not only as a Star Wars fan, but as a living thing. It’s a maelstrom of unfinished ideas, all whipped together into an over digitized eyesore, strung together by Lucas’ worst selection of dialogue, all playing out over what feels like 6 distinct but inarguably miserable acts. If it wasn’t for the new Disney franchise, Attack of The Clones would have single handedly turned me off of Star Wars forever, and I was as big a fan as one could be before the prequels. It was an embarrassment then, and we’d all still be better off forgetting it exists today.
Nice summary, and kudos to you for bravely saying it all to an internets of whiners. Even if everything you said was patently false (it’s not) it should be obvious that the prequels are good if for only one reason: Lucas gave us more Star Wars! Can you all just thank the man and enjoy please?!
I largely agree with this article. I also always hated the prequels less than I was supposed to.
I think the story beats of the prequel trilogy are about right, though the pacing is sometimes off, particularly in the Phantom Menace, the problem is that George Lucas is not a good writer of dialogue or director of actors. He really should have delegated these to someone else. His plotting, world building and shot composition are all spot on and the films still look great. I’ve heard it said that the best way to watch them is as silent films with the dialogue stripped out and just the music playing. Something I should try at some point.
Interestingly, the Force Awakens has some serious plot holes and is, in many respects, a retread of the original Star Wars. But the acting and dialogue is spot on which hides the problems. Force Awakens is the better film, but its flaws are hidden deeper, while Attack of the Clones are all on the surface.
I’m not a Star Wars fan, so perhaps my opinion doesn’t count for much, but I actually prefer “Attack of the Clones” to any of the other films (except “Rogue One”, which I haven’t watched). I like the different worlds, the Jedi children, and seeing the Jedi and Obi-Wan at the height of their powers. I even like Padmé and the awkward talk about politics between her and Anakin. And it’s cool that the big love story is between a very young man and a more mature woman.
@29 — Well, technically the age difference between Anakin & Padme wasn’t quite as large as it might have appeared — in Phantom Menace she was only supposed to be 14, so closer in age to Natalie Portman when she appeared in Leon the Professional:
There’s a fascinating fan edit of the first three films called Star Wars – The Empire Begins.
It effectively acts as a tight focus on the fall of Anakin and the rise of the Emperor, meaning that Jar Jar is gone along with most of the Clone Wars. The whole of Phantom Menace takes up around 8min of the film, Clones is around 50min and Sith around 90min.
It’s well worth a watch.
@30 – So completely unbelievable that a 14 year old could be considered for, much less actually elected as ruler of an entire planet, and that a 14 year old could have enough life experience to successfully navigate the events of episode 1. I assume Lucas was angling for some sort of Dalai Llama framing by stating that Naboo chose young rulers for their “childlike wisdom,” but it just doesn’t work on screen, as there is no wisdom in any of Padme’s (or Anakin’s) lines or actions in any of the films, which is not to mention that childlike wisdom without experience isn’t a match for a complex and entrenched galactic political system. Every narrative aspect of the prequels is so awkwardly and unnecessarily shoehorned in to such an arbitrarily complex and strict timeline, which necessitates quizzical sustaining plot points such as this, when it could have all just as easily felt effortless, natural, and purposeful. Start with an older Anakin, and don’t introduce Padme until the second film. Sigh.
I don’t really have a problem with Queen Amidala. I sort of assumed that Naboo has a bureaucracy that handles the actual running of government, and that the monarchs are mostly responsible for ceremonial functions.
I do have a problem believing that the Padme and Anakin are desperately in love. Or that she actually has any political acumen or even convictions, given her shallow dialog on the great political questions of the era. Or that Obi-Wan would send his pining padawan, the Chosen One, off to guard her alone. Or like, anything else that happens in AOTC. Everything that happens is ridiculous.
The locations were the best Star Wars locations since ESB and ROTJ. But, the acting was like someone peeing in my Wheaties.
Fair warning: while I enjoy the “Star Wars” movies, I’m not even close to an expert on them, nor do I care much AT ALL for the prequels. So everything I say is VERY much IMHO. :P
To me personally, two comments that my sister and my partner made about AOTC pretty much sum up the movie for me:
My sister: “It’s the Attack of the Clothes! Natalie Portman is worse than Elizabeth Taylor in ‘Cleopatra!'”
My partner: “Let’s see…how about we send two of the most important teenagers in the ENTIRE GALAXY to a planet by themselves and just *trust* that nothing is going to go wrong and they won’t start a doomed romance, because teenagers are SO level-headed!”
I’m well aware that probably neither of these comments were original to my sister or partner, but they REALLY made me laugh at the time…
I do think one thing that was missing from the entire prequel trilogy was Han Solo. Not, I hasten to add, a cameo by Li’l Han! But some kind of major protagonist who wasn’t a Jedi or royalty or a chosen one, but someone who spent more time operating on the wrong side of the tracks. For example, when Anakin & Padme were (for not altogether valid reasons) sent to Naboo, instead of traveling as “refugees” (which in itself raises a whole bunch of questions — are there just regularly-scheduled shipments of refugees from Coruscant to Naboo?), they could’ve taken passage on a freighter, possibly captained by one of Obi-Wan’s less reputable acquaintances.
The only positive thing that I got from watching Attack of the Clones when it came out was that I realized that The Phantom Menace wasn’t as bad a film as I’d thought–because AOTC so much worse.
I actually quite enjoyed “Attack Of The Clones”. It was not very fast in the narrative department, but it wasn’t plodding, either. It unfolded steadily and deliberately. I just got a bit of a tickle when Amidala’s midriff gets conveniently exposed by a claw-swipe with nary a drop of blood.
The asteroid chase over Geonosis was a cinematic highlight for me, especially the extremely powerful and effective sound design of the seismic charges going off in proximity to Obi-Wan’s ship.
This makes me want to do a re-watch…
When I first saw AoTC in the theater, I was impressed by the battle/action scenes that I’d always wanted to see, but the original trilogy couldn’t deliver. Now I see it as a film that’s too long, too slow, and with too many illogical plot points. Basically unwatchable for me now. I’d much rather watch the Clone Wars TV series.
We just watched the prequels again, and I agree that Attack of the Clones wasn’t as bad as I remembered. I also agree with pretty much everyone on here that the worst part was the romance between Padme and Anakin, which literally gave me cramps.
My favorite part was when they were sitting in front of the fireplace in the house on Naboo and Anakin reached into his back pocket and pulled out the notebook of terrible teenage poetry which he then proceeded to read to Padme.
Regarding the awkwardness of the Anakin/Padmé romance, I’ve seen it postulated somewhere that Anakin was unconsciously Force-manipulating Padmé’s feelings. It would certainly explain her resistance to his advances, where otherwise she might be more affectionate as a friend (with benefits?).
I don’t mind AotC – it’s hundreds of times better than TPM though all of the others are better than it.
Two thoughts – First. the Anakin in AotC made me say – why should I care if he falls? Just a whiny brat. But that was answered in the Clone Wars TV show which gave us an Anakin who could actually make his fall tragic. That was some good writing that managed that given the level of damage done to the character by then.
Second, Google Machette Order. I won’t try to describe it here other than to say the movie watching order of
IV -> V -> II -> III -> VI
actually tells the story Lukas claims he was trying to tell.
So basically everything except the idiotic romantic scenes. I agree!
I sincerely hope Disney gets around to de-canonizing, re-conceptualizing, rewriting, and refilming the prequels.
There were a lot of good pieces to this movie, but they didn’t hang together all that well, probably because they were interspersed with some of the worse romance scenes ever filmed. In fact, it is only when he appears with Obi Wan that Anakin is tolerable. But I very much liked Obi Wan’s adventures, and loved the Battle of Genosis (and I agree with @9, some of the visuals were right out of one of those grand John Schoenherr paintings that appeared on the covers of Analog magazines back in the 1960s).
“Attack of the Clones” is one of my top two favorite STAR WARS movies of all time. The other is “The Empire Strikes Back”.
This movie had some really good parts that you remember, like the boba Fet fight (both on kamino and in space), the arena fight, and the final battle with Doku. But it also has really bad parts, like basically the every other part. I remember the prequels as good movies because of these parts, but when I rewarch them I see all the bad parts I forgot.
“For better or for worse, Lucas gave us something different, something unique, and that alone will always be worthy of admiration in my opinion.” – I’ll start off by saying that I agree. Despite whatever flaws they have, I still appreciate this, and I’ve always been a little skeptical of claims that Lucas did things simply for money or merchandising, etc. He seems to be – perhaps to a fault – fairly stubborn about his own vision of what the story should be even when it is not something that meets typical conventions. Sometimes that succeeds wildly – the original Star Wars trilogy did things that would not have been considerd normal moviemaking/plotting – and sometimes it does not.
Although I do have to admit AOTC is my least favorite of all 8 Star Wars movies (assuming we’re counting TFA/Rogue One) – although it’s possible I could make a case for TFA being my least favorite for completely different reasons – mainly because of the way the romance (which is meant to be the driving force behind Anakin’s fall in some ways…unless we believe Rebels and oh wait, it’s actually Ahsoka’s abandoning him *eyeroll*) is handled, and because I utterly hate the conveyor belt scenes.
But I do really enjoy the other parts you mention (and I know I loved the movie when it came out), and I enjoy the prequels as a whole – so it’s always fun to be reminded that there are lots of things to love and enjoy in the prequels.
I don’t even really mind Hayden that much – in some ways, I think his awkward intensity and stiffness makes sense for his upbringing (although that may be purely accidental). I think he did a really great job in RotS actually.
I will echo whoever brought up the music – Across the Stars is gorgeous, the track ‘Confrontation with Count Dooku’ and the ending credits is also one of my favorite pieces – it has a really great, spine chilling vocal rendition of the Emperor’s Theme, and then the appearances of Across the Stars and the Imperial March, and the very end of the credits has a lovely strain of Anakin’s Theme as well before turning into the Imperial March again. (Also, there’s a part that is basically the Game of Thrones theme several years before its existance which cracks me up.) I love the use of electric guitar in the Coruscant chase as well.
Also – this movie gave us ‘I don’t like sand’ which, while ridiculous as a pick up line, spawned wondrous memes (and the Star Wars musical). I actually only recently discoverd the r/prequelmemes community on reddit (yes I know, I’m behind the times) and while I’m sure some people there really do hate the movies, I can’t help but think that if these movies were truly bad, they would be forgettable. But instead here we are quoting little snippets here and elsewhere (I ended up twigging into r/prequelmemes existance when people kept quoting random prequel quotes in a work-related message board) and knowing exactly what they refer to. So…I think that says something at least. Possibly. ;)
@6 – similar. The Jedi have taken the notion to an extreme, or perhaps executed it poorly, but I don’t think the core idea of detachment is itself a bad thing (it also reminds me of some monastic writings). When Anakin talks about compassion as being encouraged to love – that’s actually a wise statement (even if he can’t understand it). It’s just that instead of focusing on one person, they are free to focus on/be of service to more.
@10 – “He would have gone that direction again if he’d done the sequel trilogy himself. I’m not sorry that didn’t happen, to be honest, but I have to confess it would have been better art than the fan service box office pandering that we’ll never escape from now.” – yeah, I kind of agree, to be honest. But on the other hand, I don’t love the Clone Wars series, and I know some of the things that especially irritate me about it are from Lucas. Perhaps as a movie there would be more time to develop them though (I have heard some explanation of the ideas that have, for example, led to Maul’s reappearance and they are interesting, although I still think that doesn’t justify the storytelling mental backflips you have to do.)
@28 – “Interestingly, the Force Awakens has some serious plot holes and is, in many respects, a retread of the original Star Wars. But the acting and dialogue is spot on which hides the problems. Force Awakens is the better film, but its flaws are hidden deeper, while Attack of the Clones are all on the surface.” – I have definitely felt similarly. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed the movie, listen to the soundtrack regularly and all that, but I do fele it has its own set of flaws.
The interesting aspect to all the Lucas pictures following Star Wars is that Lucas became a worse director with each movie. In the original, Lucas had the characters be expressive, and there were no huge pauses in sentences. The dialogue flowed. With each sequel, Lucas had his actors pause more and more while talking. The story was still fresh so it is easy to overlook that by Return of the Jedi, the dialogue had periods of the horrid pauses that characterize the prequels. We know Natalie Portman and Euwan McGregor can act. But in the prequels, they gave their dialogue as if they had never spoken English much less been on stage. I wish someone would ask Lucas why he decided that his work as director was to make actors talk so that every line was in parenthesis.By the 3rd prequel, the pause between each line is so long it seemed you could go get a soda between lines and not miss a word. This pause in talking that Lucas created has unfortunately become a pattern that even the new directors have continued–although not as exaggerated as Lucas demanded, thank goodness.
Really, Tor, you can do it–go ask Lucas why he decided his characters talked in that weird cadence!
@54. The weird cadence and the stilted dialogue was because George Lucas was trying to imitate or homage or whatever the old Toga and Sandal epics of early Hollywood. Just as the Golden Age of Hollywood had long lingering shots and paced dialogue which took forever because people took huge pauses during their speeches, so George wanted to use that sort of atmosphere to try and capture the Great Old Republic at the height of its power; like Rome before its fall. I just do not think there are enough people that really remember those movies (or maybe the overlap between Quo Vadis fandom et al, and Star Wars fandom is too small) for anyone to truly get it. Plus George kinda missed what made those old epics work in the first place, the tension between the actors.
All this bugs me to death!
These movies were never intended to be Oscar winners. They are Saturday matinee fun SciFi. That’s all. Why do they need justifying, or persnickety critiquing?
It’s Star Wars, it’s fun, it’s flashy and action packed. Enjoy it for that and you’ve reached the goal. Well done!
To be fair, Hayden Christensen does get a lot of criticism for his role in this film and it’s sequel. The thing is…he’s playing Anakin like Darth Vader. You put his way of speech in the films against James Earl Jones in these movies and you can see that the guy in the black armour and the whiny teen are actually the same person.
The real problem comes from the dialogue he is given (I saw a video where they gave more respected actors the “I hate sand line” and they were like, “nope, can’t do anything with this”) and the fact that he and Natalie Portman had so little time to get to know each other before filming the scenes.
Still, no one really expects Star Wars movies to be about the acting do they? If that were the case we would have had Gary Oldman in at least one of them and Max Von Sydow would have had more of a role than “here’s a map, I love Leia, now I’m off to get cut in half with a lightsabre. See ya!”
Put the action in this movie against the others and it stands as a Star Wars movie, shove all the Annakin and Padme stuff on Naboo between Obi Wan setting out from Coriscant (hello deleted scenes of Jedi Starfighter coming out of the side of the Jedi Temple) and his arrival on Kamino and it’s a better movie (mind you, I always felt that there should have been at least one more attempt on Padme at Naboo but oh well.) The bit where C3PO gets all confused though, yeah, that’s awful.
I definitely feel watching it the clones and other Jedi intrigue me and would have loved to see this take the place of the love scenes. Focusing on this would have made me want to see more, because there are few Jedi seen with substantial dialogue. This made me not care about any of the deaths on geonosis. That is why the animated cartoon is so good focusing on characters not shown on the big screen.
The primary purpose of this movie was to establish the Anikin and Padme relationship so that it could be properly doomed in the next movie. But the relationship fails in every aspect. The film shows nothing of why these two should be at all attracted to each other. If more Star Wars for more Star Wars’ sake is what worked for you, then there’s no problem. But if chemistry between actors, especially actors who are supposed to be in love, matters at all, this is a colossal failure..
I just made the mistake of watching the “I killed them, not just the men the women and children, I killed them all. I hate them” scene, And I have to retract what I posted yesterday about no chemistry between the actors. When Christiansen delivers those ridiculous lines, Portman looks positively turned on. As someone said earlier, this is the point at which she thinks to herself, “that’s the man I’m going to marry.”
Ugggh. What a vile few moments of cinema.