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Topic:
Why AOTC is perhaps the best Star Wars movie ever...
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Rhane-1138
Registered:
Nov '01
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Date Posted:
5/28/02 8:01am
Subject:
Why AOTC is perhaps the best Star Wars movie ever...
- Date Edited:
2/14/04 10:37pm (2 edits total)
Edited By:
AdamBertocci
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Star Wars Episode II Attack of the Clones, title and all, may very well be the best Star Wars Movie to date. The fact aside that it is a Star Wars movie, it is also a good movie in the traditional, critical sense of the word. It is a story, told visually, and told well. I have heard people complain about the acting, but there are only a few instances where I can really "notice" that I am watching performers reciting lines from a script. Most of the time, even when Padme and Anakin are spouting "poetic" soliloquies about love and souls and hearts and scars, or when they are talking about the pleasantries and annoyances of sand, I don't feel like it is two actors reading clumsy lines from a page. I feel like it is two inexperienced young people, who are in over their heads, don't really know what they are doing, and don't really know what to say. Of course Anakin doesn't like sand: he comes from a sand planet and has lived through sandstorms. This is not a bad line of dialogue, it's character development. Do you feel uncomfortable during the fireplace scene? So does Padme. She is in the dark, both literally and emotionally. She is encased in a tight outfit, restricting her movements, just as she is restricting her own emotions by devoting herself to politics and "not giving in." This scene is lit mainly by the flames of the fire only. Flame, fire, and heat are too-often used as metaphors for love, passion, and lust. Every element in this scene relates to every other one. This is good movie making.
This is not to say that the movie is flawless. It is not. There are mistakes, there are things that could be done better. But this is true for every Star Wars movie, even the originals. The others may have more flaws than this one. But I don't want to talk about those. I don't like to think about the not-so-good aspects of the Star Wars movies, or the Saga itself. It is full of flaws. I want to talk about why Episode II may be the best Star Wars movie yet. It is fun. It is a lot of fun. But it is also intense, and emotionally captivating. Lucas does a lot of playing with expectations in this film, and he starts with the title. Most of those who didn't know the plot before hand, actually expected the clones to attack. (Imagine that.) But this is one way this movie works so well; it takes many previous expectations, which we have gleaned from previous Star Wars movies, and it flips them upside down. After the opening crawl, the camera pans UP. The starships come from underneath it. This is backwards. We expect it was Padme who gets blown up in the very beginning, only to find it is a decoy. We see a lot of opposites in this, like Obi-Wan closing his lightsaber and watching Jango fly away, the opposite of Darth Maul closing his, and watching Qui-Gon get away. We see Padme and Anakin on a retreating bridge, just like Luke and Leia in the Death Star, except the children make it across, and the parents fall. We see Yoda, that peace loving, "wars not make one great," zen-like master pull out a lightsaber and do some major fighting. We see Threepio fighting for the bad guys (sort of). We see stormtroopers (sort of) fighting for the good guys. We see the imperial symbol on the Jedi-starfighter, itself a tiny Star Destroyer. We see a lightsaber duel, in which all we can really see are the faces of the two fighting it: Dooku and Anakin. Finally, we see that the "good guys" aren't really all that good, and that the "bad guys" aren't really all that bad. Count Dooku seems to want what the republic wants, but is just trying to get it in different ways. The sith, of course, are still bad, but them we barely see. We learn that the Jedi are too full of themselves to really be useful. They should know the difference between knowledge and wisdom, but they don't.
Another theme in this movie that is often in the subtext is how old age brings less wisdom, and not more. Yoda says that arrogance is more and more common in the older "more wiser" Jedi. The new Sith Apprentice is one of the oldest characters in the movie. Obi-Wan tells his astromech to send a message to
Coruscant care of the "old folk's home" when he is reporting to Yoda and Mace. And then there are the younglings. The wonderful younglings, who through pure childhood innocence state what everyone around them should know, but is too arrogant to realize: someone must have changed the archive records. "How wonderful the mind of a child is."
This movie is sooo good, and sooo much fun... Everyone should be aloud to be made as happy as I am when they watch this, it such a good Star Wars movie. It is filled with magical Star Wars moments. Several threads have been made about such moments in the film already. We get to see two Jedi on an assignment. We get to see how the force can be used to maintain an invisible connection to someone, even through layers and layers of buildings and traffic. We get to see Artoo save the day. We get to see Threepio fly for the first time. (Heck, we get to see Artoo fly for the first time too.) We get to see Artoo and Threepio together, bickering like the good old days they haven't lived through yet. We return to Luke's homestead, and the camera settles into many familiar spots. We watch as Padme hugs Darth Vader's shadow. We see hundreds of Jedi in battle, and hundreds of (sort of) stormtroopers. We see them planning the Death Star!!!! How cool was that??!! We see Palpatine become the emperor, though nobody realizes it yet except him. In short, we see the formation of the Empire, and we see a few seeds for the rebellion. We see the light, colorful, clean world of Episode I turn into the darker, dirtier, and more drab world we are familiar with.
I could go on and on, and probably will at some point, I am just so in love with this movie.... I have good news. The war has begun.
Adam Bertocci advises you: When unlocking this old thread (autolocked due to inactivity), I took out a couple of things that we now frown upon in the AOTC forum. Just FYI, kids.
-----signature-----
"In time, you will learn to trust your feelings. Then you will be invincible."
livejournal.com/~junorhane
http:newearthacademy.org
Qui-Gon was right.
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annie_skywalker001
Registered:
Feb '02
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Date Posted:
5/28/02 8:06am
Subject:
RE: Why AOTC is perhaps the best Star Wars movie ever...
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Wow...that was an interesting perspective. 
I loved the movie too. 
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You will be a Jedi - I promise.
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classixboy
Registered:
May '02
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Date Posted:
5/28/02 8:10am
Subject:
RE: Why AOTC is perhaps the best Star Wars movie ever...
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Yay! I love you! Couldn't have said it better myself.
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"If an item does not appear in our records, it does not exist."
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Lord_Fett
Registered:
Feb '02
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Date Posted:
5/28/02 8:21am
Subject:
RE: Why AOTC is perhaps the best Star Wars movie ever...
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I agree with you but I still think that ESB is the best SW until now(AOTC ranks second palce in MY poll).ESB is better because it´s more deep in the exploration of the Force and Vader´s major plot twist is also one of the best things of ESB.
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"Courage is going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm." - Winston Churchill 
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barnsthefatjedi
Registered:
Feb '01
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Date Posted:
5/28/02 8:27am
Subject:
RE: Why AOTC is perhaps the best Star Wars movie ever...
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"I agree"
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And none of them are worth reading, Bib
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AnakinSlave
Registered:
Jan '02
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Date Posted:
5/28/02 8:47am
Subject:
RE: Why AOTC is perhaps the best Star Wars movie ever...
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Agreed, 100%.
-----signature-----
Real Men Use Lightsabers
Freedom of speech means listening to me and agreeing, or else!
"I don't give a s*** about hobbits and middle earth." Kevin Smith
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Ekenobi
Registered:
Apr '02
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Date Posted:
5/28/02 8:49am
Subject:
RE: Why AOTC is perhaps the best Star Wars movie ever...
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Rhane-1138
I totally agree. It is #1 in my SW list. Loved it!!!
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Star Wars FOREVER!!!
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DarthSapient
Registered:
Jun '01
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Date Posted:
5/28/02 8:54am
Subject:
RE: Why AOTC is perhaps the best Star Wars movie ever...
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I never thought I'd say this, but AOTC is now my favorite of all the films, slightly edging out ESB.
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R2DWHO
Registered:
May '02
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Date Posted:
5/28/02 9:01am
Subject:
RE: Why AOTC is perhaps the best Star Wars movie ever...
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RHANE_1138 - for crying out loud...
"We see a lightsaber duel, in which all we can really see are the faces of the two fighting it"
YOU THINK THIS IS A GOOD THING???????
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DarthSapient
Registered:
Jun '01
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Date Posted:
5/28/02 9:04am
Subject:
RE: Why AOTC is perhaps the best Star Wars movie ever...
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Sometimes, less is more. Case in point, one of the most memorable moments in all of film is the trash compactor scene. Not much really going on there, yet its impact was far-reaching.
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Bjorn75
Registered:
Aug '01
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Date Posted:
5/28/02 9:06am
Subject:
RE: Why AOTC is perhaps the best Star Wars movie ever...
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*applause*
Excellent points, and that's not even mentioning the two parts I think are the peaks of the movie - Anakin's search and revenge and the final scenes.
Posts like this make me proud to call myself a Star Wars fan. And I agree - it is a shame that people (and some critics in particular) somehow fail to see the real qualities of this movie.
I'll refrain from listing the Star Wars movies in any particular order. Even though they are connected (as demonstrated in Rhane-1138's post) they are quite different. In scope, in characters, as well as the circumstances around them.
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R2DWHO
Registered:
May '02
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Date Posted:
5/28/02 9:06am
Subject:
RE: Why AOTC is perhaps the best Star Wars movie ever...
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not much going on? only our four heroes are about to be mashed!!! what do you mean???
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yodaman
Registered:
Feb '99
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Date Posted:
5/28/02 9:08am
Subject:
RE: Why AOTC is perhaps the best Star Wars movie ever...
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Most of the early criticism will probably die with time and AOTC will take its place as a classic with future generations.
-----signature-----
Warts not make one great.
Eat or eat not. There is no pie.
I sense much beer in you.
You will pee....you will pee.
You must relearn what you just unlearned.
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Otis_Frampton
Title: LFL Artist
Moderator Emeritus
Registered:
Jan '01
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Date Posted:
5/28/02 9:10am
Subject:
RE: Why AOTC is perhaps the best Star Wars movie ever...
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RHANE-1138:
Awesome post, very well thought out.
And if one thinks about it, there may be a very good reason that Lucas shot the latter part of the Anakin/Dooku duel in that manner. Cloaked in shadow, intercutting between the faces of Jedi and Sith . .
Or it could be stupid because Lucas is a hack and raped my childhood. Who can tell?
-Otis
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R2DWHO
Registered:
May '02
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Date Posted:
5/28/02 9:10am
Subject:
RE: Why AOTC is perhaps the best Star Wars movie ever...
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"Of course Anakin doesn't like sand: he comes from a sand planet and has lived through sandstorms. This is not a bad line of dialogue, it's character development"
you know that feeling when you read something so stupid that you start screaming at the monitor...?
i can see i'm on my own here in attacking such a dumb post, and i'm sorry if this sounds aggressive, but you've really all got to chill out and stop saying "the critics didn't understand, gna gna gna"
it could well be YOU who doesn't understand, so respect people's dislike for it as you respect your own opinions dammit!
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Otis_Frampton
Title: LFL Artist
Moderator Emeritus
Registered:
Jan '01
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Date Posted:
5/28/02 9:13am
Subject:
RE: Why AOTC is perhaps the best Star Wars movie ever...
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Another great aspect of AOTC is how every action scene not only advances the plot but advances the developement of the characters involved. The best example is the Coruscant chase. The entire scene was character developement (Anakin/Obi-Wan) from beginning to end.
-Otis
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