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  1. In Memory of LAJ_FETT: Please share your remembrances and condolences HERE

Just saw ATTACK OF THE CLONES!! **Official thread** Initial reactions

Discussion in 'Archive: Revenge of the Sith (Non-Spoilers)' started by DarthKnight, May 14, 2002.

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  1. Jedi knight Pozzi

    Jedi knight Pozzi Jedi Grand Master star 6

    Registered:
    Apr 2, 2000
    `For a film that has been shot entirely in digital, why was the film so grainy? A lot of grain noise especially in scenes taking place internally with lots of shadow, but also some of the outside scenes were very grainy.'

    I remember someone from LFL saying it was added by computer deliberatly, so as not to look to clean.

    `The acting of 'Anakin' was VERY weak'

    The FanBoy in me is unleased here: Are you mad?! Hayden has the best scene in any SW film so far. And can detractors of SW show me any film lately that has the same intensity that same scene has in any other film?

    `There is nothing like the analog models in ANH, ESB and ROTJ.'

    Analog?

    For this question vist the spoiler board

    `Like Episode I, I doubt if I'll be buying the DVD.'

    Fine by me, I can get the copy you don't. :p
     
  2. The Flying Dutchman

    The Flying Dutchman Jedi Padawan star 4

    Registered:
    Jun 4, 2000
    great, stil have to wait till sunday...
     
  3. Master_Domtis

    Master_Domtis Jedi Padawan star 4

    Registered:
    Dec 2, 2001
    first reaction:

    :( ... :_| ....

    wh oh WHY was I spoiled? ...That's it, I'm converting!
     
  4. Destro11

    Destro11 Jedi Youngling

    Registered:
    Mar 7, 2001
    That movie flat out rocked!! I am so glad that i was not spoiled in the least, it was pure satisfaction. It was an awesome feeling to truly not know what was coming next.

    If you like

    -ewan
    -natalie
    -bad guys
    -limbs getting lopped off

    you will LOVE this flic. The bad reviews are made by the same bitter folks who just cant wait to rip an institution. Once the positive word of mouth gets out, this film will have legs greater than fellowship of the rings and should skate circles around the bad kung-fu like film called spider man.

    THIS MOVIE ROCKED OH YEAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
     
  5. Draculas_guest

    Draculas_guest Jedi Youngling star 2

    Registered:
    Dec 15, 2001
    Get Real, Attack Of The Clones was good, but its not exactly groundbreaking or revolutionary. It provides a few jaw dropping thrills here and there, but by the looks of things, Spiderman is going to be the superior summer blockbuster. So all of the hardcore Star Wars fans have gone nuts over AOTC? What does that prove? some fans would go nuts if George Lucas filmed his shoe collection and put a Star Wars sticker on that. Some fans "enjoyed" TPM for goodness sake. AOTC is good, but its no masterpiece, if it really wants to prove itself, its going to have to reach the non-Star Wars fans, but I really dont think AOTC is going to change anyones opinion. You either like Star Wars or you dont, and AOTC wont change that
     
  6. Trinitty14

    Trinitty14 Jedi Youngling

    Registered:
    May 16, 2002
    I think I like you Dracula. :)

    I'm THINKING about seeing it this weekend.
    I'm totally unspoiled... well, as unspoiled as an OT fan could be. I was so brutally disappointed in PM, that I wasn't sure if I wanted to see this one, worried that it would turn me off of Star Wars.

    BUT, the reviews are sounding encouraging... and he wasn't as greedy this time with the endorsements.... and I hear that a lot of horrid things in PM have been eliminated in this one... and I've heard that my fellow British Columbian Hayden did a fab job...

    Maybe... just maybe.

    Question: What colour are Yoda's eyes in this one?
     
  7. Draculas_guest

    Draculas_guest Jedi Youngling star 2

    Registered:
    Dec 15, 2001
    I also think The Punisher has been making some good points which the hardcore fans seem to want to sweep under the carpet. If a hundred fans post messages about how "great" AOTC is, that seems to be perfectly acceptable, yet if someone posts a message saying that AOTC is only ok, or dissapointing, or average, etc. then they're suddenly hounded for having an individual opinon.

    In MY opinion, AOTC would have been perfect if it had been Episode 1, but considering its the halfway point for this trilogy, then the plot is fairly lightweight and slightly dissapointing, I was hoping that the Clone Wars would be in full swing by now and then Episode III could be dedicated to Anakins fall to the dark side, but by the looks of things, George is gonna be in a mad rush to cover alot of plot ground in Episode III.

    TPM now seems like a complete waste of time after watching AOTC. AOTC did a much better job of setting things in motion. The plot of TPM could have been summarised in the opening of AOTC with some kind of prologue or flashback sequence. Ep II could then have been dedicated to the Clone wars itself, and Ep III would have been dedicated to Anakins fall to the dark side.

    Sure everyone is mad about it now, but in 6 months time after the hype has died down, people might wake up and suddenly realise, well maybe it wasnt quite as good as they said it was.

    And why shouldnt this film be compared to the others in the saga. Some SW fans make a big deal about how the films are interconnected into an epic saga, and these new films that Lucas is making is going to have an impact on the perception on the other movies. Just imagine how different Ep IV: ANH will be perceived after watching this new trilogy?

    In my mind its quite acceptable to re-evaluate the other films and how they connect with the new moveis from time to time.

     
  8. Punisher

    Punisher Jedi Master star 4

    Registered:
    Oct 20, 1998
    Well, I can say that I didn't think that there wasn't much "love" in that story at all, just a lot of MARKETING about a love story.

    In the beginning, I thought that Anakin was going to be like Peter Parker and not begin to reveal his feelings for Padme, keeping his feelings hidden due to his Jedi commitment until he can't take it anymore, trying to be good as his dark side ovetakes him, but it essentially turned into him being so obsessed with her, so much so, it drives his whole section of the film. His open obsession with her makes his "declaration of love" funny (bad dialogue and poor line reading aside), because it isn't that at all.

    There is no love there, just infatuation and Anakin's "dark side" taking over. I thought that we were suppossed to like Anakin and feel bad for him when he became Vader (that whole tragic hero thing, good guy/bad decisions, read some of GL's recent interviews), but all I can feel is that he was MEANT to be Vader and not a hero like Luke or Obi-Wan, everything he does is for his own gain and never for the good of anyone else, I NEVER get the feeling of the Anakin descibed by Obi-Wan in ANH & ROTJ. Lucas says he wants it both ways, but he isn't doing that.
    I hope the veil of "hero" Anakin is dropped so that Ep.3 can really be THE SW film to remember, because I find "evil" Anakin much more interesting than kiddie, "romantic" or whiny Anakin.

    I think that the "love story" element is going to turn the average moviegoer off because it ISN'T a love story, but the ads and interviews want to sell that. The action scenes, Obi-Wan's part of the plot, the cryptic "Jedi talk" between Mace & Yoda is what makes AOTC work, not the "love story".

    I dispute the argument that AOTC has bad acting, I liked Obi-Wan, Dooku, Yoda (yes, the CGI is still too "animated" compared to the puppet and sometimes it totally works, sometimes it doesn't), Mace (in the latter half) and Palpatine.
    The bad acting charge should be leveled at Hayden and Natalie at times, but since GL is big for digitally altering his actor's performances, it may not be totally their fault.
    Once Anakin goes "bad", then Hayden does his job, so it makes me think that Ep.3 will be a slam dunk.

    The biggest wastes of AOTC were Beru & Owen, Zam Wesell and Boba Fett. All of those characters could have been cut and the story wouldn't have missed them. I liked seeing them (except Boba, waste of character development), but they aren't much more than cameos and Zam could have easily been switched to Jango (without suffering the same fate) and the story still would have worked (I guess GL felt he needed to sell more action figures).

    Cutting the backstory of Dooku really hurts the character (I think), without having a complete history of his motivations he could come across as a "Dark Jedi version" of Grand Moff Tarkin. Unless this is dealt with in Ep.3 (I doubt it), it seems that GL likes to CUT good ideas.
    Padme's family scenes would have made her more human and made Anakin into less of a psycho, but character development takes a backseat to sappy and poorly paced "date" scenes.
    Too many times in TPM, Padme came across as a cardboard character and GL could have expanded on her in AOTC to give her depth, but he doesn't really seem to want to do that and that is sad. I would think that the mother of Luke and Leia would deserve more.
    The Coruscant chase could have been shorter and that would have made room for the character scenes.
    I have problems with this movie because I know what it COULD have been, these character moments were written and I would assume were shot from "spy reports", but GL decides to cut that for the lame "Jar-Jarring" of C-3PO and to show Boba Fett as a child. Great, we see the background of a secondary OT character, but we can't know about the history of the man that helped cause the CLONE WARS?

    I feel sorry for many of the fans that will learn about these lost opportunities once they can get their hands on the "spoiler" stuff.
    If you really are interested in seeing what AOTC could h
     
  9. Punisher

    Punisher Jedi Master star 4

    Registered:
    Oct 20, 1998
    Thanks, Dracula's Guest, you have seen what I have been trying to make people understand. It isn't bashing, people need to THINK about what I'm saying and not tune out because the think it is all NEGATIVE.
    SW is held to a higher standard, that's why it has such a fanbase.

    By the way, Yoda's eyes are green (I've seen the puppet and they are green, lighter or darker depending on the light), but in much ot AOTC they look almost green-brown. I noticed that in the first close-up, it looks like he's wearing colored contacts.
    Why did you ask?

    If you guys want me to disappear than give more thought to this film than "IT ROCKS" or how "CUTE" Hayden and Natalie are....
    I thought SW is awesome because it exercised one's mind and emotions, not just fan catchphrases or generic praise.
     
  10. DarthKnight

    DarthKnight Jedi Youngling star 1

    Registered:
    May 14, 2002
    Considering the fact that I am the starter of this thread and I got to see it before most people, my review is that of complete honesty. Attack Of The Clones is my favortie Star Wars film to date and I thought it was done exactly to my expectations, couldn't have been done better. The two things that I thought were cheesy were, Jango Fett's gun twirl before holstering it and Padme jumping down from the tower thing onto the back of that monster, then kissing Ani on the cheek. The thing is though, Lucas always throws in a little cheese and none of these minor things took away from the movie.
     
  11. thenink

    thenink Jedi Youngling star 2

    Registered:
    Mar 19, 2002
    You didn't like the gun twirl!!! :eek:

    That was sweet; one of my favorite "little touches". I see the Jango character being modeled after an "Old West" bounty hunter and the gun twirl along with his "two-fisted" blaster action totally fits that shoe!

    Awesome! :D
     
  12. LtKettch

    LtKettch Jedi Youngling star 2

    Registered:
    Sep 19, 2000
    I've seen the movie twice already. I saw it 12:01 and yesterday at 6:45 pm. I really enjoyed it. It was a great movie going experience.

    I love Yoda. When he appears in the end, everyone in the theater went nuts. I could barely contain my excitement. [face_shocked] It was great. :)

    Two guys I know who did not like TPM, loved AOTC. So, I know I'm not crazy. 8-}

    Anyway, I don't know where this one will finally settle in my favorite Star Wars films list, too early to tell, but probably behind ANH and ESB (mostly cuz of nostalgia, not because of quality), but ahead of ROTJ and TPM (even though I still like those two).

    Finally, I don't mind if people dislike the film. I can take criticism of the film, but when idiots say things like "analog FX", it makes me angry. WTF are "analog FX"? :confused: Do you even know what you're talking about? Traditional models are not "analog". See, if you said you didn't like CGI, I'm fine with that. But you say something like "analog FX", which shows your ignorance, now I'm not likely to think much of your opinion. Get some education about film making, then come back with your opinion. :mad:

    Finally, why do people automatically assume "analog" is the opposite of digital? Go find some definitions of the terminology before opening your mouth.
     
  13. Punisher

    Punisher Jedi Master star 4

    Registered:
    Oct 20, 1998
    Well, since I was at a lot of the ILM shows at SW Celebration 2 and have heard it from the "Horse's mouth", I can say a majority of the digital models start out as real models that are scanned and used as the digital models, even the textures are taken from hand painted models.
    I would assume the background craft were scratch built CG, but the backgrounds were models or digital mattes.

    I would say that I have issues with some of the the compositing (Dooku's ride over the dunes looked cheap) and animation (human character interaction with CG creatures especially, I think that the Anakin on the Shaak is a computer model, his movements seem unnatural), but the creature animation was on par with the traditional techniques like stop/go motion, puppets, etc.

    There are tons of great books on f/x and it's history (DVD documentaries are great too), so educating yourself shouldn't be that hard.

    The gun twirl was cheesy, but the C-3PO switch wasn't? :eek:
    Uh, I don't think so.
     
  14. thenink

    thenink Jedi Youngling star 2

    Registered:
    Mar 19, 2002
    I was hoping that the Clone Wars would be in full swing by now and then Episode III could be dedicated to Anakins fall to the dark side, but by the looks of things, George is gonna be in a mad rush to cover alot of plot ground in Episode III.


    This, unfortunatley, is the inherent problem with the PT. The reason why nobody bashes the OT like they do the PT is because with the OT, no one had any idea how it would all play out. It was new to us. Nobody EXPECTED anything.

    Now, with the PT, alot of people EXPECT the OT backstory to be played out a certain way and when it doesn't, they get all "riled up".

    Well, I am sick of this argument! You wanted the Clone Wars to be in full swing by now? Well, it didn't happen, so get over it and stop whinning about it!

    I respect your opinion and I also respect the fact you didn't care for AOTC; that's fine. But what I don't agree with is using "well, things didn't progress the way I figured they should have" as one of the reasons why you didn't like the film.

    Again, GET OVER IT!! This crap is getting old!!
     
  15. Punisher

    Punisher Jedi Master star 4

    Registered:
    Oct 20, 1998
    HAHAHA!

    Lucas CREATED this problem!
    He's the one that gave the Clone Wars so much weight in ANH and now the war that created a massive change in the galaxy is going to encompass less time than the "civil war" that takes place in the OT?!

    Look at it like this, the Clone Wars started about 20 years before ANH and I have heard that Ep.3 takes place 2 years after AOTC, so if the Clone Wars is finished by then, it was a 2 year war.
    The Civil War in the OT takes place over 4 years, depending on when the first battle took place prior to ANH, so it actually is a longer war.
    Wow, the Clone Wars must have caused a lot of death, controversy & destruction over the 2 years to set things back so much (technologically and politcally) by the time of ANH.
    I would figure in the 18 year gap between Ep.3 and 4, that the Empire was shoring up it's power and the Clone Wars would have been finished.

    Some fans need to do things other than whining about people's justified whining.
     
  16. thenink

    thenink Jedi Youngling star 2

    Registered:
    Mar 19, 2002
    I have heard that Ep.3 takes place 2 years after AOTC

    Exactly. You "heard". Where did you hear this from? Lucas? 'Cuz as far as I'm concerned he is the only one that knows what is going to happen next. Until EP3 rolls out in three years, all it is, is "whinning" and it isn't "justified".

    That's it. I'm going to Vegas for a week and a half. I'll pick this up when I get back on the 26th.

    Ciao y'all! :D
     
  17. DarthKnight

    DarthKnight Jedi Youngling star 1

    Registered:
    May 14, 2002
    Punisher, where do you get your info from, if you don't mind my asking?

    The Clone Wars were just beginning at the end of E2 and there has been historical accounts of Civil Wars lasting longer than bigger wars (in our world)...so what is the point? The Empire takes over everything and that is the premise to the Clone Wars.

    Lastly, Lucas did not make a big issue about the Clone Wars in ANH. The complete dialogue goes as follows, "He fought along side of me in the Clone Wars", " You were in the Clone Wars?" and then it is never mentioned again. The EU and comic books took that idea and created there own ideas of what the Clone Wars were about....so how has Lucas messed up *his own* story? It's the false info that we have clinged too that messes us up, but in the end it is what Lucas puts on the screen that is the final truth (so to speak).
     
  18. thenink

    thenink Jedi Youngling star 2

    Registered:
    Mar 19, 2002
    Exactly. It's the EU that is screwin' everybody up.

    Looks like we need an "old-fashioned" book-burnin'!!!! YEEE-HAWWWW!!! ;)
     
  19. Punisher

    Punisher Jedi Master star 4

    Registered:
    Oct 20, 1998
    There is more there than "we fought together in the wars". Read along:

    Luke knew of the Clone Wars, but he didn't know about the Force. Obviously, the Clone Wars was a big enough event that even the Emperor couldn't eliminate it from history like the Jedi and the Force(I mean the Jedi were around for thousands of years!). Even if he got his info from Owen and Beru, then it was a big enough event to reach the wastelands of Tatooine, unless Obi-Wan gives the Lars a galactic history lesson when he delivers Luke.
    The biggest glimse into Obi-Wan's history was him serving as a General in the Clone Wars and serving Leia's "father", I would doubt that someone would become a General in 2 years, but if the Republic army gave Jedi Knights the ranking of General based on their years of service, that would explain Obi-Wan's rank, considering that Jar Jar was a "bombad" general by the end of TPM, then Obi-Wan's accomplishment isn't that much at all, is it?
    Lucas obviously felt the Clone Wars was a big event that he used it as a introduction point to Anakin and Obi-Wan in ANH, I don't remember stories about Pod Racing and Qui-Gon, do you? ;)

    I think that it is plausible for the war to have been fought in less time, but I would think that the war had such a wide spread and lasting conflict that the Empire was needed to restore order after the war ended and that would have taken the Ep. 3 to 4 gap.
    It took ten years after TPM for galaxy to be engulfed in the first war for thousands(?) of years, so it does seem silly that the Clone Wars would take less time to fight, especially considering that the Separtists were better prepared and funded than the Rebel Alliance seemed to be in ANH.

    As for the timeline I saw, I'm looking for it and will post it when I do (EU aside, the Dark Horse site lists AOTC as being 22 yrs. before ANH, I'm looking for that Ep.3 listng.).
    Either way, there isn't enought time for the Clone Wars to be a longer war than the OT's war, depending on conflicting comments, GL has said Luke and Leia were 18, but I have read McCallum say that they were 20 yrs. old, the war either lasted 2 to 4 years depending on these comments, but I think 4 yrs. would work better considering the scale of the galaxy.

    Now that I think about it, maybe no one has an idea of the actual timeline and it will be sorted out after Ep.3.

    (BTW, the EU is what has sustained SW for the years between movies and after, it is stupid to have a "canon" for a fictional universe, isn't it? Contrary to some fans views, SW ISN'T a religion.)
     
  20. RossTheBoss

    RossTheBoss Jedi Youngling

    Registered:
    May 17, 2002
    Well, I'm new to this board, so hello. I've been a Star Wars fan for... oh, as long as I can remember. I was born after Return of the Jedi, so they've been around my whole life. But I'm not just a Star Wars fan, I'm a movie buff in general, I love everything from Citizen Kane to Raiders of the Lost Ark. Still, I think my favorite movie would have to be The Empire Strikes Back.

    I'm probably going to be crucified for what I'm going to say, but I want to say it, because it's how I feel, and I wonder if any other Star Wars fans feel the same.

    I just saw Attack of the Clones today, Friday, the 11:30 AM showing at the local theater. I did not like it. I didn't hate it, either, but I didn't like it. I felt it was bland and unoriginal. It was plain vanilla next to The Empire Strikes Back's creamy double chocolate brownie-chunk deluxe.

    Part of this blandness comes from the fact that this movie is a prequel, and we know that the main characters (Obi Wan, Anakin, Padme, Yoda) have to survive. So the suspense is killed whenever one of them gets into danger. Oh sure, they can get beaten up a bit, but they won't be in any real danger. Of course, this is only a valid point if you've seen the rest of the Star Wars films, but how many people haven't? Not that many.

    More blandness comes from Hayden Christensen, who is not a very good actor in this movie. He portrays Anakin like a little spoiled rich kid that pouts whenever he doesn't get what he wants, not like a hardened, streetwise slave from a backwater desert world. Heck, the character seemed more mature in The Phantom Menace when he was a little kid than in Attack of the Clones. I know he's going over to the Dark Side and all, but does he have to pout like a little five-year-old? None of the other actors are all that great in this movie, either, but that might just be because the dialogue is so banal (Ewan McGregor and Samuel L. Jackson are both very good actors, but you couldn't tell that from this movie).

    I was surprised at how boring the dialogue was in this movie. We get lines like "Someday, I'm going to be the most powerful Jedi of all!" instead of "The circle is now complete: when I left you I was but the learner, now I am the master.", "Never tell me the odds!", "In my experience there's no such thing as luck." and countless others. Oh sure, there's "I've got a bad feeling about this," but by now it's hackneyed, though I suppose you have to have it in a Star Wars movie. The only thing that comes close to a good quote is "aggressive negotiations" (if I remember it correctly) but it just doesn't quite make it. Frankly, I think George should get Quentin Tarantino to help him with the dialogue (that'll be the day), but then you'd probably get an 'R' rating.

    That's another thing I don't under stand: how can a movie like Attack of the Clones get a 'PG' rating? It's got more violence than a thousand movies that got an 'R' rating, and more than any other Star Wars movie to date. Is it just because there's hardly any blood? It doesn't seem to make sense. I doubt a 'PG-13' rating would have hurt ticket sales much.

    Another problem is that (and this is what's really going to get me crucified) I don't think that George Lucas is all that great of a director. He should have handed Attack of the Clones off to another director like he did with The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi. Lucas is, when it comes to actors, a hands-off director. If he doesn't like what they're doing, he just says "Let's try that again" without really saying what he didn't like about what they did. Perhaps Star Wars worked out so well because the actors were so good (Mark Hamill, who isn't the best actor around by a longshot, completely blows Hayden Christensen away). Harrison Ford has ten times the screen presence and charisma of anyone in Attack of the Clones. Maybe someone else could have gotten more emotion out of the actors, who pretty much just read their lines. But then again, maybe
     
  21. Iwakura

    Iwakura Jedi Master star 4

    Registered:
    Apr 2, 2001
    I really loved AOTC. I can't say where it ranks among all the SW episodes, as I have no favorite--even between the OT movies--I really just love them all I suppose. :)

    The action was great and kept me at the edge of my seat. The love story to some seems rushed, but I think it played out great and for me it added the (very real) sense of urgency you can sometimes feel to express your feelings for someone. I thought Hayden's acting was fantastic and that he really helped me to further understand the complex and troubled mind of Anakin.

    Maybe I will save more of this for another time because I am not clear on what I can and cannot mention due to the still spoiler-free status of this forum. So since it is spoiler-free, I can't really go too in-depth.

    I have seen it twice and I give it 4 out of 4 stars. :)

    P.S. Regarding the amount of time that takes place between II and III: I don't know how official this can be considered, but there is a time-line in the TV Guides with the AOTC covers that says 4 years elapse between Episode II and Episode III.
     
  22. NiktosRule

    NiktosRule Jedi Padawan star 4

    Registered:
    May 8, 2001
    I will simply say that this was an amazing movie and surpassed my expectations which were pretty damn high. It is easily better than ANH and TPM. I think it is probably better than TESB. Only time will tell with ROTJ though.
     
  23. RossTheBoss

    RossTheBoss Jedi Youngling

    Registered:
    May 17, 2002
    But... Why was it so good?
     
  24. jayme_

    jayme_ Jedi Youngling star 3

    Registered:
    Jan 12, 2002
    I just got back, and man oh man-I loved it. I'll give a better review after another viewing possibly. ;)
     
  25. Punisher

    Punisher Jedi Master star 4

    Registered:
    Oct 20, 1998
    Okay, I was off on it being 2 years, but the T.V. Guide timeline was the one I was thinking of!
    There! The question of the timeline I had seen has been solved. Thanks!

    Nevertheless, if the OT Civil War started a year before ANH, it still took place longer than the Clone Wars, but the Clone Wars will still get less screen time.
    It would have been more interesting if the two trilogies would have used galactic conflict as their background, but with the tables turned. Oh well, ANOTHER missed opportunity on George's part (MY feelings obviously!).
     
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