I decided to pass on the notion of a midnight show of “Attack of the Clones,” having fallen asleep the last time I tried that. So this time around I opted for a nice, safe 10 AM show. Ariel was in tow, gleefully playing hooky from school as were, indeed, most of the people in the audience.
I’ll be doing a more detailed review of the film in “But I Digress.” Highlights: Yoda; Samuel L. Jackson getting Jedieval on people’s áššëš; most of the visuals; minimal Jar-Jar; John Williams score; the nice shadow bit on Tatooine where Anakin’s profile bears a resemblance to Vader’s, bringing to life the poster from Episode 1. Lowlights: Just about everything else. Script, direction, most of the acting, and most painfully, Anakin. As Luke proved when bìŧçhìņg about wanting to go into town for power converters, a little Jedi whining goes a long way. Obi-Wan’s holding him back? Obi-Wan should be gagging him. He’s going to bring balance to the Force? He couldn’t bring balance to my car radio. Christ, is he annoying.
Most telling to me was Ariel’s incisive, albeit unintentional, deconstruction of the film into its component marketing parts. A menacing sequence on a robot-manufacturing conveyor belt prompted Ariel to remark, “This would make a good ride.” When Amidala was chained to a giant post awaiting death in an arena, Ariel chirpped in recognition, “I have the toy of this!” It says something about the Star Wars universe when a ten year old is able to recognize it as the license-generating bonanza it has become, rather than the combination of movie serials and myth that it once was.
Bottom line: It’s better than its predecessor, which makes it both watchable and a relief. But “Empire” was better than its predecessor, and that was no mean feat. In this case, “Phantom Menace” lowered the bar so significantly that it wasn’t all that much of a chore. Hëll, reducing Jar Jar’s screen time from fifty minutes to five was more than enough to do it.
PAD
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The biggest cheers came for the other Jedi who, major butt did kick.
I liked it. I think my expectations were lower than for episode 1, so that made it easier. It was a much tighter story though.
What did you think about Watto — the junk dealer on Tattooine? I found him to be an appalling anti-Semitic stereotype (I don’t remember being half as bad in Ep.1). I’m just wondering whether others saw this as well, or if it was just my husband and I. [See http://cheshyre.blogspot.com/?/2002_05_12_cheshyre_archive.html for more]
And you didn’t mention Jango Fett once 😉 I am a fan of the Fett’s plain and simple…
I loved him totally and thought the Obi Wan Vs Jango scene was really smart…allthough I expect that if all Jango had done was walk on the screen, farted and walked off again, I would have been equally as happy.
-Angela 😉
I’m not sure why people insist on analyzing a movie out of its context. Watto as an anti-semetic caricature (sp?)? Why not say that the entire Tatooine was designed to “bash” Israel – they’re both deserts!
Why can’t people just accept a movie for what it is: NOT REAL. (Now if you want to ask why C-3PO went with Anakin & co., that is a legit complaint, as it analyzes the movie from WITHIN its context!)
Why am I getting aggravated over this?
I particularly enjoyed that Jar Jar is responsible for the Emperor coming to power.
As if we didn’t have enough reason to hate him.
I was not impressed with Anakin either, though I did like some of the foreshadowing elements of his character. Could not understand for the life of me why Amidala was in love with him. He spent most of the movie either drooling in a teenage hormonal state or showing increasingly disturbing sides of himself. Oh be still my heart.
I know there is a big fan base for Boba Fett, so for their sake I am glad they got to see some backstory. He was always a minor throwaway character to me so I was only mildly interested in it.
The more I thought about Episode 2, the less I liked it.
Spoiler warning:
Backstory for Boba Fett. Hmmm, Take this new info and use it to learn about the character in _Empire_ and later in _Return_ and we learn NOTHING. He seems to have no love or hate for the Jedi, or for Darth, who was trained by the man who killed his father. The Mystery of the Character is replaced with nothing but a snapshot of a young boy.
Why would the Sith hire a Bounty Hunter to kill Padme? Doesn’t that seem like something to do in-house? Why after repeat failures would Jaba continue to sub-let the assignment? How bad is the screening of Bounty Hunters if you either don’t notice his home planet doesn’t exist, or that he lives with cloners and don’t bother to check to see if maybe there is a clone army? A galaxy of killers, and you choose the one who is being cloned to defeat you, and he doesn’t even bring it up? Then he has his assistant use a weapon that can be traced back to his hidden home planet, even though he is not native to the planet, and the natives are big on cloning not fighting.
Young Skywalker starts getting nightmares about his mother, and no one thinks to call her? Mom gets sold, falls in love and doesn’t think to send a Jedi-gram? C3-P0 lives on the ranch at the start of new hope for years and doesn’t recognise it? Heck, he’s so annoying I’d expect Luke’s Uncle and Aunt to remember him.
Amadala falls for Young Darth despite having no likeable qualities?
Jar Jar gets everyone killed? OK, that one does make sense, from a certain point-of-view.
And why do the Jedi risk everything to save Obi-Wan? All for One, and One for All, is that it?
_Mulan_ has a great bit in it where you can see lots of people, each one animated differently. It was very impressive, and fit the story. II has lots of crowd fights, and seem to show off just how many different CGI monsters can fight “actors”, and do not support the story so much as distract from the lack of wholeness of the theme and plot.
Let me think more, I’ll find some more problems ….
Awaiting Episode 2 I always remembered myself not to have to high expectations. Because after Ep. 1 I was totally disappointed. I have seen Ep. 1 some weeks ago (just to remember before Ep. 2) and felt it not so bad at all. Although I think Ep. 1 and 2 cannot keep up with the original triology they are two entertaining films. And they are Star Wars. This alone is enough for many fans (Like in the Star Trek Fandom.)
I liked Hayden Christensens Anakin (he even looks a bit like young Luke, his son). It is logical that he is an arrogant bášŧárd if you consider his abilities and age. And that he is vulnerable too. But Obiwan should have taught him more self control and respect.
The lovestory between him and Padme could not really convince me. It happened and it was not really explained why. Which common basis have they? Only chemistry? Actually, how old was Anakin in Ep. 1? Looked like not more than six years to me. How old is he now? There are ten years in between as the movie says. So he’s around sixteen, but look some years older to me. And Padme was at least 14 years, should then be 24 now. Would a 24 years old get involved with a 16 years old?
And why did he think of her each day? All the ten years??? And I cannot remember that when he was six he fell in love with the older padme. Maybe he build up a glorified picture of her in his memory. But he seemed to be in love with her right from the first time he met her after the ten years.
There are many gaps between Ep. 1 and Ep. 2 (some mentioned in postings above). The first triology seemed better to me in this way.
Anyway, it is only a movie. And as lot as I complain about details I enjoyed it and look forward to the next one. Best I liked Obiwan (Ewan McGregor was doing a great job) and the fighting Yoda (jumping around like a flummy ball, wow!). And these beings on the water planet which build the clone army looked really elegant.
I am really curious to see in the next movie if senator Palpatine is Darth Sideous – for he becomes the powerful Imperator. And why did then the Jedis not feel his powers?
Finally I want to excuse for my english. It is not my native language. I hope my sentences are not too confusing.
Personally, I think the 5 minutes with Jar-Jar made up for the entirety of SW:TPM
SPOILER ALERT!
I mean, just to know that he is, essentially, the reason the Empire came to have the power to be created by SenEmperor Palpitine brought a smile to my face.
The ultimate annoyance brings forth the ultimate evil. How devilishly satisfying!
END SPOILER ALERT!
Sorry for posting my comment five times. But everytime I clicked on “Post this comment” a error warning appeared. So I guessed it did not work and tried again. Now I know better. Please excuse me for wasting so much space. Maybe the supervisor of this board or of the site can remove double entries.
Sorry again.