Review of Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones (2002) by Jedimaster T — 08 Oct 2014

I am a fan of the Star Wars series, but even I was disappointed in The Phantom Menace. With many of the industry's well-known critics slamming this movie, my expectations began to lower. Yes, I was still excited, but I was preparing myself for another flop-ola. So what happened? I'll tell you what happened. I saw a film that brought back the magic of the first trilogy. I saw a film that never had a dull moment in its 2:30+ in duration. Do you have to be a Star Wars fan to enjoy this movie as much as I did? Maybe, because I cannot understand what these other critics missed. So instead of spoiling the movie by giving away all its twists and turns, this review is for those who saw it, liked it and are confused. This review will be a comparison of reviews from other critics to help give the reader a perspective of the "type" of person (in the best way possible) who did not like this movie.

Before we get to the critics, let me make one short statement. Movie critics were not prevalent, as they are now, in 1977 when the first A New Hope was released. Since critics can, at times, be very harsh, I doubt A New Hope would have been the hit it was in 1977 had critics broken it down piece by piece. As dead-on as these critics are sometimes, everyone needs to remembers that they are just critics. They are just giving their opinions. Since most of them are fans of film as an art, they critique films as such and their opinions are derived not from how entertaining the film is, but rather how successful the movie makers artistically expressed the film as a whole via the story, the dialogue, the acting, cinematography, etc. Now, you may be saying, "uhm, Jeff, all you are doing is giving your opinion. Why should I listen to you?" Well, good point. But if you will notice, I write my opinions (at least for movies) based on how I would recommend them as entertainment value, specifically for families since I tend to see a lot of family movies with my kids. And in the case of Attack of the Clones, I will be writing and comparing other critics' opinions based on the Star Wars' FAN's point of view, as well as a family recommendation. Either way, I'm not going to get carried away with the "art" of Attack as a cinematic masterpiece. In fact, I love that the fact that Attack does not satisfy the artsy-fartsy movie critic, yet is still a FAN's movie and broke $100 million in its first weekend. Since the original Star Wars trilogy was so huge AND had an established fanbase before critics were prevalent, it makes Attack bullet-proof to the critics. Let's remember that fans loathed The Phantom Menace, while many critics like Roger Ebert, gave it a near-perfect rating (see his 1999 review here).

Now onto the critics...

Let's start out with the Grand Pooh-bah of movie critique, Roger Ebert:

First of all, after reading his review of The Phantom Menace, then Attack of the Clones, there were a couple of lines that were hypocritical.

In the The Phantom Menace review, he wrote, "The dialogue is pretty flat and straightforward, although seasoned with a little quasi-classical formality, as if the characters had read but not retained "Julius Caesar." I wish the "Star Wars" characters spoke with more elegance and wit (as Gore Vidal's Greeks and Romans do), but dialogue isn't the point, anyway: These movies are about new things to look at.".

However, in the Attack review, he wrote, "But as someone who admired the freshness and energy of the earlier films, I was amazed, at the end of "Episode II," to realize that I had not heard one line of quotable, memorable dialogue." While at another point he states, ".

Hypocrite...

Frankly, the dialogue in the Star Wars movies has always been a little weak. And, yes, I can completely understand that there is an element missing from this second trilogy so far that is the cynic, the skeptic, like Han Solo was in the first trilogy. However, these movies are pre-destined. We already now the RESULT of these three movies. We want to know HOW it gets there. The Phantom Menace was boring in many aspects (though not really as bad as everyone thought--our expectations would have NEVER been satisfied), but there had to be a start. There had to be a beginning to it all. I'm pretty sure that Lucas could have done a little better, but not much. Building those characters and setting the tone for the future had to be done and with Attack, you can tell why Lucas did what he did. Yes, he eats some crow in the movie by displaying the biggest fan-favorite character, Boba Fett, and limiting Jar-Jar's lines (yet maximizing his impact to the overall storyline). However, Lucas did a superb job in getting the story moving toward where we know it will end up.

Across town from Ebert, the Chicago Tribune gives their version. Mark Caro, who gave Attack 2 stars as Ebert did, writes: "For such a visually oriented filmmaker, Lucas commits an unpardonable sin: He tells instead of shows.".

I can actually agree with this. While the dialogue did not impress me much, the dialogue is not why I go to Star Wars movies. It's the story. Granted, like The Phantom Menace, Lucas is packing a lot of story into the allotted time, Attack is more exciting, has more interesting twists and, frankly, is setting us up for a what should be an incredible third movie. However, as Caro wrote, to help pack more progress into this film, Lucas does end up "telling" a lot without showing the progress in visuals. The exception is when Anakin goes to Tattoine and begins descending to the darkside once finding his mother. The way that part of the story progressed was very visual and lead-up-to via the many references to his recurring bad dreams.

So is it a bad thing that Lucas has to tell us rather than show us? Well, since it does not impact the overall amount of action in this movie, I would say no. Is it different for Lucas? Absolutely, but not necessarily a bad thing. I think Lucas is trying to get himself out of the rut he put himself into by starting the story with Anakin as a child in The Phantom Menace. In the first trilogy, the story seemed to flow better because there were not as many time-delays. Luke was an upper teen in A New Hope and ended as a twenty-something in Return of the Jedi. Lucas should have avoided trying to bring in new children fans and started Anakin out that way as well.

Mark Caro's co-hort at the Chicago Tribune, Michael Willmington, is more of a fan focusing on the fan's appeal to this movie. He gives the movie 4 stars and writes: "Nothing in the first four movies quite matches the continuous visual bravura of this one, which is almost as much a digital age marvel as the '77 "Star Wars" was of an earlier era of miniatures and models. For most of its 2-hour span, the movie keeps topping itself, not dramatically, but with one pure, explosively delivered, ripely detailed action set-piece after another.".

I could not agree more. When I was a five year old watching A New Hope, my interest in the movie was not because of the intricate storytelling, the relationship of the force to modern religious beliefs, the contrast of Han's cynicism to Luke's desire to believe it all. No, I like how cool the Landspeeder was. Man, it was a FLOATING CAR! And I liked the Millennium Falcon. Hyperdrive was cool!! Lightsabers? AWESOME! And the X-Wing fighters flying through the corridors of the Death Star to find that one little hole that will make it blow up? Oh yeah, baby. THAT was what the movie was about. Carry that interest to The Empire Strikes Back when there were the cool snowspeeders on Hoth, the dual-cabined Cloud Pods on Bespin, Boba Fett's cool costume, Luke and Darth's first encounter, etc. Then carry that yet again into Return of the Jedi, where there is an all-out, free-for-all fight extraordinaire when the second Death Star was going to be destroyed. Have you ever seen so many Tie Fighters?? And those Biker Scouts were cool!!

See what I mean? Ebert had it right when he reviewed Phantom. Dialogue is secondary (if not even LESS important) to the cool visuals, the overall story and the action! Lucas remembered that this time and that is why Attack is so good. Hayden Christensen is an absolutely horrible actor. I thought that throughout the film. But does it ruin it? Not at all. You see more and more of where the story is going. And to top it off, what you THINK is going to happen doesn't. Despite how many trailers were released, you DON'T know what's going to happen. As much as they showed you, you have not prepared yourself for what you will be seeing.

So go do it...now...many, many, many more times over the summer. Ignore the critics. Go see Attack of the Clones today and form your own opinion. If you are a Star Wars fan, you will love it.