cactuswatcher (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
cactuswatcher) wrote2005-03-31 07:47 pm
cactuswatcher) wrote2005-03-31 07:47 pm
Very late to the party or why Star Wars: Attack of the Clones isn't so bad after all.
I freely admit that I am one of the last people in this galaxy near, near to home to see Star Wars, Episode II: Attack of the Clones. Partly it was because I did not like Episode I as much as I'd hoped and partly because Episode II got mixed reviews, at best.
Before I first watched the film, I watched Phantom Menace (PM) again to remind me of what had gone before. Then watching Episode II for the first time, I couldn't help thinking it was a hopeless mess. But, today I watched it again with someone who has never seen Episode I. I realized from that perspective Atack of the Clones (AoC) isn't a mess. It's actually a rather good motion picture; a worthy prequel of Episode IV the original Star Wars movie. The problem, my friends, is that godawful Episode I. May it be stricken from every monument and pylon, stricken from every book and tablet. (Oops! Five points for identifying that other movie I've watched recently.)
Frankly episode I is a disaster and if anything Episode II makes it worse. In PM the widely loathed Jar Jar Binks and the Gungans are supposed to tell us something about tolerance. Unfortunately that movie leaves us with the clear impression the Gungans are, indeed, distinctly inferior. If you know what goes on in PM, you can't help wonder why Senator Amadala chooses the village idiot, Binks, to represent her and the whole planet in the Senate in AoC. If you know nothing of Episode I, then Binks is just an oddly speaking aide trying to do what the Senator would do. The fact is, in the first episode Palpatine hoodwinks Amadala into getting him into power. By all rights, he should have fooled her again into giving him supreme power. This would make sense structurally with the good Padme and the erratic Anakin both falling for Palpatines deceit. But Episode II takes a different tack, one that makes perfect sense within the episode itself, but that required some exposition in the light of Episode I that did appear in the film; namely Padme's pacifism would never allow her to agree to go along with the direction where 'good' Palpatine was leading.
Looking at the deleted scenes for AoC, it's clear the movie was intended originally to be more about Padme. Frankly, having watched the movie twice in two days, I have to say that the scathing criticisms of Natalie Portman's acting in the film are bogus. She did what she was asked to do and in my oppinion rather well. So what was the problem? Put bluntly the Padme of Phantom Menace is a wiser, more mature woman than the one in Attack of the Clones, who is supposed to be ten years older! Besides the creepy reminder of Anakin the young boy with Amadala the teen-queen when they smootch ten years later, Amadala seems to have gotten younger as Anakin got older. That's not Natalie Portman's fault! If you know nothing of PM then you can believe Amadala was barely more than a child herself when they knew each other before, which also causes the ick factor to disappear.
Liam Nieson is probably the only reason for saving Episode I for posterity. The role of Obi-wan standing around figuratively twiddling his thumbs till the battle with Darth Maul was a silly waste of opportunity. Amadala and her decoy were fun to watch. But again her relative youth and lack of maturing in AoC pretty much spoils this memory.
Other baggage from PM would not be missed; The 'virgin birth' of Anakin, the Midichlorean gobbledy-gook, the annoying rather than appealing young Anakin, the umpty minutes of watching said annoying Anakin grit his teeth through the entertaining, but largely pointless pod race.
I'm not saying everything is perfect in AoC. The battle scenes in the arena and afterwards are cartoonishly silly. I liked Yoda's fight with Count Do-do (sic) not because it looks realistic, but because bouncing-off-the-walls Yoda-in-hyperdrive is positively hilarious. That said I wouldn't change it.
In short, I would ask everyone who did not like Episode II, who did like the orginal movie or the Indiana Jones movies, to look at it again forgetting Episode I ever existed. I think, you'll find it is much less muddled and much more entertaining than you first thought.
Before I first watched the film, I watched Phantom Menace (PM) again to remind me of what had gone before. Then watching Episode II for the first time, I couldn't help thinking it was a hopeless mess. But, today I watched it again with someone who has never seen Episode I. I realized from that perspective Atack of the Clones (AoC) isn't a mess. It's actually a rather good motion picture; a worthy prequel of Episode IV the original Star Wars movie. The problem, my friends, is that godawful Episode I. May it be stricken from every monument and pylon, stricken from every book and tablet. (Oops! Five points for identifying that other movie I've watched recently.)
Frankly episode I is a disaster and if anything Episode II makes it worse. In PM the widely loathed Jar Jar Binks and the Gungans are supposed to tell us something about tolerance. Unfortunately that movie leaves us with the clear impression the Gungans are, indeed, distinctly inferior. If you know what goes on in PM, you can't help wonder why Senator Amadala chooses the village idiot, Binks, to represent her and the whole planet in the Senate in AoC. If you know nothing of Episode I, then Binks is just an oddly speaking aide trying to do what the Senator would do. The fact is, in the first episode Palpatine hoodwinks Amadala into getting him into power. By all rights, he should have fooled her again into giving him supreme power. This would make sense structurally with the good Padme and the erratic Anakin both falling for Palpatines deceit. But Episode II takes a different tack, one that makes perfect sense within the episode itself, but that required some exposition in the light of Episode I that did appear in the film; namely Padme's pacifism would never allow her to agree to go along with the direction where 'good' Palpatine was leading.
Looking at the deleted scenes for AoC, it's clear the movie was intended originally to be more about Padme. Frankly, having watched the movie twice in two days, I have to say that the scathing criticisms of Natalie Portman's acting in the film are bogus. She did what she was asked to do and in my oppinion rather well. So what was the problem? Put bluntly the Padme of Phantom Menace is a wiser, more mature woman than the one in Attack of the Clones, who is supposed to be ten years older! Besides the creepy reminder of Anakin the young boy with Amadala the teen-queen when they smootch ten years later, Amadala seems to have gotten younger as Anakin got older. That's not Natalie Portman's fault! If you know nothing of PM then you can believe Amadala was barely more than a child herself when they knew each other before, which also causes the ick factor to disappear.
Liam Nieson is probably the only reason for saving Episode I for posterity. The role of Obi-wan standing around figuratively twiddling his thumbs till the battle with Darth Maul was a silly waste of opportunity. Amadala and her decoy were fun to watch. But again her relative youth and lack of maturing in AoC pretty much spoils this memory.
Other baggage from PM would not be missed; The 'virgin birth' of Anakin, the Midichlorean gobbledy-gook, the annoying rather than appealing young Anakin, the umpty minutes of watching said annoying Anakin grit his teeth through the entertaining, but largely pointless pod race.
I'm not saying everything is perfect in AoC. The battle scenes in the arena and afterwards are cartoonishly silly. I liked Yoda's fight with Count Do-do (sic) not because it looks realistic, but because bouncing-off-the-walls Yoda-in-hyperdrive is positively hilarious. That said I wouldn't change it.
In short, I would ask everyone who did not like Episode II, who did like the orginal movie or the Indiana Jones movies, to look at it again forgetting Episode I ever existed. I think, you'll find it is much less muddled and much more entertaining than you first thought.
no subject
I may just have to sit down and watch AOC now. I certainly hope the next movie is worthy of the original trilogy.
no subject
I do think it's important to divorce what you know, particularly about Padme in the first movie from what you see in the second. Episode Two overturns or ignores a number of things Lucas said in Episode One. Though it makes watching PM and AoC together a complete muddle, AoC is a better film because of it.
I hope the last one is worthy as well.
no subject
above and think Lucas was attempting, albeit poorly, to make a kids movie sort of similar to what the first Star Wars movie was. Fun, not too deep, not too scary. Didn't work for me - but not a kid.
Clones was far more interesting - because of the intricate political manipulations. Palpatine masterfully hoodwinks the Jedi, Amalda, and everyone else into doing what he wants and sets both his teams against one another. If you haven't seen it yet - I suggest renting the animated Clone Wars - which admist a lot of battle scenes, also continues to show how Palpatine continues to play both ends against the middle - ie. Count Dooku against Yoda. Pushing Yoda and Obi-Wan to make Anakin a Jedi Knight before he's completed his training and pushing Dooku to go after Anakin.
Watching AoC followed by Clone Wars and knowing what happens in Star Wars,
one begins to realize that the hero's journey Lucas was interested in was not Luke's, but Darth Vader. HE was interested in the fall of the hero and the possible redemption. AoC and Clone Wars work brilliantly together.
I agree...forgetting Phantom Menace is a good thing. I sort of shelve it as the kid movie that Lucas wanted to make.